This interview with Cyber-state.org President Katherine Willis includes her insights on trends in information technology in Michigan's local governments, health care, and education sectors in addition to her thoughts on the topics of privacy and broadband connectivity.

Source: Business Direct Weekly

Middle school students who received a free laptop computer in an experimental Michigan program were more motivated to learn, developed new skills and got more out of their studies, initial research about the program has found.

Source: Detroit Free Press

Plymouth-Canton Schools will be auctioning 14 Detroit Pistons' tickets, parking passes and munchies at the game in a suite donated by Maximum Financial Group of Plymouth. And, in hopes of getting the maximum amount of money, the package for the April 2 game against the Miami Heat will be available on the Internet auction site eBay, with the money going to the district's Educational Excellence Foundation.

Source: Plymouth Observer

Gone are the nights of parents camping out in the parking lot to get in line for summer day-care registration in Rockford. The school district's child-care services office is taking only online sign-ups this year. The new medium puts an end to what the program director called a "ridiculous" process that saw one parent get in line last year at midnight, eight hours early.

Source: Grand Rapids Press

If you’d like to know what the coolest things about Ypsi are, you might just find them on the Internet. A few tech-savvy individuals have created Ypsi-centric "blogs" or web logs, online journals of their thoughts and experiences. And now one of them, Seat of the Revolution, is hosting an online survey of the Coolest of Ypsilanti. Source: Ypsilanti Courier

Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans says his department will use a $152,000 federal grant to replace paper files at the Wayne County Jail with a digital system. Evans has formally requested membership in CLEMIS, which already has about 150 members, including police departments in Plymouth, Plymouth Township, Northville and Livonia. The new booking system will establish the foundation for a countywide criminal database, Evans said.

Source: Detroit News

Source: Oakland Press

Thanks to a much-needed software update that was completed last fall, school officials now have the ability to be part of the Parent Connect program, which will allow Internet users to log on to a special section of the district Web site. Parents and community members who are interested can receive a personal identification number and a password that will allow them to view attendance records, grades, assignment information, schedules and student demographics. The program is expected to be fully rolled out by August

Source: Jackson Patriot

Source: Eaton Rapids Community News

Zeeland school officials last week reviewed the progress of a plan to add a new, user-friendly student information system that would consolidate and ease access to student records for teachers, administrators, students, and parents. Under the proposed plan, parents could gain access to their child's grades and information simply by connecting to the Web. Students would also be granted access.

Source: Advance Newspapers

Like the grocery checkout and the drug store photo department — Troy City hall now has a new self-service computer system. Troy residents can now access tax information and links to city departments through a computer kiosk in City Hall.

Source: Troy Times

Muskegon County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to buy a new computer program to be used by the 60th District Court with $6,000 from the county general fund. The new program will automatically print out checks with the push of a few buttons, saving a lot of time and trouble. That will keep lines moving for the general public and make life a lot easier for court staff, said Mike Flanery, administrator of the 60th District Court.

Source: Muskegon Chronicle

Looking up homeowner or business information, like whether someone pulled a permit to build an addition to their home or office, is now as easy as the click of a mouse since the city has added options to its Web site. It’s something other communities have done, and Eastpointe has decided to make getting information about property taxes, assessing and building permits easier to obtain, which also frees up the city departments that handle those requests, said Finance Director Susan Mancani.

Source: Eastsider

After months of running tests and a pilot program, a local company has launched its wireless Internet system in Grand Haven. Ottawa Wireless, the brainchild of Grand Haven resident Tyler van Houwelingen, is operational in 70 blocks, which represents about 20 percent of the city. The rest of the city is expected to be online in the next three months. By summer, Grand Haven will be the first city in the nation to have a citywide, wireless network, company officials say.

Source: Muskegon Chronicle

Fund-raising efforts and collections continued with the Spring Fling winter carnival Thursday at Addison Middle School. Teachers, parents, students and administrators are working to raise $177,000 to purchase and install the SmartLab System from Creative Learning Systems. The plan is to have the technology education system in place in August for the start of the 2004-05 school year.

Source: Lenawee Connection

High school students who are failing their math or English classes won't have to attend summer school to make up the lost credits if they enroll in a new online program through Muskegon Public Schools. The "Credit Recovery Program" will provide online instruction to students from Muskegon High School and schools throughout the county.

Source: Muskegon Chronicle

Forget about raising cash for field trips: in the virtual reality era, students will see landmarks like the Smithsonian Institution without ever leaving their classrooms. The Hillsdale County Intermediate School District is making the promise a reality through its "Field Trip Fridays" series, which relies on a direct connection from its interactive TV–ITV network, General Education Director John Ciaravino said.

Source: Hillsdale Daily News

Scott Piestrak, a technology teacher at both Allen and North Pointe elementary schools, earned a $2,500 grant from the Best Buy Children's Foundation. The money from Piestrak's grant added a new laptop computer and digital video camera to the schools' technology programs.

Source: The News-Herald

Thanks to the Livingston County United Way, the 60 students at the Howell Parks and Recreation Preschool have a computer system. IBM donated the computer, valued at $2,149, to the Livingston County United Way specifying that the organization can donate the gift to the charity of its choice.

Source: Daily Press and Argus

The Macomb Intermediate School District is anticipating that by the end of the year a fiber optic communications network will be in place linking the 21 Macomb County public school districts with Internet and video communication.

Source: The Voice News

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