Scholastic Supplement

NETWORKING & THE INTERNET SPONSORED BY APPLE COMPUTER INC.

Explore and Learn: 10 Great Internet Sites Teachers Speak Out: Why We Use the Web Managing Networks: Models You Can Follow

Why Schools Need to Network and Go Online

From the Editor Jon Goodspeed

The Global Neighborhood R

esearch has shown that effective learning involves students in an active role working on authentic tasks. Students connect with what they’re learning as

they collaborate, communicate, and build knowledge from many sources of information. Thus, the Internet, as one teacher puts it, “is a perfect arena for making education relevant to real life.” (See page 7.) This special supplement on Networking and the Internet sponsored by Apple Computer takes you inside the classrooms, buildings, and districts where students and teachers are discovering and creating the information world. There are high school students using e-mail to collaborate with one another on a project within their school building’s network (see page 11), and fourth graders learning geography via the online travels of their class mascot (page 4). And we’ve surfed the Web to identify 10 must-visit sites (page 6). Apple Computer continues to be the leading choice for educators

the-art Workgroup servers, and software that offers ready access to the Internet and the World Wide Web.

Editorial Director E-mail addresses: America Online (JGoodspeed); Internet ([email protected])

Photography by Danuta Otfinowski

who want high-power, high-value technology, combined with state-of-

Contents

Networking & the Internet

Students collaborate online, from different computer stations.

March/April 1996 Supplement to Electronic Learning Sponsored by Apple Computer, Inc.

How Students Benefit. . . 2 Using the network fundamentally improves formal education

We Use the Internet . . . 4 Educators speak out about how the Web is lighting up their classes

Eye on the Sites . . . . . . 6 Here’s a Top Ten list of educational sites to explore on the Web

Tour of the WWW . . . . . 7 This teacher couldn’t wait to “let the revolution begin” by taking his students online

Networking Success . . . . 8 Class, building, and district networking stories you can use as a blueprint

Minds Online . . . . . . . 11 Students track weather, create a Web page, and express themselves online

Apple Solutions . . . . . . . 13 Cost-effective, easy to use products

Community Building . . 15 Networking is the key to the future Sponsored Supplement

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by Al Morasch

Community of Learners

Networking and the Internet:

How Students B W

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Illustration by Stanislaw Fernandes

ebster’s defines a network as a system of editing, student-to-student mentoring and tutoring, interrelated or interconnected elements. collaborative science and social studies projects, and There’s no definition yet for what’s hap- data collection and sharing. They search school pening to students who learn on a network, but this libraries for additional resources, and log on to the is how it might be defined: Networked district’s media center collection of learning, 1. a system for allowing laserdiscs, videos, CD-ROMs, and students to connect with and software to support their learnrelate to all the world’s ing projects. We’ve seen a available knowledge; 2. an direct, positive link absolute necessity for between students’ understanding today’s improved writing and global, knowledgeproject skills, and the based society. amount of interactivity Local area networks used in the instructional in schools, and even largapproach. Using the neter computer networks that work is allowing us to funspan school districts, offer damentally improve formal incredible learning potential for education, while breaking the the student. Add to that access to the barriers down to world class, lifelong largest of all networks, the Internet, and today’s stulearning. Networking places students in the driver’s dents have unlimited gateways to learning. seat, offering a position of power and personal initiaAs educators, we have a paramount responsibili- tive. Students define problems, gather data, commuty to work at providing the necessary network nicate with people previously inaccessible, and creinfrastructures. Not only is it important to stuatively produce representations of their learning. dents as learners, it’s their birthright as inheritors They’re in control of a highly sophisticated method of the Information Age. of synthesizing what they learn. It’s brain work. Networked CD-ROM software, for example, gives Using the Network. Students use local networks students a rich source of information, whether in the within the building and district for peer writing and form of an electronic encyclopedia, or curriculum-

based topics such as science, math, or social studies. Accessing information in this way is both exciting and motivational, and it’s raising their level of thinking. Tapping into the Internet. One of the most powerful

