From Dave Hughes:
Below was the brief "Commencement Address" by Frank Odasz, Asst Professor of Computer Education at Western Montana College at the one-room Wisdom Montana K-8 School, Friday night, May 27th, 1988.
There were exactly 2 graduating 8th graders in this tiny town of less than 75 in the middle of remote ranching and farming country in extreme southwest Montana. Over 100 parents, grandparents, school board members (of the 5 Kindergarteners also 'graduating' to 1st grade) showed up. The faces in the audience were right out of Norman Rockwell.
Frank was invited to speak by three teachers, and one assistant teacher (she played the piano), of the school who had all logged onto Big Sky Telegraph from their one Apple Computer and taken the teacher re-certification course entirely online from Western Montana College February to April, 1988.
Knowing these facts, the name of the town and school - Wisdom - is more than ironic.
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GRADUATION SPEECH
Good evening, I'm Frank Odasz, director of Big Sky Telegraph at Western Montana College.
It is an honor to share in the celebration of the achievement of Wisdom's student pioneers of the future.
The pioneer spirit has always been focused on positive change.
Most of us can accept that change is necessary if the quality of our lives is to get better. This year we've seen our students change in new and exciting ways.
In our rapidly changing world it is becoming increasingly important to keep up with the changes that are occuring around us, if for no other reason than to protect ourselves from potential dangers of those changes.
We seek the wisdom to know what should change and what shouldn't. We do need better economic conditions but there are many aspects of the rural lifestyle that we want to preserve and not change. Education itself can be described as the process of acquiring the knowledge and skills for creative adaptation to change. If change results in better opportunities for our kids' success, then it is generally welcomed.
Change can be a threat to our independence. A hundred years ago, there was a self-sufficient rancher who laughed at the suggestion that he might benefit from a new technology called the telephone.
With a successful ranching operation underway, in an understandable common sense sort of way he reasoned; why would he possibly need to talk to someone a hundred miles away? What effect could that have on his ranching and, why change if the ranch is successful?
Eventually, the rancher's first benefit from use of the telephone might have been checking auction prices in Billings. This eventually came to be viewed not as a dependency, but as an economy enhancing additional freedom, literally another tool in the rancher's toolbox. Today we use the telephone without giving it a second thought, and without worrying if we understand the details of how the phone company makes it work. The same is true for the microcomputers. We need to know only how to put these tools to work for our benefit.
This (hold up laptop) has introduced change in my life. As a former roughneck, carpenter, and duderancher who never touched a computer before the age of 30, this notebook-sized microcomputer has given me access to worldwide information. This "laptop" is a new way to gather economic and educational information from any location, at any time I might find convenient.
Telecommunications technologies hold great promise for allowing rural communities to enhance their economic options while preserving the cherished rural lifestyle. Big Sky Telegraph at Western Montana College, is a rural education project funded by the M.J. Murdoch Charitable Trust and the Mountain Bell Foundation of Montana.
Using modems, microcomputers and common phonelines, select rural educators are able to access educators statewide and exchange written information at a rate of four pages per minute, ten times the information possible via a voice call. This is the most efficient and cost effective means of resource and information sharing available in Montana.
Four teachers from right here in Wisdom, more than in any other single community in the Montana, have volunteered to pioneer a new trail toward Montana's educational frontier using this new form of communication. They have established a link from Wisdom to WMC to provide Wisdom students with access to over $10,000 worth of quality educational software. In addition, they have established fingertip access to the librarians and resources of the WMC library, all for as little as $5.00/week.
Just last week pen pal messages between Wisdom students and students from Deep Creek School near Glendive, (600 miles away) on the other side of the state, were exchanged electronically via the Big Sky Telegraph system. We have only scratched the surface of the potential benefits to Wisdom residents using telecommunications. These teachers and students saw the benefits to the community of beneficial change. Montana is faced with the realities of an increasingly global economy. The independence of Montanans, with new communications tools can bring benefits from far away to those here at home. Global marketing information and contacts have the potential to breath new life into Montana's ranching businesses. Talented business and resource persons across Montana now have the potential to better share ideas and strategies despite distance or schedules.
Your kids will soon be the ones to use these tools to create a brighter future for residents of the Big Hole Valley.
This short speech will be sent electronically to networks on both coasts this evening to share the word that the trail to the future of education in this country is being blazed by the teachers and students here in Wisdom, Montana, as much as anywhere else.
In a world that is changing more all the time, our students bear the promise that what we all value most, the opportunity for a quality education, will not change.
Thank you.
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