STATE SCHOOL OFFICIAL EXHORTS COMPUTER LINK

Central Missouri has a new computer connection with the world of information, a link that could be possible in Cape Girardeau as well, according to Bekki Cook.

Cook, a member of the State Board of Education from Cape Girardeau, organized a meeting Tuesday to introduce Columbia's community-based information to about 25 local educators and community individuals.

Cook learned about Columbia's network at her March board meeting and felt Cape Girardeau might be a good location for a similar system.

Columbia is Missouri's first community to sign on to a community system. Springfield is next in line.

Cook said, "Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City have a large population in a local calling area with a university. We have a strong economic base. I believe we could be an early player in this."

Cook added that $500,000 in grant money will be available through Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for these types of programs.

In Columbia, using either Macintosh or IBM formats, members of the network can access information like local city council minutes and community calendars, text of presidential speeches, hourly weather maps, census information and a host of other data.

For example, students in Columbia Public Schools are corresponding with students in Germany and South Africa.

"We have elementary students here studying the tundra in touch with students in Alaska. Those students in Alaska are asking us to explain humidity," said Curt Fuchs, director of instructional media services with Columbia Public Schools. "And all you need is a computer."

Fuchs, along with Bill Mitchell with the Missouri Research and Education Network (MOREnet) and Gina Millsap, head of computer services at Daniel Boone Regional Library, talked about their network.

"It's a community computing service that provides information about the area and community and goes out to the rest of the world," Mitchell said. "The information comes over your network to your home."

Local information is entered into the system and then is available to users of the system. Other information from the state and the world is available through a computer connection called MOREnet.

MOREnet is available at colleges and universities in Missouri, including Southeast Missouri State University.

Money for the Columbia program came from the Columbia Public Schools, the Daniel Boone Regional Library and the city of Columbia.

Start-up costs are about $45,000, Mitchell said.

"We view it as a civic utility," he said. "We do not charge folks to use it."

Mitchell predicts that 70 percent of the work force in 2000 will be involved in information handling and that 90 percent of the world's information will be on-line, accessible through computers by the turn of the century.

"We need to understand how to access that information and how to manipulate it," he said.