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
esearch has shown that effective learning involves students in an active role
R working on authentic tasks. Students connect with what they’re learning as
they collaborate, communicate, and build knowledge from many sources of infor-
mation. 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 stu-
dents and teachers are discovering and creating the information world. There
are high school students using e-mail to collaborate with one another on a pro-
ject 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
Photography by Danuta Otfinowski
who want high-power, high-value technology, combined with state-of-
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 (JGoodspeed@aol.com)
 Contents
March/April 1996
Supplement to Electronic Learning

Networking & Sponsored by Apple Computer, Inc.

online, from different

Students collaborate

computer stations.
the Internet
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 revo-
lution begin” by taking his students online

Networking Success . . . . 8
Class, building, and district networking sto-
ries 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 1
 by Al Morasch

Community of
Learners

Networking and the Internet:

How Students B
ebster’s defines a network as a system of editing, student-to-student mentoring and tutoring,

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@@
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@@
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

@@ÀÀ
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ÀÀ @@
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@@@@
€€€€
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students to connect with and software to support their learn-
relate to all the world’s ing projects. We’ve seen a
available knowledge; 2. an direct, positive link

Illustration by Stanislaw Fernandes

absolute necessity for between students’
understanding today’s improved writing and

@@@@
€€€€
ÀÀÀÀ
global, knowledge- project skills, and the
based society. amount of interactivity
Local area networks used in the instructional
in schools, and even larg- approach. Using the net-
er computer networks that work is allowing us to fun-
span 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 stu- learning. Networking places students in the driver’s
dents have unlimited gateways to learning. seat, offering a position of power and personal initia-
As educators, we have a paramount responsibili- tive. Students define problems, gather data, commu-
ty to work at providing the necessary network nicate with people previously inaccessible, and cre-
infrastructures. Not only is it important to stu- atively 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-

2 Sponsored Supplement
 based topics such as science, math, or social studies. with survivors of the
Accessing information in this way is both exciting and Holocaust, and collabo-
motivational, and it’s raising their level of thinking. rated with students
from 150 schools repre-
Tapping into the Internet. One of the most powerful senting 50 countries.
“networks” is the Internet. Education leaders across Via the Internet, stu-
the country are working to gather the resources to dents can share experi-
ences, collaborate on
group projects, and even conference directly with

s Benefit experts. This type of learning challenges the student

Primary Functions of Networks
Communications: Allowing students, teachers, and fac-
ulty to communicate with others in classrooms, schools,
communities, states, or countries.
Information Access: Allowing students to reach be-
yond 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 ser-
vices and the Internet.
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 resynthe-
size is needed now more than ever. It takes a little
flexibility, and it’s going to take initiative to break
this new ground. ■

bring this tool into the schools. There is tremen- Al Morasch is director of instructional services at the
Shoreline School District in Washington.
dous 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
Funding the Network
place on the World Wide Web, and students, Shoreline School District, just north of Seattle, is a
schools, and districts are publishing their own suburban district of 9,500 students. The district is
fully networked with Apple products using fiber optic
home pages. (The Internet is basically text-oriented; cabling for voice, video, and data.
the World Wide Web has graphics, sound, and
e took our goals for ing over $32 million.
video.) Yet few of us have had sufficient experience W becoming a technolo-
gy-infused school district to
The State of Washington,
through its Information
to fully document the genuine educational benefits.
our community when we Processing Cooperative, pro-
The student with access to the Internet can literal- recognized that the benefits vides access to the Internet
ly watch world events unfold before his or her eyes. to teaching and learning for 10,000 students and
Our students have done projects in which they con- with technology were real. 1,000 teachers for a mere
They said,‘Go for it’ and they $4,500 for an entire year.
versed with other students in Israel during the approved bond issues total- That’s 45 cents a child.
Middle East War, had online classroom discussions

Sponsored Supplement 3
Going Online The Internet is shining
a new light on educational
resources. In this next sec-
tion, teachers tell you how
it’s lighting up their classes.

