Marinette city officials will study a proposal from CyberZone to provide the city with free Internet service in exchange for space on two city water towers for mounting antennas. Nearby, a proposal from CyberZone Inc. to use space on the city of Menominee's radio tower in exchange for free Internet access and 20 e-mail accounts was approved by the city council.

Source: EagleHerald

As a hurricane approached and a volcano threatened to erupt on the island of Montserrat, Mike DiPaola’s sixth-grade classes from Edison Elementary scrambled to interpret incoming data on the impending disasters and safely evacuate Montserrat’s residents. The students used multiple technology tools in this simulation exercise to process information, communicate, and make decisions.

Source: Fraser-Clinton Chronicle

Source: Shelby-Utica News

Thanks to a partnership between the township government and students at L’Anse Creuse Public Schools’ Pankow Vocational-Technical Center, Harrison soon will have an official Web site allowing visitors to pay utility bills, view board agendas, check assessing information and more at the click of a mouse. With the township in a major budget crunch, Harrison financial officer/controller Melissa Marsh felt it would be prudent to explore options within the community instead of turning to a commercial Web designer.

Source: C and G News

A new tool is available to help parents who are concerned about their children viewing pornographic images, or writing or receiving text documents concerning behaviors of a sexual, violent or suicidal nature. It's called "Computer Cop," an easy to use CD-ROM monitoring software that parents can obtain for free from the Dearborn Police Department.

Source: Dearborn Press and Guide

Marlette High School students are continuing to take high school courses through the Michigan Virtual University Data network. That was the summation of Marlette Superintendent Duane Lange as he informed the Marlette Board of Education of the progress of the high school computer courses during the board's February 9 meeting.

Source: Marlette Leader

Source: Clarkston News

154 students at Utica High are taking first-year computer design and programming courses. The classes, offered at all four high schools in Utica Community Schools and other high schools in Macomb County, are wildly popular among students because they help give kids a career jump in a field they’ve grown up with.

Source: Detroit News

Starting this spring, M-TEC at Kirtland-Gaylord students will be going "unplugged." By March 15, M-TEC will become a wireless Internet "hotspot" where students can roam at will with their laptops while connecting wirelessly to high-speed broadband Internet at speeds up to and beyond 1 megabit, or 1,000 kilobits, per second.

Source: Gaylord Herald Times

Federal drug forfeiture money has provided the Monroe County Sheriff's Office Record Division a more efficient way to fingerprint those using its services. Livescan fingerprinting, a digital fingerprinting system that gives the operator instant notification as to the quality of a fingerprint scan, was added Tuesday morning. The system can also be linked to Michigan and federal AFIS systems, allowing instant access to criminal history, state and federal warrants and restrictions on a given person.

Source: Monroe Evening News

Knowledge of the law and being able to present yourself well in the courtroom no longer are enough if you want to be an attorney. You'd better be proficient at using laptop computers, the Internet, DVDs, e-mail and other bits of growing technology. State-of-the-art technology has been included in the new $2.8 million courtroom complex on the fifth floor of Cooley's downtown Lansing campus to give students a chance to learn to use it effectively.

Source: Lansing State Journal

Two years ago, the federal government mandated that schools who use the Internet install pornography filters, so now all districts have them. Some filters, such as the one used by Ann Arbor Public Schools, block access to a list of forbidden Web sites; others, such as the software used in Ypsilanti, screen Web sites for certain words and block access to sites that contain those words. 

Source: Ann Arbor News

Olivia Harvey can speak almost in a whisper to her first-graders at Harrison Elementary School and know that she is being heard. Harvey uses one of seven sound amplification systems donated to her school by Quota International, an 85-year-old organization dedicated to serving the hearing- and speech-impaired.

Source: Grand Rapids Press

Lansing Township is contemplating whether or not to retain its Internet service through PALine.com. Through the PAL service, anybody can access public legal information on homes and commercial properties throughout the township, 24 hours a day. It is especially useful to those in real estate, insurance and tax services. The PAL Internet service was created by Jim Jacobs, a former assessor for the township who allowed the township to use it for free. If the township wishes to continue using it, it would cost $4,000 a year— for both the treasurer office and the assessor office at $2,000 each.

Source: Delta-Waverly News

Michigan's state e-library -- call it MeL for short -- may not be as big as Google. But when it comes to specialized information about Michigan issues and communities, its material is as right on as if you asked a professional librarian for help.

