The neighborhood school in the global village

Access to the Internet is transforming classrooms in many ways. Students from anywhere can directly access people and information resources from anywhere else. Innovative educational materials can quickly become available throughout the world, not just throughout a school. Students can find up-to-date information and personal mentors without leaving their desks. Teachers can develop and participate in professional peer groups nationally, even internationally. We are exploring a local neighborhood view of educational networks. We describe three facets of this endeavor. First, we directly and pervasively involve community groups, for example, public school teachers and senior citizens, in defining and developing technology to address their needs and to facilitate their goals, Second, we seek to leverage and develop neighborhood resources by facilitating collaboration throughout the community via computer mediated communication (email, chat, shared whiteboards and notebooks, video conferencing). Third, we view the entire community as the learning community, and view local schools as a forever-unfinished community project (D. Schuler, 1996). Our project leverages the networking infrastructure of the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV), an advanced community network located in Blacksburg, VA, a college town of about 36000 in rural Appalachia (USA).