“networks” is the Internet. Education leaders across the country are working to gather the resources to

s Benefit Primary Functions of Networks Communications: Allowing students, teachers, and faculty to communicate with others in classrooms, schools, communities, states, or countries. Information Access: Allowing students to reach beyond the physical limitations of the classroom to obtain information relevant to their learning. This includes access to school library systems, CD-ROM databases, and information via the Internet stored on computers at any other networked location on the planet. Share Resources: Allowing students to access remote files, share and publish their classroom projects, access to printers, share files for collaborative projects, and use network modems or connections to online services and the Internet.

bring this tool into the schools. There is tremendous energy going into how to get it, who gets to use it, how to restrict portions of it, and how to manage it. There’s an explosion of publishing taking place on the World Wide Web, and students, schools, and districts are publishing their own home pages. (The Internet is basically text-oriented; the World Wide Web has graphics, sound, and video.) Yet few of us have had sufficient experience to fully document the genuine educational benefits. The student with access to the Internet can literally watch world events unfold before his or her eyes. Our students have done projects in which they conversed with other students in Israel during the Middle East War, had online classroom discussions

with survivors of the Holocaust, and collaborated with students from 150 schools representing 50 countries. Via the Internet, students can share experiences, collaborate on group projects, and even conference directly with experts. This type of learning challenges the student to be fully at his or her best. We’ve seen improved writing, research, and study skills, as well as a deep conscientiousness as students collaborate with peers in distant locations. The Teacher’s Role. It is critical that our students

become full members of this learning community. Allowing students to explore and create content will instill in them confidence in their own ability to direct inquiries, locate and evaluate new sources of information, and contribute original work to the global community of learners. A teacher’s skill in helping students to select a meaningful topic to research, analyze, and resynthesize is needed now more than ever. It takes a little flexibility, and it’s going to take initiative to break this new ground. ■ Al Morasch is director of instructional services at the Shoreline School District in Washington.

Funding the Network Shoreline School District, just north of Seattle, is a suburban district of 9,500 students. The district is fully networked with Apple products using fiber optic cabling for voice, video, and data. e took our goals for becoming a technology-infused school district to our community when we recognized that the benefits to teaching and learning with technology were real. They said,‘Go for it’ and they approved bond issues total-

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ing over $32 million. The State of Washington, through its Information Processing Cooperative, provides access to the Internet for 10,000 students and 1,000 teachers for a mere $4,500 for an entire year. That’s 45 cents a child.

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Going Online

The Internet is shining a new light on educational resources. In this next section, teachers tell you how it’s lighting up their classes.

Why We Use the Internet Creating Critical Consumers

“Koalaty” Learning

Stanley Johnson Jefferson Jr. High School, Washington, DC E-mail: Under construction, along with his house.

Kameron Conner, Rankin Elementary School, Tupelo, MS E-mail: [email protected]

Stan’s Favorite site: NBC News http://www.nbc.com

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Kameron’s Favorite site: Rainforest http://mh.osd. wednet.edu/

Photography by Greg Pease

“We’re still at the ooh and the aah stage,” says sciAs a fourth-grade teacher, Kameron Conner was surence teacher Stan Johnson, “but the bottom line is, prised to discover that her students didn’t know you still have to read when you get to that Web site.” much about Alabama, the “sister” state to their This is one of many messages Johnson delivers to native Mississippi. Conner, who now teaches second his students as they learn research skills and use the grade, started using her Macintosh LCII and the school’s 15-Macintosh InterInternet to link her students to net lab about once a week as real people and places in the “another tool in the arsenal.” United States via the online The nice thing about the travels of the class mascot, a Internet, he adds, is “it allows virtual teddy bear named them access to current inforKoala. Koala’s “hosts” are mation; it’s not dead.” asked to send e-mail describBeyond initial access, he ing their state, city, school or says, “I’m teaching them to workday before sending Koala be critical consumers of to another state. information, I’m trying to get Conner says the Internet them to the point where gives her another way of they can discriminate” the teaching her students geogJohnson’s students use the NBC News site information they need from raphy, and “it reinforces for because it’s “easy and graphical.” everything else. me that I can teach, and my Johnson keeps it simple, but he doesn’t take it students can and do learn, in different ways.” lightly. He says, “If our role is to help kids Making learning personal is an important tactic with assume leadership roles in a global setting, we far-reaching potential. “Maybe if this generation of stuneed to empower them to be literate in the tools dents can get to know more people,” Conner asserts, they’ll be using.” “some of the barriers in the world will dissolve.”

