Ke Ala 'Ike -The Focus of HENC's Efforts

Hawaii Educational Networking Consortium

The Hawaii Educational Networking Consortium (HENC) is an alliance formed by the University of Hawaii, the State Department of Education and the East-West Center. HENC's mission is to encourage and promote the use of telecommunications technology in education and research in the State. The consortium members constitute all of public education and the largest federal research institute in the State. Collectively these entities have a combined user base of over 370,000 students, faculty, and staff. This collaboration has already resulted in the awarding of a National Science Foundation grant which expects to provide over $2.1 million for the Hawaii Education and Research Network (HERN) project over the course of the next 3 years. HERN will consider appropriate management strategies, training systems, institutional structures, support systems and end-user interface requirements needed to provide equitable network access to a statewide educational community.

Ke Ala 'Ike -The Path to Knowledge

The three member institutions of HENC have identified a primary activity for the next 18 months. During this time the consortium will focus on an initiative known as Ke Ala 'Ike-"the path to knowledge." The primary goal of Ke Ala 'Ike is to ensure connectivity among all of Hawaii's education and research community. This connectivity will provide for full access to the Internet and communication services, libraries and information resources within the state and throughout the world. At current funding levels such a network would not be available to Hawaii's public school students until the turn of the century or beyond. HENC believes that this time frame is not acceptable and aspires to achieve this by 1997.

Building the Path

To the greatest extent possible, Ke Ala 'Ike will not duplicate existing network infrastructure or build new physical links. It will attempt to leverage and overlay existing public and private networks to provide the services needed by Hawaii's educational community. Where existing networks do not provide adequate or appropriate services to meet these needs, new links may be established. HENC firmly believes that outreach and services to the general public, workplace and home should be provided through the private telecommunications sector.

The Goals of Ke Ala 'Ike

Specifically, over the next 18 months HENC's Ke Ala 'Ike initiative plans to:

interconnect all public educational institutions, rural and urban; and,
provide in-service training opportunities for Hawaii's educators, collaborative research opportunities for Hawaii's students and begin to develop the applications needed to transform education to meet society's changing needs.

How Can I Help?

The consortium is seeking input on how to best realize the goals of the Ke Ala 'Ike initiative. If you feel that you or your company would like to be a partner in our efforts please contact Marlon Wedemeyer, Program Director for the Hawaii Educational Networking Consortium via email: henc@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu, by phone: 956-2776 or by facsimile: 956-5025.