The availability of high-speed Internet access will bring with it the opportunity for more advanced educational tools and programs to be used in schools and colleges. This will better prepare children and young adults for the quickly advancing world ahead of them and help to build the leaders of tomorrow.

With the increased bandwidth provided by the Florida Rural Broadband Alliance (FRBA) project, K-12 schools can offer computer-based learning, Web-based learning, virtual classrooms and digital collaboration. Parents and guardians would be able to confer with teachers using video conferencing, study groups can form with members working on projects together from multiple locations, and home-bound students can continue to participate in classes. Florida offers online assistance with preparation for the FCAT exam. The FCAT is a required test that all public school students within the State must pass in order to graduate from high school. Within these regions, that already suffer from extraordinarily low high school graduation rates, including Glades County with a graduation rate of only 60.63 percent, many students are unable to take advantage of assistance to prepare for the test unless they are at school or a library because high speed connections are not available to their homes. At this time the Okeechobee Campus of Indian River State College has less than 5 percent of the network capacity available to the College’s other campuses because the cost of broadband capacity in Okeechobee is too high.

The FRBA project will enable these educational institutions to provide the same level of distance learning and other Web-based programs as schools and colleges within the State’s urban centers.

Community Colleges

The FRBA service area includes the campuses of seven community colleges. FRBA will make it a priority to provide service to these community colleges as soon as possible. Letters were received from Chipola College, Indian River State College and South Florida Community College demonstrating the support of these institutions for the FRBA project.