by I.B. Smith

Educators Speak Out About the Web Bullish on the Net

Close-up on the World

Joyce Perkins Hardin-Jefferson High School, Sour Lake, TX E-mail: [email protected]

Les Morse Juneau-Douglas High School, Juneau, AK E-mail: [email protected]

Joyce Perkins’s high school business students received $100,000 to play the stock market for 10 weeks last fall, and it probably would not have happened without the Internet. Perkins, a 1991 Christa McAuliffe Fellow and self-proclaimed Internet “junkie,” went online to ask if other educators had participated in the local stock market simulation, sponsored by the Houston Chronicle. One school responded with advice on the game. The Chronicle supplied daily newspapers for each of the nine teams in Perkins’s class, and the students used the Internet to get the most recent stock quotes, research companies, and check out the latest business headlines. “It’s relevant information and more exciting,” says Perkins. “We watched one stock go from 60 to 80 to 100 to 160 over a couple of days.” With the Internet, students who are choosing to buy and sell stock as part of the simulation “can keep a closer track” of that stock’s performance, she says. “It’s amazing,” says Perkins, “for business students to get these stock quotes minute by minute. They can do all types of math and futures calculations, and these are skills they are going to need for their future.”

Comparing the government of the United States to those of other countries is nothing new in high school history classes, but the shifting world climate means that the governments described in textbooks are not always the governments currently in power. No matter. Social Studies teacher Les Morse and his students use Macintosh computers to access the Internet and tap into governments worldwide. Morse’s seniors use the Internet to research a country’s constitution, and political and economic systems. “It’s quite a challenge,” Morse says. “Many constitutions and much information is available, but students sometimes run into language barriers.” If students are unable to find an interpreter on the school’s campus, they might turn to the CIA World Fact Book Internet site for a translation (although it is sometimes hard to access). Up-to-date information is the main reason Morse encourages his students to get online. Although they still rely on traditional research tools such as periodicals, almanacs, and articles, Morse says, “the Internet is a great source.” ■

Joyce’s Favorite site: Yahoo! http.//www.yahoo.com

Les’s Favorite site: Ireland http://www.rmii.com/mckinley/irish.html

I.B. Smith is a Senior Associate at the National Alliance for Restructuring Education in Washington, D.C.

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Going Online by Stan Solomon

Keeping an Eye on the Sites There are so many resources to mine on the Web, we’ve brainstormed with Stan Solomon, one of the original Web-explorers, to narrow the field for educators who want to get started. The following sites are certainly eligible for any teacher’s Top Ten Sites list. They’re interesting, useful, and definitely educational.

1 NASA, the National Air and Space Administration (http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/NASA_homepage.html) The ultimate site for anyone fascinated by space exploration! During shuttle missions check out “Today@NASA,” or visit “Space Science,” “Mission to Planet Earth,” or “Gallery,” with its searchable archive of photos plus movie and audio clips. Also check out the Project Galileo Home Page (www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/) to get the latest information, including images, from the unmanned spacecraft Galileo now orbiting cloud-shrouded Jupiter, hundreds of millions of miles from Earth.

2 The Smithsonian Institution (http://www.si.edu) Now celebrating 150 years dedicated to the “increase and diffusion of knowledge” the Smithsonian Institution is a world-class collection of museums, galleries, and other facilities worth a special visit to Washington, D.C. The Home Page provides an overview of 18 different museums and galleries, a listing of new exhibits at each, and just about anything else you want to know about the Smithsonian.

