BizedNews

An electronic newsletter published monthly by the
Wake County Business Education Network
December, 1999

Bizednews underway - This is the first edition of BizedNews, a newsletter sent to schools and business contacts on the Bizednetwork. This newsletter will be used to provide stories of creative Network use as well as tips for schools and businesses to help the Network run more effectively. Ideas, submissions, and responses are encouraged; please e-mail your comments, ideas and suggestions to ehouck@wakeedpartnership.org.

Web site successfully launched - On November 17, 1999, after two months of testing, the Wake County Business Education Network was officially launched at the MCI WorldCom headquarters in Cary. Kevin Gahan of MCI WorldCom discussed the Hometown Help grant program that funded the site. Bill McNeal of the Wake County Public School System and Cindy Haeck of Green Hope High School commented on the usefulness and potential of the site. Finally, Gretchen Kelly of MCI WorldCom presented Bynum Satterwhite, Chair of the Board of Directors of Wake Education Partnership and Jack Clayton, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, with the second installment of the grant - a check for $50,000! Some interesting facts were shared during the press conference:

Over 130 area businesses have signed on to the web site;
Over 500 offers have been made to Wake County schools;
Sixty percent of the Bizednetwork businesses have never worked with a school before; and,
Business are already following up on accepted offers to schools around the county, from East Wake High to West Cary Middle.

Athens Drive looking for projects - Karen Duncan of Athens Drive High School doesn't want resources from businesses, she wants business from them! Duncan, a Computer Technology teacher at Athens, is looking for projects so her students can apply their Microsoft Office skills in real-life applications. So far the class has produced mailings, tri-fold brochures and posters for groups such as the American Red Cross and Wake Education Partnership. Interested business people may contact Karen at kduncan@wcpss.net for information on how her class can work for you.

Bizednetwork demonstrations ongoing - Demonstrations of the Network continue. Catherine Davis of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and Eric Houck of the Wake Education Partnership are available for presentations around the county. "We have presented to Chambers of Commerce, principals, central office staff, and school faculties," says Catherine Davis. "We can present the web site and show people how to use it in almost any location." Contact Catherine at cdavis@the-chamber.org to set up an appointment.

Network Notes

Tools and tips to help your experience on Bizednetwork run smoothly

Network needs teachers to search - With so many businesses on the web site and many schools logging in requests, it is time to think of ways to make the network as effective and efficient as possible. "Teachers bear a special responsibility at this stage in the process," says Dan Fisher of webslingerZ, the company that designed the programming for the web site. "With so many business offers in the database, it is important to search the database before submitting a request." Fisher cites one example of a school with multiple requests for classroom speakers. A quick search for classroom speakers in the database yielded 76 existing business offers. "The web site cannot automatically match offers and requests," elaborates Fisher. "Teachers need to query the database and search for offers that meet their needs." Fisher added that businesses should also search the database periodically to see if teachers have posted needs that they can fill.

Use of proper names discouraged - High school newspapers going online have had to confront issues of student privacy. Those same issues confront us on the Wake County Business Education Network: how much information do we give out, especially about students?

Wake County Public School System policy is to not use full student names on any website, unless permission from that student and his or her parents has been obtained. Issues of privacy and international web accessibility drive the policy. www.bizednetwork.org is not an official school web site, but the use of full student names is still discouraged. Please adopt this cautious approach when entering offers or requests. We will do the same with BizedNews.

Mining the database for contacts - Schools who are using the Network do not have to accept offers in order to contact businesses. If you would like to ask a business for a resource that they have not offered, simply call the business contact. They should be more than happy to help you out. Don't accept offers that you don't really need as a means of contacting a business.