Source: Detroit Free Press

Started in 1998 by then-Sheriff Robert Ficano, the Wayne County Sheriff's Internet Crime Unit has helped set the bar for local law enforcement agencies in Michigan and throughout the nation to track Internet predators. Along with Internet predators, the detail investigates Internet fraud, the trafficking of child pornography, identity theft and other computer-based crimes that take place within Wayne County.

Source: Detroit Free Press

Memorial Healthcare Center is the little technological giant standing among the trees and picket fences of this quiet city. But its prowess at state-of-the-art medical technology puts it on par or better than area health care facilities. For two years in a row, Memorial has been recognized among the top 100 most-wired hospitals in the country.

Source: Flint Journal

A number of nonprofit organizations, including the United Way, want to establish a statewide 211 telephone system that could make information about social services immediately available in much the same manner that emergency services are available by dialing 911. A 211 system is already operating on the west side of the state, serving residents of Kent, Calhoun, Ottawa and Kalamazoo Counties. 

Source: Detroit News

Wayne County officials are trying to bridge the digital divide by making computer technology more accessible to the public. Under a new program called Connecting the Partners, the county will set up new computers and software in community centers and churches. Officials said 10 sites will be selected for the program, which will start April 1 and will run for about a year.

Source: Detroit News

The Wyoming Web site has been busy. With more than 39,000 visitors in January, the site has been embraced by residents and businesses alike, according to Paul Gerndt, Wyoming information technology supervisor.

Source: Advance Newspapers

Nora Kessel, a member of the Hartland Consolidated Schools Board of Education, has arranged for an Internet safety class for parents and children to be taught by Detective Edwin Moore of the computer crimes unit at the Livingston County Sheriff’s Department. Moore will talk about instant messaging, e-mail, protected Web sites and identity theft. He will offer safety tips for parents and teens.

Source: Detroit News

Birmingham-Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce is teaming up with a New York-based company to provide businesses with a high-tech means of communicating with potential customers. Working with eLocalLink Inc. of Rochester, N.Y., the chamber will produce an interactive, online and CD video that will highlight and promote the community’s business/ industry, residential, education, health care and quality of life advantages and opportunities. 

Source: Birmingham Eagle

The "SMART" way to obtain bus route information has arrived. The Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation has started promoting its Web site that it kicked off last fall. The user-friendly site provides a wide range of information from bus schedules and fares to employment and vendor opportunities.

Source: Macomb Daily

Radio frequency identification, or RFID, which has been used for years for livestock identification, and by retailers and shipping companies, who use it to track merchandise - is becoming more common at libraries in Oakland County.

Source: Oakland Press

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick wants to turn downtown Detroit into a wireless Internet hot spot. "By the end of 2004, when you bring your laptop downtown, you can leave all the cables and cords at home," the mayor said in announcing plans to build out and eventually network a string of downtown hot spots. The mayor didn't talk about how the project will be funded, though several of his people have been quietly looking at ways to get the business community downtown to help bring this about.

Source: Detroit Free Press

Researching assignments at home without a computer proved difficult last year for eighth-grader Titus Owens. Not anymore. The 14-year-old Riddle Middle School student takes home a laptop computer every day through a state pilot program that awarded 14 school districts free laptop computers.

Source: Lansing State Journal

"We are in the process of establishing bar coding in our pharmacy as we speak," Hillsdale Community Health Center Chief Financial Officer Ronald Larsen said Thursday. He added the hospital began the process two months ago. Larsen said there are several reasons why the hospital began looking into bar coding before the FDA requirement came to pass, including patient safety and the reduction of errors in the dispensing of medications.

Source: Hillsdale Daily News

Giving presentations in class no longer means students have to break out the posterboard and Magic Markers. Today’s visual aids are more likely to include remote controls and manufacturers’ warranties than sheets of paper and scribbles of ink. That’s the case with equipment Mason High School teacher Mark Sundermann bought for the English department with a grant from the Mason Public Schools Foundation.

Source: Ingham County Community News

Source: Towne Courier

Despite the budget crunch that pulled all state funding from a project to provide every sixth-grader in Michigan with a free laptop computer, a stripped-down version about to get under way is still the most ambitious of its kind in the nation.

Source: Detroit Free Press

Increasingly, criminal investigators are discovering the value of looking at home and work computers of victims and suspects in their quest for background information and evidence. They've found crimes committed over the computer and evidence to be used in court.

Source: Ann Arbor News, Holland Sentinel

The University of Michigan-Flint School of Management is expanding in the virtual world. NetPlus!, the school's flagship on-line program, will be available in the spring. It is an Internet-based version of the management school's accredited MBA program, that is designed to make the MBA accessible to professionals from a wide geographic area.

Source: Flint Journal