3 National Air & Space Museum (http://www.si.edu/organiza/museums/nasm/start.htm) Make a virtual visit to the most popular of the Smithsonian museums. View a clickable floor plan of the museum, learn about Einstein Planetarium shows and Langley Theater films, and find out about the museum’s education activities.

4 Dinosaurs at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History (http://rs6000.bvis.uic.edu:80/museum/Dna_To_Dinosaurs.html) Kids love dinosaurs, and this site is not just a Jurassic- but also a Triassic- and Cretaceous-Park with lots of sounds and animation. There are also links to other “dinomite” sites for further prehistoric exploration.

6 The Franklin Institute Science Museum (http://sln.fi.edu/tfi/welcome.html) Interactive exhibits like “The Heart: A Virtual Exploration,” a QuickTime movie tour of this famed Philadelphia museum, and inQuiry Almanack, the online magazine devoted to inquiry-based learning, all make this site a must-visit for both teachers and students.

7 Virtual Frog Dissection Kit (http://george.lbl.gov/ITG.hm.pg.docs/dissect/info.html) Students can explore frog anatomy without that nasty formaldehyde smell. After “removing” skin and internal organs and viewing online movies of actual dissections, they can click on “Reset” and put the little hopper together for a fresh start. And remember, by sparing a real frog you could be saving a prince!

8 Weather Photos from Space (http://vortex.plymouth.edu/usamap.html) Clicking on this map of the United States, Canada, and Mexico brings up actual satellite weather photos showing weather disturbances and weather data for that area. Students can see why some regions are “wet” and others “dry,” and understand the settlement patterns.

9 The Weather Underground (http://groundhog.sprl.umich.edu/) Radical! Not for any 60s political agenda but for its belief that the Web should be interactive and participatory, this University of Michigan-based site allows students to enter their own weather observations and compare them to those for any other place in the world. Besides its clickable weather maps and hot links to all sorts of weather-related sites, it maintains a “k12weather” listserver for educators involved in teaching weather-related and environmental issues.

10 Megamath 5 ExploraNet: The Exploratorium’s World Wide Web Server (http://www.exploratorium.edu/) Why is the sky blue and the sunset red? Visit this site’s “Science Snackbook” to get answers to this perennial question and to find instructions for replicating over 100 experiments from San Francisco’s famed hands-on science museum. You can also check out current Exploratorium exhibits, order from the Exploratorium Store, or experiment with online exhibits.

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(http://www.c3.lanl.gov/mega-math/) Wonderfully intriguing clickable titles like: “Machines that Eat Your Words,” “Algorithms and Ice Cream for All,” and “Welcome to the Hotel Infinity” are designed to appeal to the elementary-school users of this Los Alamos National Laboratory site which believes that mathematics is fascinating. Stan Solomon is a New York City school teacher.

by Jim Golubich

One Teacher’s Tour of the World Wide Web ive years ago, I hooked up a modem to the Mac in my classroom and took my students online. I couldn’t wait to see the looks on their faces when they were instantly connected to NASA, university libraries, and classrooms in far-off places. Exchanging e-mail with people in other countries, downloading space pictures, and retrieving articles from gopher sites was heady stuff. I couldn’t wait to let the revolution begin. The revolution started quietly with Kelly, a fourth grader, who was researching life in Israel. She was taking most of her information from reference books and encyclopedias. I suggested she post a “help” request for information online. Within a few days, Kelly met Max, a retired Israeli military officer in Tel Aviv. Max provided Kelly with a virtual visit to Israel, offering insights into local customs, daily activities, and perspectives on Israel that she never would have found through conventional resources. Kelly’s research suddenly “came alive” and became relevant to her. A deep connection was made. Now, as the Internet is increasingly used to tap into the myriad of treasures on the World Wide Web, the links and sources of direct learning have exploded. Even the most casual browsing reveals scads of great resources. This is the perfect arena for making education relevant to real life. Of course, not all of my experiences have been as smooth as Kelly’s e-mail exchange with Max.

