Dad Connects With School Children From Submarine

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 1999-- Being under water does not mean being out of touch!

The creators of an online community service designed to improve school-to-home communications never imagined it would be used on a submarine, but that is exactly what happened with a first grade class from Indian Head Elementary in Indian Head, Maryland.

"I have many military families and my SchoolNotes.com web page gives parents a chance to keep in touch with their child's work when they are away from home,'' according to Tracy McMullen, a first grade teacher at Indian Head Elementary. "One dad e-mailed us from a submarine out in the deep Atlantic. We had a chance to e-mail him back with questions about his job and his daughter had a chance to send her Daddy a personal message thanks to SchoolNotes.com,'' said Ms McMullen.

"SchoolNotes.com allows teachers, especially those with little or no computer experience, to quickly and easily post school information on the Internet for their.community to access,'' according to Ron Bocinsky, President of Data Sense, Inc. "We have thousands of teachers, parents, and students taking advantage of this free community service, but we never thought anyone would access it from a submarine. That is really exciting!''

According to the U.S. Department of Education's Partnership for Family Involvement in Education web site (www.pfie.ed.gov), 72% of children, aged 10-13, said they would like to talk to their parents more about schoolwork. Almost half of older students agreed. Teachers say that having parents involved in their children's education is the "single most important thing public schools need to help students learn.''

"The best way to get parents involved is to keep them informed. The Internet can really make a difference in this area,'' said Bocinsky. With services like SchoolNotes.com, teachers can be online and communicating within minutes. Saving time for teachers and parents while improving communications makes sense.

Data Sense, Inc. has been developing online information services since 1987. SchoolNotes.com is an award winning free community service that complements school web sites and provides educators an easy-to-use tool for posting homework and school information on the Internet. No programming, training or speCial software is needed. SchoolNotes.com is made possible through community sponsors.

For more information, visit the SchoolNotes.com website at http://www.schoolnotes.com