Axiom Technologies installs a tower on Islesford to link the broadband infrastructure between Great and Little Cranberry Islands.

News

Connecting Maine’s communities through broadband

12/19/2017 - Simply stated, “broadband” is a high-speed internet connection. It provides the reliability and speeds required by businesses, telecommuters, students of all ages, telehealth users, municipalities and emergency services, and residents who seek 21st century economic and social opportunities. Over 30 island and coastal communities in Maine are working to bring broadband and its benefits to their towns through their economic and community development efforts. SEE MORE
TLC teachers and students during the 2017 fall field trip

News

The TLC’s Golden Circle

10/30/2017 - Before the start of the new school year, the teachers from the Outer Islands Teaching & Learning Collaborative (TLC) gathered in Rockland for their (now) annual Teacher Retreat. The focus of the retreat is to allow work time and planning for the year ahead, but what became the driving focus for the day, though, was not the “what” or “how” of our work, but the “why.” By taking time to clarify and (re-)define the “why,” the purpose for our work this year, all the other components more or less fell into place. SEE MORE
Downtown Dexter.

Working Waterfront

An expedition for a new pilot

By Eva Murray My flight instructor liked to talk. As I circled Belfast endless times with Alfred “Sandy” Reynolds, there was generally idle conversation in the airplane—sometimes, very idle. My lessons did not involve what you’d call a “sterile cockpit,” meaning strictly business, no needless chattering. Sandy wanted to make sure I could fly safely… Read more » SEE MORE
Weird light over Penobscot Bay.

Working Waterfront

That beautiful sky might not be the easiest to fly through

By Eva Murray A couple of weeks ago, as an early-evening thunderstorm approached from the west, the sky over Penobscot Bay got everybody’s attention. A palette of sunset colors contrasted with discrete layers of bright white and nearly-black clouds, and the fast-moving front, with its peculiar sharp edge, barreled overhead like a freight train. Matinicus… Read more » SEE MORE
Students were eager to enter the reopened Longfellow School on Great Cranberry Island last September.

Working Waterfront

Small island schools better with TLC

Think back to 2008: summer Olympics in Beijing; signs of the Great Recession start to show; Barack Obama is elected president; Celtics beat the Lakers in the NBA finals. On Maine’s outer islands, teachers work tirelessly to maintain their one-room schools. Tirelessly and separately. Each school has a teacher and a small number of students.… Read more » SEE MORE
Isle au Haut Broadband Committee enters a float into the 4th of July Parade to promote community broadband survey.

News

Regional broadband efforts gain momentum

7/17/2017 - Increasingly, Maine communities are joining forces to take a regional approach in the pursuit of reliable, high-speed internet infrastructure and service (broadband). In addition to new county-level efforts across the state, individual communities are also seeking cost-efficiencies in potential broadband solutions. SEE MORE
This year’s TLC having fun at an Inter-Island Event on Frenchboro in the fall

News

One Shirt, Two Shirt, Green Shirt, Blue Shirt

6/14/2017 - Tess Beem, our TLC Project Coordinator, reflects on the past year and what she's learned about the elusive mixing and melding that happens when the TLC island schools get together for at an in-person field trip, and the importance of downtime, free play, or unstructured time — what she calls magical mix time. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

​Flying just for fun

Because I go back and forth between Matinicus and Rockland a lot, and because our island doesn’t have a daily ferry or mail boat, and because the pilots who fly for Penobscot Island Air are friends, I spend probably too much time hanging around underfoot in the air service office at the Knox County Regional… Read more » SEE MORE