Illustration by Stanislaw Fernandes

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There are some bumpy roads in this revolution: ■ I designed an introductory lesson in which the

class and I together would explore some of NASA’s rich sites, only to receive a cordial message that the site was currently too busy. Would we “please try again later.” ■ Students are not always amazed at what I’m

amazed about. I eagerly shared a few Civil War sites, and the feedback consisted of complaints that the sites were mostly text and the photos were only in “black and white.” ■ After an introduc-

tory lesson on how to create home pages, students showed much more interest in finding cool icons than in the actual contents of the page. There’s so much to mine on the Web that a teacher’s primary task is to help students sift through the glitz, steering them away from the “What’s cool?” The Web has the resources to engage students with compelling information and quality contents. It’s not as tidy as we teachers might like, but it is both real and here to stay. It remains for us, and our students, to craft the learning we can do there. ■ Jim Golubich is a elementary school teacher at the Shoreline School District in Washington. Sponsored Supplement

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Networking Workgroup technology is manageable and affordable, and it’s helping to enrich both the learning experiences of students and the professionial development of teachers through easy access to information.

Networking Success Stories: Outlines You Can Follow Losing Some “Wait” Classroom Networking: Cedar Ridge Elementary School (Waco Independent

Illustrations by Stanislaw Fernandes

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“Students are twice as interested in and enthusiastic about doing research since we installed the Library Research Server Bundle,” says Kenneth Collins, computer lab teaching assistant. “Presentation skills and the quality of student reports and research projects have all markedly improved. Using the networked CD resources, students now routinely incorporate higher quality content and visuals into their reports and papers and classroom projects.” Before the school installed a CD-

No more taking (slow) turns on the CD-software.

Tower, students had to take turns using the CD software. If one student was searching through a research program, every other student had to wait, and wait, and wait. What Channon Quillen, the district technology specialist, wanted was some way to turn those “waiters” into users. Even though Cedar Ridge is a small school—375+ students and 60+ computer workstations—Quillen says he “knew we could make better use of the school’s CD software resources by putting in some kind Apple Workgroup Server links of network.” computer lab with library, and a CDTower allows CD-ROM titles to be The CD-Tower enabled the comshared by many students at once. puters in the research lab/library

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Photography by Shelly Katz

School District, Waco, TX)

by Robert McCarthy

and the computer lab to access the schools’s CD collection simultaneously. For the students, the new networked technology means a much more productive usage of research time. A number of students can plug into the same encyclopedia, and simultaneously explore completely different routes to get the information they need.

Building Networking:

Photography by Seth Resnick

Wachusett Regional High

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Not in a Class by Itself

“Our next project will be to extend the network into every classroom in the building,” says Collins. “We’ve already knocked down the walls between the research lab/library and the computer/production lab. Our goal now is to knock down the walls separating the classrooms from our online CD-ROM resources.” ■

School (Holden, MA) “We’re bent on networking every single classroom in the building,” says Bob Trikakis, Wachusett Regional High School’s network manager. “Meantime, all our Mac labs are networked on a fiber-optic backbone into our media center, and from there out to the Internet. These labs include a math/science lab, a writing center, a graphics lab, a curriculum lab, a teachers’ lab, and even an office network.” From any of the five labs, students can call upon the resources of the media center, or use the media center to get onto the Internet where they gather the resources of the World Wide Web. “A student in the writing lab can use the network to call down

Students eagerly await the extension of e-mail.

to the math/science lab and pull up a science report he may be working on,” says Trikakis. “Then, if he needs additional data, he can go to the media center and tap into any CD-ROM.” When everything’s online and interconnected, collaboration is the name of the game. “Many times my graphics arts kids will assist other students with their multimedia projects,” Trikakis says. “There’ll be some sort of query on email—-and pretty soon a number of students are working together online, on the same project, from different computer stations. It’s sort of ‘virtual collaboration.’” That includes the teachers. Their lab has developed into what Trikakis calls “a hive of interconnectivity. You have teachers helping teachers develop better The media center is the hub of the lessons—or just working multilab network, which uses an Apple Workgroup Server, online card catalog, and together on new curriculum Apple Internet Solutions. ideas,” he says. ■ Sponsored Supplement

