1. Small Town – World Class Greeneville City Schools Project HomeLink: Bridging the Digital Divide

2. Program History Began in 2000 Piloted at school with highest need Served 10% of families at that school in first year Expanded to all schools almost immediately Program has met many needs during past 8 years Currently serving 32 students

3. School Environment 5 computers in every academic classroom Networked printer Television / teacher presentation station Local area network Monitored & filtered Internet access Wide area network Remote administration capability Centralized backups Academic & business application software

4. Home Environment Annual surveys reveal that technology is more broadly available in homes today. In today’s economy – Internet connectivity still remains a “luxury” to some. Students should not be at a disadvantage due to lack of technology and Internet access.

5. Hardware GCS lease provides continuous hardware refresh Generosity of local community & businesses As machines rotate off lease – can serve HomeLink families

6. Selection Process Purposefully “simple” Families identified by school administrators Recommendations by teachers and other employees Initial screening Selection (with efforts made to serve multiple students with one machine)

7. Deployment Parent/guardian required to attend HomeLink seminar Agree to participate in regular trainings and respond to surveys Sign one-page HomeLink agreement

9. Internet Access 2000-2006 provided at “no charge” by generous local ISP (Greene County On- Line) 2006 – present dial-up access funded by grants obtained from various sources including GCS Education Foundation, Mary Gertrude Fox Foundation & Niswonger Education Foundation

10. Internet Filtering & Monitoring Must provide in accordance with federal law NetNanny Free web-based filtering applications http://www1.k9webprotection.com/

11. The Important Role of the Student Tech Involved in process from selection of family to deployment Ownership of program Involved in training On-going support Depot warranty Telephone support Email support

12. HomeLink Resources for Students Teacher Web Sites United Streaming NettrekkerDI Blogging / podcasting Compass Odyssey Accelerated Reader Home Connect Gaggle

19. HomeLink Resources for Parents Parent Connect IGPRO Progress Reports Teacher Web Sites NettrekkerDI Accelerated Reader Home Connect SchoolCast

20. Parent Connect

24. HomeLink Program Future Funding will remain a challenge Will continue to seek grant / foundation funding Will continue to seek vendor partnerships Goal.... Every single student in the GCS district will have access to an Internet-connected computer available outside the regular school-day

25. Success Stories Single father of three....learned PowerPoint from his young sons and went on to receive promotion at work because of new skill set Young mother used HomeLink machine to study for her GED after her children were in bed High school student with HomeLink machine since elementary school – achieved much academic success in school and credits the program for much of it! Present high school student taking Advanced Computer Repair at Greeneville-Greene County Center for Technology because of the program. English-learning families – Gaggle provides great set of communication/translation tools!

29. Contact Information Mr. David Pauley, HomeLink Coordinator pauleyd@gcschools.net Mrs. Beverly Miller, CTO millerb@gcschools.net