[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 112 (Friday, August 1, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1618]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CELLULAR INDUSTRY ANSWERS NEWT'S CHALLENGE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NEWT GINGRICH

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, August 1, 1997

  Mr. GINGRICH. I want to encourage my colleagues to read the following 
article by Brian Ekberg from the July edition of Atlanta Consumer 
Technology.
  Two years ago I challenged the wireless telephone industry to become 
involved in improving the Nation's schools. They responded by creating 
ClassLink, a program that brings modern communications technology to 
schools. The first program put cellular telephones in a Washington, DC 
school. On Wednesday, May 28, the 100th ClassLink hook-up was dedicated 
at Lockheed Elementary School in Marietta, which is in my district. 
ClassLink 100, the culmination of the program, will bring together 
school, community, and industry officials for the dedication at 
Lockheed. As we approach the 21st century, it is imperative that we 
look for similar opportunities that increase efficiency and 
effectiveness in the classroom, the workplace, and the entire society.

           [From The Atlanta Consumer Technology, July 1997]

               Cellular Industry Answers Newt's Challenge

                           (By Brian Ekberg)

       Teachers at Lockheed Elementary School in Marietta won't 
     have to head for the teacher's lounge to make their phone 
     calls anymore. Thanks to a donation from Atlanta's own 
     AirTouch Cellular, the educator's can catch up to the rest of 
     the working world with cellular telephones. They recently 
     celebrated the donations at the school, with representatives 
     from AirTouch, Lockheed Elementary and the sixth district's 
     own Newt Gingrich, ``We're here today because of a challenge 
     two years ago by Newt,'' said Tom Wheeler, president of the 
     Cellular Telephone Industry Association (CTIA).
       Wheeler was referring to a challenge Gingrich issued to the 
     telecommunications industry in which he called for industry 
     leaders to take the lead in proving teachers, children and 
     schools with technology to improve the processes of 
     education.
       What initially began as a call to technological arms 
     quickly evolved into the ClassLink program. The program found 
     its roots in Washington, D.C. where they conducted the first 
     ClassLink donation at an area elementary school. Twenty-four 
     months later, at a rate of one cellular donation and 
     installation per month, the program has found its 100th 
     school donation right here in Gingrich's own legislative 
     stomping grounds. Besides providing the physical units to the 
     teachers and administrators, the ClassLink program officers 
     other benefits, including:
       Increased productivity in the classroom. According to 
     Wheeler, use of the cellular telephone can save teachers as 
     much as 60 minutes per day in administrative time.
       Voicemail system that allows teachers to receive important 
     messages in a timely manner.
       The ability for teachers and students to find research 
     material quickly. Several teachers have already taken 
     advantage of this function, leaving homework assignments 
     available to children via voicemail (effectively ending the 
     ``I swear we don't have any homework!'' excuse.)
       ``This really opens up the world,'' said Mary Jo Brubaker, 
     principal of Lockheed Elementary School. Brubaker said it was 
     only logical that they include teachers in the 
     telecommunications boom because, after all, ``The rest of the 
     (business) world has phones.'' According to Brubaker, parents 
     can call the teachers' classrooms directly and leave messages 
     via voicemail. During non-instructional periods, teachers may 
     leave the phones on to field calls from parents. During 
     active instruction time, however, they directly route calls 
     to voicemail.
       Wheeler admitted being a bit surprised at the overwhelming 
     response to this program. According to Wheeler, studies 
     conducted by the CTIA have stated that some sort of telephony 
     was at the top of the priority list for secondary education 
     facilities, with laptop computers and Internet connection 
     falling behind. ``Too often we overlook the commonplace in 
     search of the spectacular,'' Wheeler said. ``Here we have the 
     telephone put to proper use, that can have the biggest 
     impact.''
       Time is money, as we all know, and Wheeler said the time 
     saved by teachers across the 100 ClassLink programs has 
     amounted to approximately $14 million in educational savings. 
     House Speaker Gingrich was equally pleased with the program's 
     success, calling this and other technology programs 
     ``liberating.'' ``They open up opportunities to focus 
     resources on the kids. We think about the resources that are 
     available today and we realize that we are on a scale of 
     learning that none of us have ever seen before.''
       ``The future of learning is tied into the Information 
     Age,'' said Gingrich who went on to say that the first 100 
     schools affected by ClassLink are just the beginning of a 
     nationwide effort to infuse technology into the classroom of 
     the '90s and beyond.
       What was Gingrich's next challenge to the high tech 
     industry? In a word: WebTV. Offering schools a low cost 
     gateway to the Internet was the major attractiveness to the 
     product, Gingrich said. Just as cellular phones are beginning 
     to creep into elementary classrooms across the nation, 
     perhaps the next step in this journey is the path to the Web.

     

                          ____________________