THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 30, 1997 TAG: 9701290199
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 61 lines
Two years is a long wait for a school bus, but when the big yellow C-SPAN school bus pulled up to Nansemond-Suffolk Academy last week, the students and faculty agreed that it was an event worth the wait.
The C-SPAN school bus is a 45-foot motor coach equipped with television cameras, lights, computers, CD-ROM laser disks, video production equipment, a small classroom and a TV studio.
The bus is one of two that continually tour the country, visiting schools and creating programs about congressional districts, historical sites and cultural events. The local vignettes are produced for C-SPAN's ``Washington Journal,'' a daily morning public affairs program.
``Many of our students have seen the bus on C-SPAN and having the bus here will make C-SPAN more relevant and involve them in a more personal way in seeing how news is transmitted,'' said Douglas Naismith, Nansemond-Suffolk Academy president.
The academy is in the final stages of a $500,000 campus networking project that will bring Internet and cable capability into every classroom, allowing teachers to supplement their classroom lessons with presentations on educational networks like public TV, the Discovery Channel and C-SPAN.
``The C-SPAN bus shows teachers how to better integrate what C-SPAN has to offer to the classroom with what we are trying to accomplish there with a very TV/monitor-oriented grade group,'' said Bill Harris, a N-SA history and government teacher.
Aboard the C-SPAN bus, crew members demonstrated what C-SPAN is all about. Using video clips from the U.S. House of Representatives and the British House of Commons, the crew stressed that the network covers Congress, the White House, the State Department, political campaigns, and other forums where public policy is decided without editing, commentary or analysis.
Jennifer Beavers, a sixth-grader from Portsmouth, was paying attention. ``This is a news station that is different because they don't use reporters, they don't cut things out, and they don't give you an opinion,'' she said. ``They don't force their opinions on you but let you choose for yourself.''
Rob Dewing, a sixth-grader from Smithfield, was more intrigued by the bus's high-tech equipment. ``Six TV's that can all play different stations,'' he marveled. ``What a great place for a vacation. . . .''
C-SPAN, launched in 1979, and C-SPAN2, launched in 1986, are both privately funded by the cable industry to offer a full range of public affairs programming. The network estimates its viewing audience at 68 million.
In November 1993, C-SPAN sent its first bus on a nationwide tour. Demand was so great that a second bus was sent out a year ago. Since then, both buses have logged more than 130,000 miles, visiting more than 700 cities and towns. The buses have hosted about 55,000 students and teachers at 600 schools.
Last week, before the bus visited Nansemond-Suffolk Academy, it had served as a remote TV studio for the inaugural celebration in Washington, D.C., and spent a day each in Fredericksburg and Hampton.
Falcon Cable sponsored the bus visit to Suffolk, following up on an initial request made two years ago to C-SPAN by the N-SA parent teacher organization. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Bill Harris, a N-SA ninth-grader, steps off the C-SPAN bus and gets
a souvenir from a C-SPAN staffer.