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Networking

Shrinking the District

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System-Wide Networking: Photography by George Hipple

North Platte Public Schools (North Platte, NE) This rural district of 11 schools with just 4,500 students spans an area of 43 square miles. It would take a full day to walk across the district. That’s a lot of open space in between schools. “To close those distances, we networked all 850 computers in all the schools,” says Chris Richardson, superintendent. “Then we took the schools and networked all of them. The district suddenly seems a lot smaller.” Each school building is serviced by a local area network; and each building is linked to all of the others by means of a wide area network. Teachers and administrators can share files, access data sources, and exchange e-mail from practically any Macintosh workstation at any location—and the networks also open a route to the Internet. Students can tap into online resources held in their own schools, or in any other school across the district, or go right out on to the World Wide Web. Already all of the district’s teachers and administrators have been assigned e-mail addresses and can easily communicate via internal email. “With email, communication begins to

Students share chemistry notes—across the district.

occur more often and gets much easier to accomplish,” Richardson says. Instead of pursuing each other with paper, or playing protracted telephone tag, teachers can use the e-mail system to hold virtual faculty meetings, or do curriculum-building online. “This is not just the world of theory, either. Our teachers have used that application to collaborate—in virtuality, as it were—on various curriculum documents. It’s all accomplished without paper, or messengers, or having to pick up the telephone, or even having to schedule times to meet face to face. The increases in efficiency and productivity, and teacher satisfaction, too, have been significant.” Across the district, the network is fast becoming an integral part of the curriculum for language arts, math, social studies, and even home economics. Students in chemistry classes, for instance, have been using the network to help each other conduct experiments, share results, store lab notebooks online, and even surf the Internet to do research. “What we’re looking at now is a burgeoning demand for computer access—especially as more and more students obtain e-mail addresses,” Richardson observes. “We see students as needing, and benefiting from, access to technology almost all of the time they’re in the school building.” ■

All schools linked together via Apple Workgroup Servers and software. Internet access is easy using Apple Internet Solutions.

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Robert McCarthy is a freelance writer based in West New York, New Jersey.

by Robert McCarthy

ONE TEACHER’S SCHOOLWIDE SUCCESS

Minds Online A building-wide network turns this sprawling high school of 3,000 students into one big (happy) classroom

Photography by Michael Peck

‘Weather’ may be one of the most common projects undertaken in a general science class, but for tenthgrade students at Smoky Hill High School who are networked and on the Internet, a project on weather changed the way they viewed the world. “You could feel the power of the network immediately from the very first class I taught where the kids had the access,” says Rich Maginn, Smoky Hill’s computer/science teacher. “As we worked on our weather project, I could really see the changes in the kids. Their perspectives altered. For the first time, they got a real sense that they were living on a planet and that every part affected every other part.” Weather Watch. Maginn’s students took part in a

world weather watch, where they tracked weather formations as it moved across the globe. Because they were networked to each other, and out into the Internet, each student could track different terrestrial locations, and call up photographic images from many of the Earth’s different satellites. They also learned about weather forecasting, interpreting barometric pressure readings and isobar symbols, and tracking satellites in geosynchronous orbits. They checked in daily with the National Weather Service to observe storm fronts shifting, captured and downloaded satellite pictures of the Earth’s surface, and sent messages to

Students at Smoky Hill High School (Aurora, Co.) have an online forum for discussion and project-sharing.

each other over the network with enthusiastic missives such as, “Hey, check out what’s happening in the South Pacific!” Sponsored Supplement 11

Networking

At Home on the Network. One of the best advantages to firing kids up about what they’re learning, Maginn says, is that “the classroom projects continue on after class most of the time.” That’s what happened when Maginn and 25 of his students decided to use their school’s interconnectivity to create a Home Page on the World Wide Web (http://www.smoky.ccsd.k12.co.us). In the best examples, a home page exhibits the personality of its address. Smoky Hill High School students created a home page that includes lists of students and teachers, the school newspaper, an activities calendar, and a parent newsletter. Anyone who logs onto the home page can submit questions, view a map of the school building, take a virtual tour of the

school, or call up specific information about each of the school’s academic departments. “This was a collaborative effort, where we worked together for months, ” Maginn says. “The students own this Web page, and that has a lot to do with its outstanding quality.” 12 Sponsored Supplement

