By BRAD LEON
Utah leads the nation in its commitment to provide its citizens with technological advances in both the educational and business fields.
The state has organized the Utah Education Network to research and adopt the newest technological tools available for education. It organized SmartUTAH to create an electronic community in Utah that will provide electronically-based commerce and enterprise for Utahns.
Utah is at the forefront of the nation with statewide information- technology applications because of Gov. Mike Leavitt’s desire to take the state’s government, education and business into the information era.
Gov. Leavitt’s leadership helped create an information technology structure that is necessary for technological advancements to take place, said LaVarr Webb, Gov. Leavitt’s deputy of policy.
“I don’t think any state has its act together across the state government and education like Utah does,” Webb said.
“Back in the 1992 campaign, Gov. Leavitt viewed technology as a really important issue that would help define the next generation in this state and in the world,” Webb said. “He pledged to attempt to move Utah ahead in that whole area.”
“A substantial part of the solutions in health care, transportation, air pollution, child welfare services and education are found in information technology and telecommunications,” Webb said.
The state government is working on several programs that will take advantage of recent technological advances to make the lives of state employees easier.
“There is a work group focused on telecommuting to reduce the costs of the government,” Webb said. “This means less reliance on state buildings, and it will reduce the congestion on the highways and improve the air quality.”
The government is encouraging its employees to telecommute, and it is encouraging the private sector to do the same, Webb said.
Webb also mentioned a new application for parents of Davis County students who have access to the Internet.
In Davis County, information such as student attendance records and test scores are entered into a computer. Parents can connect via the Internet to the school computer and access attendance records and test scores of their children, Webb said.
Utah also created the Utah Education Network, an entity that is trying to link schools together through new technology applications to provide unique educational opportunities for students.
The Utah Education Network is divided into four organizations that tackle different aspects of the Network’s goal. EDNET is the system that allows high school students across the state to take classes from other high schools and colleges and interact with the teacher through a system of television monitors, video cameras, microphones, telephone lines and microwave links.
UtahLINK is the UEN’s Internet tool that provides an on-line computer service linking users to educational material, information resources and other teachers and learners.
Bill Kucera, director of marketing and public communications for the Utah Education Network, said the UEN was charged by the legislature and Gov. Leavitt to connect all the Utah schools to EDNET and UtahLINK by 1998.
One of the UEN’s most notable successes has been with UtahLINK, which is the Internet access service for elementary, middle and high schools.
In order to get a UtahLINK site, schools must go through an application process and show the UEN and the State Office of Education they have both the computers necessary for the connection and the facilities to house the computers. After the schools are approved, the UEN takes care of the rest.
The EDNET, which links high schools and colleges together for interactive learning, has a similar application process. But because of the costs involved with providing cameras, monitors and microphones to the new EDNET sites, only 15 to 30 new sites can be added each year.
Kucera explained that EDNET offers benefits for everyone involved.
“EDNET offers high school classes, advanced placement classes, college classes and entry level concurrent enrollment classes for high school students,” he said. “Students can enter college with credits, which benefits the students, the parents and the colleges.”
Kucera said EDNET gives students a chance to take classes that are not offered at their own high school, like Japanese or Russian. And because the classes are interactive, the students from each location, no matter how far separated by miles, can participate together.
EDNET has already linked such far-away high schools as Grouse Creek and Park Valley High School in northwestern Utah with White Horse and Kanab High School in southern Utah, with a number of sites in between.
“This is a remarkable coalition that exists between the education entities — the school districts, the State Office of Education, the system of higher education with all the public colleges and universities — and the government and businesses,” Kucera said. “This is just a remarkable coalition to be able to do this and work toward a common goal.”
And what is the goal?
“That’s the goal — connect everybody, connect the citizens,” Kucera said. “We’re really a community — the whole state’s a community — and to have us all connected as a single community to be able to share information, to be able to have the educational opportunities and business opportunities is really remarkable.”
Utah is also linking the business community through project SmartUTAH, which was started by Gov. Leavitt shortly after his election to provide a bridge between the public and private sectors.
“SmartUTAH is trying to promote, facilitate and catalyze the adoption of electronic enterprise and electronic commerce in the state of Utah,” said SmartUTAH’s general manager, Andrew Corradini.
SmartUTAH offers numerous benefits to its users, including access to databases and other business information, the chance to renew a driver’s license or auto registration, a way to purchase a fishing license or obtain a birth certificate and a way to file sales and income tax forms and workers’ compensation reports.
“If we can help enable electronic commerce to happen in Utah, we can do market research, prototyping and start a global network,” said Jim Tinney, director of corporate marketing for Novell and the project director for SmartUTAH.
Tinney said Novell is working with Gov. Leavitt on a strategy to accelerate electronic commerce in Utah for businesses and state services.
While SmartUTAH is still in its early stages, Corradini projected the possible outcome as the programs are implemented. “Utah will not only become but remain a leader in technology,” he said.