Why We Use the Internet

Creating Critical Consumers “Koalaty” Learning

Stanley Johnson Kameron Conner,
Jefferson Jr. High School, Washington, DC Rankin Elementary School, Tupelo, MS
E-mail: Under construction, along with his house. E-mail: kconner@rankin.tupelo.k12.ms.us

“We’re still at the ooh and the aah stage,” says sci- As a fourth-grade teacher, Kameron Conner was sur-
ence 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 Inter- Internet 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

Photography by Greg Pease

them access to current infor- Koala. Koala’s “hosts” are
mation; it’s not dead.” asked to send e-mail describ-
Beyond 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 geog-
Johnson’s students use the NBC News site
information they need from because it’s “easy and graphical.” raphy, and “it reinforces for
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 stu-
need 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.”

Stan’s Favorite site: Kameron’s Favorite site:

NBC News Rainforest
http://www.nbc.com http://mh.osd.
wednet.edu/

4 Sponsored Supplement

Educators Speak Out
About the Web
Bullish on the Net
Joyce Perkins
Hardin-Jefferson High School, Sour Lake, TX
E-mail: jperkins@tenet.edu
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 hap-
pened 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 stu-
dents 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.”
Joyce’s Favorite site:
Yahoo! http.//www.yahoo.com
by I.B. Smith
Close-up on the World
Les Morse
Juneau-Douglas High School, Juneau, AK
E-mail: morsel@jsd.k12.ak.us
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 consti-
tution, and political and economic systems.
“It’s quite a challenge,” Morse says. “Many consti-
tutions and much information is available, but stu-
dents sometimes run into language barriers.” If stu-
dents 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.” ■
I.B. Smith is a Senior Associate at the National Alliance
for Restructuring Education in Washington, D.C.
Les’s Favorite site:
Ireland http://www.rmii.com/mckinley/irish.html
Sponsored Supplement 5
Going Online
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 cer-
tainly 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 explo-
ration! 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 space-
craft Galileo now orbiting cloud-shrouded Jupiter, hun-
dreds 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 facil-
ities worth a special visit to Washington, D.C. The Home
Page provides an overview of 18 different museums and gal-
leries, a listing of new exhibits at each, and just about any-
thing 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.
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 experi-
ment with online exhibits.
6 Sponsored Supplement
by Stan Solomon
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 muse-
um, 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 togeth-
er 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 weath-
er 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
(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.

One Teacher’s Tour
of the World Wide Web
ive years ago, I hooked up a modem to the
F 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
Illustration by Stanislaw Fernandes
reference books and ency-
clopedias. 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 perspec-
tives 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 explod-
ed. 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.
by Jim Golubich
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 mes-
sage 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 con-
sisted 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 actu-
al 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 7
 Networking
Workgroup technology is manageable and affordable, and it’s help-
ing to enrich both the learning experiences of students and the profes-
sionial 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

Photography by Shelly Katz

School District, Waco, TX)
“Students are twice as interested in and enthusiastic
about doing research since we installed the Library
Research Server Bundle,” says Kenneth Collins, com-
one

puter 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
No more taking (slow) turns on the CD-software.
quality con-
tent and visu- Tower, students had to take turns using the CD soft-
als into their ware. If one student was searching through a
Illustrations by Stanislaw Fernandes

reports and research program, every other student had to wait,

papers and and wait, and wait. What Channon Quillen, the dis-
classroom trict technology specialist, wanted was some way to
projects.” turn those “waiters” into users. Even though Cedar
Before the Ridge is a small school—375+ students and 60+
school in- computer workstations—Quillen says he “knew we
stalled a CD- could make better use of the school’s CD software
resources by putting in some kind
Apple Workgroup Server links
computer lab with library, and a CD-
of network.”
Tower allows CD-ROM titles to be The CD-Tower enabled the com-
shared by many students at once.
puters in the research lab/library

8 Sponsored Supplement

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.
Not in a Class by Itself
Building Networking:
Wachusett Regional High
School (Holden, MA)
“We’re bent on networking every single class-
room in the building,” says Bob Trikakis,
Wachusett Regional High School’s network man-
ager. “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
The media center is the hub of the
multilab network, which uses an Apple
Workgroup Server, online card catalog, and together on new curriculum
Apple Internet Solutions.
by Robert McCarthy
“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 com-
puter/production lab. Our goal now is to knock
down the walls separating the classrooms from
our online CD-ROM resources.” ■
two
Photography by Seth Resnick
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 cen-
ter 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 stu-
dents with their multimedia projects,” Trikakis
says. “There’ll be some sort of query on e-
mail—-and pretty soon a number of students are
working together online, on the same project,
from different computer stations. It’s sort of ‘vir-
tual collaboration.’”
That includes the teachers. Their lab has
developed into what Trikakis calls “a hive of
interconnectivity. You have teachers helping
teachers develop better
lessons—or just working
ideas,” he says. ■
Sponsored Supplement 9
Networking

