Education
The cable industry’s efforts help
students and teachers in hurricane-affected areas of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
The cable industry’s education foundation, Cable in the Classroom (CIC), is working closely with the education community to reach out to those affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. CIC is committed to helping children, educators and schools move forward with as little disruption to learning as possible.
To date, CIC has rolled out four education-related relief efforts on behalf of the cable
industry:
Mobile Computer Learning Lab Donations
CIC and its partners – Dell and the State Educational Technology Directors Association – are currently deploying donated mobile computer “learning labs” and Internet connectivity to affected students and teachers in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Working with Dell, Microsoft, Intel, and Adobe, CIC secured an initial donation of 15 mobile learning labs. The first labs, which were scheduled to arrive in December, are being sent to five of the most severely impacted districts in each of the three states. The CIC is asking cable operators in each of the identified school’s footprint to provide free Internet access for these labs.
The Cable Hope Fund, a cable industry non-profit created to support industry colleagues and others who fell victim to hurricane activity, has made a commitment to purchase an additional three to four computer learning labs on behalf of severely impacted schools in the region, and other donations being solicited.
CIC, along with a consortium of organizations and institutions, launched vSKOOL on
September 7, 2005. vSKOOL, working in partnership with the U.S. Department of Education, provides education-related relief to K-12 students, educators, and families displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Specifically, vSKOOL is:
• Finding traditional and virtual school programs to offer course enrollments and tutoring to affected students;
• Locating highly-qualified teachers to volunteer to teach or tutor affected
students in face-to-face and online settings;
• Soliciting and identifying corporate and foundation support to help provide students access to valuable educational products and services;
• Organizing computer hardware, software, and infrastructure providers to create learning centers to provide access to online courses and other
educational technology products and services; and
• Coordinating with providers of other related educational products and services to offer schools serving displaced students a variety of choices to tailor instruction to their unique needs and circumstances.
Cable Learning Libraries
Many schools lost valuable educational resources when their facilities were damaged or destroyed by the hurricanes. In an effort to help restock these schools’ libraries, CIC assembled commercial-free educational video programming, associated curricula, and school supplies from cable programmers who offer CIC programming. Cable organizations contributing resources to this effort include Court TV, Discovery Education, ESPN, Food Network, Fox Cable Networks, Hallmark, HBO, HGTV, The Weather Channel, and Turner Networks. Donated resources from these networks are being provided to 150 high schools in the Gulf Coast region.
Distribution of School Supplies
In response to a direct request from a consortium of school districts in East Mississippi
for school supplies for displaced students enrolling in their districts, CIC, in September, had
1,500 fully-stocked backpacks (compiled by Maryland students' Project Backpack) delivered to the schools.
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The cable industry remains committed to reaching out to help students and teachers affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. If you have any questions, or would like any additional information about these initiatives, please email Cable in the Classroom at vskool@ciconline.org
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