Using various forms of media is nothing new to the students. Their Macintosh environment enabled them to use multimedia in their presentations and reports long before they went online. Maginn says that’s why ”they knew how they wanted it to look.” Forum of Expression. But nothing is more popular

on the Smoky Hill network than the school-wide e-mail system, known as SmokyNet. “The system was no sooner installed than 700 or 800 kids wanted immediate access and e-mail addresses,” Maginn says. For a $5 fee, students got the goahead to express themselves online. “We had an awful lot of interesting ideas being generated. Kids were defining their positions, then defending or modifying them based on how they challenged each other,” Maginn says. “In its first 50 days of operation, the Apple e-mail server delivered 23,513 pieces of e-mail to the network. Not even one glitch or crash. That’s pretty phenomenal reliability.” Classes have set up virtual conference areas and “chat rooms.” And Smoky Hill faculty has set up a three-session e-mail training class to ensure that the canons of good behavior still hold, even in cyberspace. These interschool, online forums include everything from writing projects on current events to describing the techniques of snowboarding. One of the most popular and hotly attended of the SmokyNet conference rooms features a dialogue on the role of religion in civic life. Topics under discussion include abortion, public prayer, bigotry, and religious freedom. “We have nearly 3,000 students. There are lots of wings, and floors, separate department areas, each with its own resource rooms....but with our interconnectivity it’s like we’re all in one big classroom,” says Maginn. “And nobody’s excluded. Participation can come from anywhere—maybe from the kid at the next computer, or maybe from someone on the other side of the world.” ■

by Jane Albertson

News from Apple

CUPERTINO, CA—More educators use Macintosh computers to publish to the Internet than any other platform. And, Apple’s new servers provide a costeffective, easy link for creating a presence on the Web.

Apple’s Newest Internet & Networking

Solutions Put Schools First owered by a new generation of servers, the Apple Workgroup Server 7250 and 8550, Apple Computer is leading the way with easy-to-use Internet and Networking solutions for schools. These new products offer outstanding network performance that allow a school to maximize their server investment and take advantage of new technologies to assist in the learning process.

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And these servers are Power Macintosh-based, the next generation of personal computers; however, they work with your existing software applications as well as applications designed for the Power Macintosh. In addition to the new hardware enhancements, the new servers also include a Workgroup Server Solutions CD that offers a broad range of management and administrative software

The introduction of these servers Apple Workgroup Servers: In addition to the existing, affordable represents Apple’s commitment to the Workgroup Server 6150 (right), Apple introduces the 7250 PCI (Peripheral Component Inter(left) and the 8550 (middle). connect) standard, which offers more flexibility and expansion capability than was previously possible. The PCI model lets to help schools efficiently operate their netusers add on cards that allow enhanced capabili- works. If purchased separately, this software ties in graphics, telecommunications, or storage. bundle would cost over $4,000, demonstrating Sponsored Supplement 13

News from Apple Apple’s commitment to high value and high performance in the new server line. Apple Networking Software Solutions

The new servers will be available with all Apple Education Networking Software Solutions. These include the Apple Internet Server Solution for publishing content on the World Wide Web; AppleShare for sharing files, printers, and applications; the Library Research Server Solution for accessing CD-based resources, and the Communications Solution for e-mail and elecThe Apple Internet Server Solution tronic bulincludes all the software needed to allow your school to easily publish letin board on the World Wide Web. exchanges. Two of these software solutions have been enhanced to better meet the needs of education. Apple Internet Solution for the WWW

The newest version of this software bundle includes Adobe Systems’ PageMill program, which lets schools create their own Web page,

and then automatically translates that material into Web code (HTML text) with a touch of a button. Teachers need not spend time programming in HTML in order for their home pages to be seen on the World Wide Web. The latest Internet Server Solution also features a RealAudio Server, allowing for “audio publishing” on the Web. Audio can be downloaded from the Internet, saved, and used in other applications. Additional software includes WebStar, NetScape Navigator, Acrobat Pro, MacDNS, AppleSearch, Server Stat, and more. AppleShare

