Broadband Communities

JAN-FEB 2014

BROADBAND COMMUNITIES is the leading source of information on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and communities. Our editorial aims to accelerate the deployment of Fiber-To-The-Home and Fiber-To-The-Premises.

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70 high schools, 20 of the more than 50 community colleges. Two private universities, Duke and Wake Forest, joined as well. One of the most interesting courses taught online across NC at community colleges was the embalming class. At least the undertakers in NC now had excellent educational preparation to handle your last days on earth. Te course is still taught today. And the NC School of Math and Science could now work to teach advanced math and science to many of the high schools in rural areas. Even German classes were now taught to all high schools in Guilford County; Appalachian and UNC Asheville universities could now graduate majors in German by putting together classes on both campuses with the courses needed to complete a major. BMW and Mercedes Benz both located large factories with supplier networks extending throughout the region. Still, we had to move forward on many fronts. Two things happened. Our frst Education Summit was hosted in Wilmington in 2002 by the Rural Internet Access Authority. UNC system president Bill Friday spoke in favor of statewide collaboration among schools, community colleges and universities. It took years to build support for the connectivity for these institutions. So we began to push for middle-mile funding and fnally got it with BTOP under the stimulus program. What Collaboration Means You cannot connect to schools unless the efort is collaborative. You have teachers, administrators, technical folks, the state's Department of Public Instruction, State IT folks, the state's Education Department. It took another visionary Governor, Bev Perdue, and her education advisor Myra Best to create committees to look at digital learning as well as to advocate for the funding, teacher training, school design and collaborative work between educational institutions to create the NC Connectivity Initiative. Tis began in 2005. Fortunately, during the early days of the frst collaborative connectivity eforts we had the support of the Bush Administration, pushing school connectivity. Te Obama Above: North Carolina's Research and Education Network can handle more than 200 Gbps statewide. By the end of the decade its fber may handle 50 times as much trafc. FUN FIBER FACTS: Jane Patterson Continued Register Now www.bbcmag.com BBC_Gatefold PagesDIGITALONLY_Jan14.indd 8 2/6/14 10:32 AM

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