9454816 Coberly The Metropolitan Tulsa Education Network (MTEN) Task Force, composed of representatives of Tulsa area business, education, and government, was formed in 1992 by the Metropolitan Tulsa Chamber of Commerce to build a county-wide electronic network infrastructure to support all levels of education. The task force is currently developing the technical specifications for the metropolitan area network; undertaking a six-month demonstration project connecting a few schools to the Internet; laying the legal and financial groundwork for a multiple school district, multi-million dollar bond issue to fund school technology initiatives; and outlining the structure of the governing authority required to institutionalize the collaborative project. MTEN proposes to use a one-year NIE Planning Grant to prepare the groundwork for a strongly competitive infrastructure proposal in the following year. The objectives of this planning exercise also include: The refinement of a metropolitan area network design. The formal and legal establishment of a collaborative organizational structure to manage the network. The development of public support for local and state bond initiatives which will serve to secure the long term funding sources needed to sustain networking infrastructure. Conveying the vision of the "Information Super Highway" to a large portion of the public and private sectors of the commnnity. The planning grant proposed herein proposes the following tasks to achieve the above objectives: Offer a one day Community Workshop which will heighten the awareness of all segments of the community to the benefits of the network. Expansion of the current Demonstration Project in duration and in scope. Offer network and curriculum integration training for a cadre of 25 teachers who would become the champions of technological change in their home school districts. Obtain le gal incorporation of MTEN together with appopriate contractual agreements with participating educational entities. Submission of a competitive NSF/NIE infrastructure grant proposal in 1995.