Apple has also launched AppleShare 4.2.1, the most up-to-date enhancement of the AppleShare software. This easy-to-use network operating software provides seamless communication integration into the school network and allows users to share files, printers, and/or applications. AppleShare 4.2.1 allows as many as 250 concurrent users, compared to 150 allowed by the previous version. Additionally, AppleShare 4.2.1 supports up to 3,000 open files, nearly a tenfold increase above the 346 open files possible using 4.1. For more information on Apple products, call 1-800-800-APPL or on the Internet at: http://www.info.apple.com/education ■ Jane Albertson is a NY-based technology writer.

Server Specifics The 7250

The Workgroup Server 7250 combines fast connectivity and a processor speed of 120 MHz, and is configured with 16MB of RAM, 1.2GB on the hard disk, and a quad-speed CD-ROM drive. Three PCI slots are standard, and the new industrial design makes expansion easy. Designed for use in classrooms, small administrative networks or libraries, this low-cost PCI server is Apple’s most versatile Workgroup server.

14 Sponsored Supplement

The 8550

For networks requiring greater power and performance, Apple offers the Workgroup Server 8550, running on the RISC-based 604 (PowerPC) processor at a speed of 132 MHz, with 24MB RAM, three PCI slots, a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, and a full 2GB on the hard disk for greater storage capacity. Apple’s 8550 Server also offers automatic backup capabilities, with built-in DAT drives.

by Bonnie Bracey

Building the Community We’ve seen some compelling reasons for networking our schools and using the Internet. But how do we break out of the isolation of our ill-equipped classrooms and take advantage of the vast resources available to us? here’s nothing more compelling to me than Next, we need to learn together. When you learn to helping a student learn. That’s my motivadownload text, photos, graphics, video clips, doction for teaching, learning, using technology, uments, lessons, and sample software, you will surfing the Internet....whatever. understand why linking all classrooms across the My first project with students online in 1988 country has become a national priority. Last sumhooked me right from the start. A student of mine mer, more than 200 teachers from around the wrote an essay as part of a project on KidsNetwork, country talked, laughed, and learned together and won my first Macintosh for me. This child was online at sites ranging from New Mexico to New erroneously classified in special ed. What Jersey as part of the Online Internet Institute. empowerment the computer gave This is not just one workshop, but him, and how it helped me to comfortable sustained learning identify his particular style with real teachers who know 9 9.005430 5 7 1 of learning! Since then, teaching and technology. 3 3 I’ve made it my busiJoin our virtual faculty and 3 33 . ness to take my stulet us take you through 2 dents online. But not the learning process. enough of us have Looking ahead. We keep access to this greatest hearing about how in the of level playing fields. next millenium, information First things first. We need will be a primary product of leadership in our districts to lay value. Well, it’s not just informathe groundwork for our connectivity. tion that’s a primary product of value. Thus far, only a mere 3 percent of classrooms in our It’s education. Knowing how to learn is at a precountry have Internet access. The National mium, and the students who are learning how to Information Infrastructure Advisory Council has identi- build knowledge using vast resources of informafied electronic networking as the link to creating the tion are way ahead of the game. We need to set school of the future. They are lobbying to provide our national agenda to establish equal and teachers access to a broad array of online curricular affordable access for all children to the wealth of materials and innovative instructional approaches. The information in existence. We need to build this technology for providing schools access already exists. community together. ■ The costs of installing and supporting interconnectivity Bonnie Bracey is an Arlington (Va.) schoolteacher, would represent a small portion of the education budand a member of the National Information get; roughly 1.5% to 3.9% of the total K-12 budget durInfrastructure Advisory Council. Contact her at: ing the initial installation. By comparison, 1.3% of the BBracey @aol.com public K 12 budget is spent on technology today.

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Sponsored Supplement 15