By Mark Boshnack
The educational opportunities at Franklin Central School will soon be even brighter thanks to a recently awarded federal grant, school officials said.
The Appalachian Regional Commission awarded an $80,657 grant to the school in August to implement a distance-learning program, officials said.
By providing access to a number of courses that a rural school might otherwise not be able to provide, distance learning "opens up a lot of opportunity for our kids," said Franklin Superintendent Gordon Daniels.
The Appalachian Regional Commission is a federal-state partnership that works for sustainable community and economic development in the region, according to its website.
Having this tool was one of the initiatives that Daniels discussed with Principal Jason Thomson when they started at the district several years ago.
But he credited Thomson with doing the work on the grant, with the help of school technology director Luke Potrzeba and others.
The district will provide about $9,500 toward the project plus staffing, said Thomson.
The grant will be used to purchase computers and other equipment, as well as services needed for the distance-learning lab that was built off of the library.
The service, when it is operating in 2010-11, will allow students to participate in a "virtual classroom" through the Otsego-Northern Catskills BOCES supported network, he said.
But possibly in a few months, it will allow students to be involved in "virtual field trips" to any of those sites offering the experience. This could give students the experience of touring the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., or going on a trip to the Barrier Reef in Australia.
It can also be used for a variety of adult education classes, he said.
Distance learning extends the classroom by using some combination of video, audio, computer and multimedia communications with other delivery methods, according to the ONC BOCES website. In discussing the possibilities with students recently, it was nice to see them "excited about learning," Thomson said.
"It will fortify what we have and provide extra opportunities," he said.
ONC distance-learning coordinator Tami Fancher said Franklin will be joining 14 other school districts in the service. It gives students the potential to graduate with a number of college credits available through the system.
Southern Tier East Regional Development analyst Lynn Cebula, whose agency is involved with the Commission partnership, said Franklin was one of five grants approved in the current funding cycle.
