Students lead fiber optic work

• By MARSHA SILLS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Oct 15, 2009 - Page: 1BA

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CARENCRO — High-speed fiber optic technology offers a new frontier in computing. Among the explorers: students at Carencro High School’s Academy of Information Technology.

“The increase in speed and quality will revolutionize everything we do in the classroom,” said Elijah Parker, 17, a junior at Carencro.

Parker is among the students in the academy being groomed by local tech professionals to use fiber technology through a project called FiberKids.

The project is a partnership among Carencro High and its academy, the Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise, the school system’s information technology department, Lafayette Utilities System and Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

As part of the project, students are exploring the ways the greater bandwidth can enhance learning.

 The possibilities are endless: live streaming high-definition video for school conferences, lessons taught by experts and virtual field trips.

“That’s just the beginning,” said Kit Becnel, director of the Academy of Information Technology at Carencro High.

“It levels the playing field; we can be in a big city or a rural area like Carencro and have the same opportunities,” Becnel said.

The academy is tapped into the fiber network via the LITE Center.

Across the state, research centers, such as LITE, and universities are connected to the statewide fiber optic network known as the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative.

The network initiative is part of a larger network, called the National Lambda Rail, that connects research institutions across the country to the network.

And Carencro High is tapped into it. The work under way is the first step in a long-term goal to connect every K-12 school in the state to the network, said Randy Ward, director of engineering at LPB.

Ward said the Louisiana Broadband Alliance has submitted a grant application for a share of $7.2 billion in available federal funds to help make it happen.