Over the past 10 years, RAIN has:

" Brought the first public schools, community colleges, regional government, and libraries in its home region on to the Internet.

" Provided low cost access to thousands of low income, youth, family and individual users.

" Developed bi-lingual Spanish and English resources to promote universal access.

" Opened new doors of communication for local businesses, including training funded under federal contract to promote government suppliers doing business online.

" Hosted live public chat sessions with elected officials to give local communities improved access to the democratic government process.

" Put the first off-the-grid, solar powered, satellite connected mobile Internet training and access van on the road.

" Won a Smithsonian Innovation Award and Technology Literacy Challenge Award from the US Department of Education in recognition of RAIN's pioneering teacher training and content delivery services.

" Earned five USDA Distance Learning and Telemedicine Awards to deliver innovative online resources and connectivity to rural communities on the Central Coast, and in Arizona and New Mexico.

" Launched an afterschool online education program with field trip rewards for low income students in California, and that links them to Native American students in Arizona and New Mexico, with assistance from the California Consumer Protection Foundation and the USDA Children and Families At Risk program. They discover Mark Twain, read original Zorro, study native tribes, explore great art!

" Brought over 15,000 students and 500 teachers online for a stimulating educational technology project exploring California and Ancient Southwest history, literature, and earth studies, plus added an innovative American History program, a GIS mapping program, and a Global Garden study program.

" Hosted doctor-to-doctor telemedicine training and promoted telehealth program development including services for terminally ill youth with assistance from the California Telehealth and Telemedicine Center, the Landon Foundation, and the USDA.

" Been honored to be selected for a National Science Foundation pilot project to link US distance learning resources with sister programs in Costa Rica and Belize.

" Contributed published papers and presentations at educational technology conferences in Japan, Sweden, Italy, Hungary, Costa Rica, Canada and the United States to promote world wide use of the Internet as an enriching, democratic, educational communication vehicle.

" Opened a Community Technology Center with lab and conference facilities using large screen Internet projection equipment that has hosted training of teachers from three states serving thousands of young students, small business owners needing to learn to conduct business transactions online, and afterschool programming.

" Formed a public Internet video broadcasting center providing web streaming for live conferences and events, including the Solstice Parade and Coastal Zone Conference, and delivers educational video online to students and families daily.

" Launched one of the first non-governmental, multi-agency public GIS mapping servers in the country delivering public access to regional maps, data, demographics, and user-provided projects from the public schools, making Geographic Information System technology widely available to the public.

" Participated in and supported the formation of multi-agency partnerships that promote public access to information and educational resources, including marine and terrestrial environmental education, public school educational technology, multi and cross-cultural youth program, and library services consortia.

" Developed unique, original online and video programming with positive social values that promote sustainable practices at the individual, family, community, and global level.

On the Central Coast

To Celebrate RAIN's 10 Years of Innovative Public Technology Services, we invite you to visit our newly expanded Community Technology Center, live or online, to participate in empowering technology events.

On selected Friday nights RAIN will be hosting live broadcasts with guest speakers, poets, and musicians and the public is invited to attend. RAIN's Community Technology Center offers walk-in high-speed Internet access for students, locals and travelers, and special Friday evening broadcasts.

We also will have the mobile Internet Bus out on the road delivering Internet education services to libraries, schools and community centers in the region.

Physical location for RAIN CTC events is 1129 State Street, on the courtyard across from the Museum of Art, in Santa Barbara. Online location is www.rain.org .

See the RAIN calendar for the Internet bus schedule or write to rain@rain.org to request a stop at your agency.

Technology Projects Near and Far

RAIN will continue building on its services in the Pacific Southwest and will be bringing new Native American students online through a program linking Indian Schools and Rural Schools in Arizona, New Mexico and California. Of special note is hosting a Family Heritage project in rural communities where students use new GPS and GIS technologies map historic sites and collect and publish oral histories from the elders in their community.

RAIN's multi-agency activities in Central America will increase the number of agencies and schools involved in connecting to Camp Internet, the distance learning program broadcast by RAIN, and International Baccalaureate schools around the world will also begin participating in Global Peace Studies programming.

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