I've got to be a bit careful here. The wrong slant on e-rate could jeopardize the UEN e-rate filing.

Let me just say that e-rate funding is a crucial part of UEN's funding model. four years ago, when I first darkened the hallways of UEN, we were receiving about a million dollars in e-rate funding. Last year that amount was increased to almost $3 million. This year we hope to push that number to greater than $6 million.

All of this has enabled UEN to grow our Internet bandwidth from 50 Mbps in the spring of 2000 to nearly one Gbps by next spring. UEN is in the midst of moving to an Ethernet backbone and Ethernet end sites throughout all parts of the state. This could not be done without the help of federal e-rate dollars.

But the end result isn't just building big pipes. The main goal is to improve educational services and make them available to all students regardless of physical location or time of day.

One example:

Two years ago I drove to Navajo Mountain to visit the school there. Without a helicopter or some fancy maneuvers with a plane and a car, it is nearly impossible to get to Navajo Mountain from Salt Lake City in one day.

On my trip I traveled to Blanding, a five hour drive from my office in Salt Lake, late on the first day. On the second day four of us drove from Blanding to Navajo Mountain and back. This took about 12 hours, even though we were at the school for less than 90 minutes.

At the school we watched as a young student participated in a class. This class was delivered from many hundreds of miles away. It was delivered with broadcast quality video and audio. It would have been impossible without the technology UEN provides.

On the third day I drove home. I took the rest of the day off. I was tired.

It's the impact on individuals that makes all of this worth the effort..........
8:53:39 PM    comment []