1. University of Nebraska Lincoln proudly introduces the Management Team

2. Mission statement Educate and empower rural communities to implement and benefit from technology opportunities.

3. History  Established in 1999 after Master Navigator coordinator resigned  Charter team included 6 Extension Educators representing each Extension district  Administration redirected 25% of each appointment to do technology training

4. Frankly speaking… Charter members had no clue what they were getting themselves into!

5. Administrative structure  Center for Applied Rural Innovation  Support staff  Fiscal management  Cooperative Extension  Housed in county Extension offices  100% Extension appointments

6. Our team today  9 Extension Educators  1 Learning Center Coordinator  50% of each Educator’s appointment is to focus on technology programming

7. Responsibilities  The development, marketing and facilitation of technology programs  Operation, maintenance and expansion of programs  Staying abreast of new concepts and technologies  Technology planning in rural communities

8. Curricula  Master Navigator  Four week course that teaches Windows concepts, navigating the WWW and email  Nebraska Electronic Main Street  Four week course that teaches community leaders and business owners e-business concepts  Nebraska E-Government  Tentatively scheduled for rollout fall 2002

9. Publications  NebFacts  Internet terms  Lessons for community groups  SafeSurfing.com  Telemedicine: The Future is Here

10. Promotional efforts  Logo  Brochures  Table-top displays  Business cards  Web page http://connecting.unl.edu http://connecting.unl.edu http://connecting.unl.edu

11. Efforts supported by the team  4-H Cyber Fair  Teacher training  Organizing local technology committees  Conducting local technology fairs and expositions  Technology conferences and workshops

12. Partnerships  Technologies Across Nebraska Partnership  Nebraska Information Technology Commission  Community colleges, ESUs and high schools  Local and regional economic development organizations  Local and regional IT committees  Congressman Osborne

13. Significant Accomplishments  Master Navigator  Taught in over 60 communities to 650 people  Nebraska Electronic Main Street  23 classes in 20 communities benefiting 175 businesses

14.  Trained 100 additional instructors  1/3 have taught classes  excellent evaluations given by participants  Grant acquisition  NITC award to AIM and conNEcting Nebraska for $110,000

15.  Community planning  Conducted formal community and business IT assessments in 2 communities and one county  Presently working on a multi-county IT assessment for northeast NE  Collaborated with AIM and CARI to facilitate statewide community and business IT survey

16. Impact  Master Navigator  Evaluations indicate knowledge greatly increases as a result of taking the course  Skills taught are being used by farmers and ranchers, business owners, school teachers, homeowners, housewives, etc.  Some participants established home-based businesses

17.  All most all teach the skills they learned to others in their communities  Many have gone onto developing their own business Web sites  Senior citizens are communicating by e-mail with their families

18. Impact  Nebraska Electronic Main Street  Many businesses planned to build Web pages and begin performing some aspect of e-commerce online  Some decided that establishing an online presence wasn’t appropriate for them  Several created their own Web sites, while others contracted with professional developers

19. On the horizon  E-Ag  E-Education  Telework  Telemedicine  Public policy issues  Advanced Master Navigator  Advanced NE Electronic Main Street

20. Our future

21. For more information contact: UNL Extension Educators/Staff Dewey Teel Antelope County dteel1@unl.edu 402.887.5414 Connie Hancock Cheyenne County chancock1@unl.edu 308.254.4455 Carroll Welte Burt County welte1@unl.edu 402.374.2929 Dorothy Davis WCREC ddavis4@unl.edu 308-532-3611 ext. 158 Dennis Kahl Seward County dkahl1@unl.edu 402.643.2981

22. University of Nebraska – Lincoln Cooperative Extension Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources