More students and teachers will soon be plugged in to the global grid of ultra high-speed research and education networks, as the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board and the Peterborough, Victoria, Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board connect to ORION.

"We look forward to leveraging the ORION network for new and exciting initiatives and collaborating with similar educational institutions from around the world," says Patricia Amos, Director of Education. "Our students and staff will greatly benefit from the fast access to online academic and research resources, multi-media content and digitized materials."

"We are very excited at the prospect of connecting our students to the ORION network," said Sean Heuchert, Manager of Information Technology at Peterborough's Catholic school board. "This resource will put our students at the cutting edge and give them access to learning opportunities never before possible."

With nearly 15,000 students at 38 schools, Peterborough's Catholic school board joins Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board, Trent University and Fleming College as the fourth institution in the region to connect to ORION. The Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, with nearly 30,000 students at 57 schools, is the first school board in the Hamilton area to connect.

"We welcome both school boards to ORION," says Phil Baker, ORION President and CEO. "It's exciting to see more students gain access to more educational resources and new learning opportunities over the network. We're moving closer to our goal of providing all of Ontario's K-12 students with access to ORION and the advanced resources and capabilities it enables."

ORION currently connects approximately 960,000 elementary and secondary school students at 22 boards across the province. By connecting, schools can enjoy enhanced quality videoconferencing when participating in the many distance learning programs offered by Canada's leading cultural and educational organizations, such as the Virtual Researcher on Call (VROC) program, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Canadian Museum of Nature, and the Canadian Space Agency.

Read the releases at www.orion.on.ca/news.