Netday NJ's Electronic Barnraising Set the Foundation Three months of preparation. The excitement was high on this October day--NetDay NJ. At last, Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Newark would get onto the Information Highway. Sister Mary Fineran, S.S.J., school librarian and the liaison to The Partnership for New Jersey, corporate organizers who aim to connect schools to the Internet, had the materials and the volunteers ready for the one day blitz to wire four classrooms and the library. But October came and went, as well as November, December, and January. NetDay NJ's hopes for an electronic barnraising for the schools did not happen as planned, at least not for Good Counsel High School. "I'm disappointed, but I'm not discouraged," said Sister Fineran. "We are 90% along the way towards completion. With fingers crossed, I think we'll be able to make our first connect to the Internet sometime in February. Our volunteers were magnificent, and you have to know that every project has hidden obstacles." Our Lady of Good Counsel High School, a Catholic, co-ed, inner city school for 400 students, located in North Newark, has no monies to pay for computer technology, but must seek financial sponsors. Sister Fineran sought out 12 sponsors, but only the uniform company of Flynn and O'Hara, Becker's Stationers, and a local deliveryman, offered the suggested $500 for the wiring kit needed for NetDay NJ. Then came the unexpected need for a safer "plenum" wiring, and its shield, called "raceways," doubling the projected cost. In preparation for the task, lead electrician Romeo Algoso and computer teacher Danny Manasala attended a three hours workshop offered by one of the coalition partners, Anixter, Inc. of Cranberry, NJ. Algoso volunteered an additional five days to drill through several floors and to thread the wire from the library as the Internet center to the classrooms designated by the school. John Leary from Lucent Technologies volunteered two Saturdays to supervise the project, and students and parents offered their services. "There is no way that we would have been able to accomplish any of the technology we have so far if it weren't for the generosity of the volunteers," said Sister Fineran. "But it would be very naive to think that students would be able to use the Internet in just a one day setup. What is more crucial is to have enough computers so that students and teachers become familiar with the technology and can easily incorporate it into the education process." To achieve the goal of having a computer per classroom, Sister Fineran is trying to involve the school in campaigns to amass points given by food markets and AT&T Company to their customers that can be applied to the purchase of computers. The school is hoping that some grants will underwrite the hardware. Over 400 private and public schools in New Jersey participated in NetDay NJ in October. The next one will be held in April, 1997. But experience has shown from the first NetDay in California in March, 1996, that there is more needed for effective use of technology than the simple wiring of a school. Once the lines are in place, the more costly computers need to be hooked up to them; software to run them, and educated personnel to put the whole technology into effective motion.
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