The information highway spreads throughout the Upper Valley education system at the hands of Dartmouth's Surfer Guides -- student volunteers who work with teachers and students in Upper Valley schools.
Guides tutor on basic to advanced Internet use, initiate Internet projects with students and help them to design different types of Web pages, said Surfer Guide Coordinator MaryAnn Veseskis '89.
The Surfer Guide Program is a volunteer project sponsored by the Tucker Foundation and the Montshire Museum of Science.
"I think of myself as a teacher" said Surfer Guide Glen Frank '98.
The Surfer Guide program was started to meet the computer needs of the Upper Valley public school system, Veseskis said.
After receiving a grant during the winter of 1995, Ed Baker '89 was hired to create a pilot project.
Last spring Surfer Guides donated over 160 volunteer hours while assisting over 111 teachers and 59 students, Veseskis said.
Judy Wilson, the Technology Coordinator for Hanover High School, said the program was "received enthusiastically by the staff."
She said the program appealed to teachers as a one-on-one way to learn how to access the World Wide Web.
At the end of the month, three Surfer Guides will begin to work with three social studies classes at Hanover High School to create a project designed to integrate the Internet into class curriculums, Veseskis said.
Glenna Giveans, the Computer Teacher at the Hanover Middle School, was one of the first people involved in the program.
Surfer Guides assist her eighth grade students in using the Internet and developing projects through the Web. They also put learning programs together for teachers.
"The students love the program and working with college students," Giveans said. "The Guides know the places to go [on the Internet] and have great ideas for exploration."
The Surfer Guides are also working to create Web pages for community services, starting with the Upper Valley Humane Society, Giveans said.
Glen Frank '98 said he decided to help out with the Surfer Guide Program when he first heard about it last winter.
Frank said he has trained teachers in Internet use from the elementary to the high school levels across the Upper Valley.
"They want to see what the Web is about and learn how to find what they are looking for," Frank said.
"We need a diverse group of Surfer Guides and new volunteers are always welcome," he said.
He said the program is for "people who love what they have seen on the Web and want to share it with other people."
Requests for guides in Vermont and across New Hampshire have been coming in, Frank said.
Veseskis said, "The hope is to spread the program across New Hampshire based on this pilot program."
The Surfer Guide Program plans to begin targeting young girls and lower income students who are the most reluctant to use computers, Veseskis said.
The Surfer Guide Program currently has a Web site at: http://www.dartmouth.edu/community/tucker/dcs/.
