BY JANET C. WETZEL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP -- Taking turns Tuesday, the children picked out a prehistoric tool on one table -- such as a shell used for tilling the soil.
Then they found the modern-day match -- a hoe -- on another table. A simple process, but with a twist.
The table holding the modern-day tools was in the new Sprint Center for Learning at the Museum at Fort Ancient. The children and the table with the ancient artifacts were at the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) in Columbus. They were linked through a new video-conferencing unit.
The children -- 6 to 12 years old -- from the Central Community House Summer Day Camp in Columbus were at the historical society's center to participate in the dedication of the new learning center at the Warren County museum.
Jack Blosser, Fort Ancient site manager, and Brad Lepper, OHS archaeologist, led the program to teach the youngsters how the artifacts were used, and the advantages of the new equipment.
"We learned about things from long ago and things from long, long ago," said 9-year-old Kara Cromwell.
During the dedication, Joe "Far Raven" Hammock of Williamsburg, Ohio, an American Indian of Shawnee descent, said he is a "history satellite, because I go out into the country to educate" about Indian culture.
When the newly renovated $3 million museum center reopened in March, "I felt it was the mother ship -- a base for the knowledge. Now with this new technology, they can "beam me up, Scotty,' or maybe "beam me out Scotty,' " Mr. Hammock said.
He said the equipment will allow him to give his presentations to schools and organizations without the usual long drives. "Thank you, thank you, Sprint, from the bottom of our hearts."
The new learning center was made possible through a partnership with Sprint, including a $100,000 in-kind and cash donation from the company.
Fort Ancient, with nearly 500 artifacts in its 9,000 square feet of exhibits, features 15,000 years of history focusing on American Indian heritage from the ice age to the 19th century.
It is the second OHS-operated site, after Columbus, to feature the video-conferencing technology, and the first American Indian heritage site, said Maggie Sanese, OHS manager of communications. The Campus Martius Museum in Marietta will likely get the new equipment this fall, she said.
In dedicating the new learning center Gary Ness, OHS director, said it is a "truly extraordinary facility," that will eventually "enable us to reach out and touch classrooms and families around the country."
Wayne Walston, Sprint vice president for legal and external affairs, said the center "promises to be a world-class educational facility."
Its technology allows students in the learning center to interact with educational specialists at other OHS sites, and it will let OHS educators interact live with students in classrooms around the state that have similar technology.
It will also allow people who are unable to visit the OHS sites to take video tours of the facilities, and they can even see some special artifacts that may not be available to in-person visitors because of their fragility, said Sean Pickard, OHS distance learning coordinator.
And it will allow experts or representatives of various museums to present joint programs.
"We can hook up with Tokyo if there was an expert there we wanted to talk to," Mr. Pickard said.