Shrinking the District three

System-Wide Networking:
North Platte Public Schools

Photography by George Hipple

(North Platte, NE)
This rural district of 11 schools with just 4,500 stu-
dents 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 dis-
Students share chemistry notes—across the district.
tances, we networked all 850 computers in all the
schools,” says Chris Richardson, superintendent. occur more often and gets much easier to accom-
“Then we took the schools and networked all of plish,” Richardson says. Instead of pursuing each
them. The district suddenly seems a lot smaller.” other with paper, or playing protracted telephone tag,
Each school building is serviced by a local area teachers can use the e-mail system to hold virtual fac-
network; and each building is linked to all of the oth- ulty meetings, or do curriculum-building online.
ers by means of a wide area network. Teachers and “This is not just the world of theory, either. Our
administrators can share files, access data sources, teachers have used that application to collabo-
and exchange e-mail from practically any Macintosh rate—in virtuality, as it were—on various curricu-
workstation at any location—and the networks also lum documents. It’s all accomplished without paper,
open a route to the Internet. Students can tap into or messengers, or having to pick up the telephone,
online resources held in their own schools, or in any or even having to schedule times to meet face to
other school across the district, or go right out on to face. The increases in efficiency and productivity,
the World Wide Web. and teacher satisfaction, too, have been significant.”
Already all of the district’s teachers and administra- Across the district, the network is fast becoming
tors have an integral part of the curriculum for language arts,
been assigned math, social studies, and even home economics.
e-mail Students in chemistry classes, for instance, have
addresses and been using the network to help each other conduct
can easily experiments, share results, store lab notebooks
communicate online, and even surf the Internet to do research.
via internal e- “What we’re looking at now is a burgeoning
mail. “With e- demand for computer access—especially as more
mail, commu- and more students obtain e-mail addresses,” Richard-
nication son observes. “We see students as needing, and ben-
begins to efiting 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 Robert McCarthy is a freelance writer
Internet Solutions. based in West New York, New Jersey.

10 Sponsored Supplement
 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
‘Weather’ may be one of the most common projects
undertaken in a general science class, but for tenth-
grade students at Smoky Hill High School who are
networked and on the Internet, a project on weath-
er changed the way they viewed the world.
“You could feel the power of the network immediate-
ly 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,

Photography by Michael Peck

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 satel-
lites. They also learned about weather forecasting,
interpreting barometric pressure readings and iso-
bar symbols, and tracking satellites in geosyn- Students at Smoky Hill High School (Aurora, Co.) have
an online forum for discussion and project-sharing.
chronous orbits. They checked in daily with the
National Weather Service to observe storm fronts each other over the network with enthusiastic
shifting, captured and downloaded satellite pic- missives such as, “Hey, check out what’s happen-
tures of the Earth’s surface, and sent messages to ing in the South Pacific!”

Sponsored Supplement 11
Networking
At Home on the Network. One of the best advan-
tages to firing kids up about what they’re learn-
ing, 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 interconnec-
tivity 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 creat-
ed a home page that includes lists of students and
teachers, the school newspaper, an activities calen-
dar, 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 presenta-
tions 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 go-
ahead to express themselves online.
“We had an awful lot of interesting ideas being gen-
erated. 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 every-
thing 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, big-
otry, 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 class-
room,” 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 cost-
effective, 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, And these servers are Power Macintosh-based,

P the Apple Workgroup Server 7250 and

8550, Apple Computer is leading the
way with easy-to-use Internet and Networking
the next generation of personal computers; how-
ever, they work with your existing software
applications as well as applications designed for
solutions for schools. These new products the Power Macintosh.
offer outstanding network perfor- In addition to the new
mance that allow a school to maxi- hardware enhancements,
mize their server investment and the new servers also
take advantage of new technologies include a Workgroup Server
to assist in the learning process. Solutions CD that offers a
broad range of management
and administrative software

The introduction of these servers Apple Workgroup Servers:

represents Apple’s commitment to the In addition to the existing, affordable
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 net-
users 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 per-
formance 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 publish-
ing content on the World
Wide Web; AppleShare for
sharing files, printers, and
applications; the Library
Research Server
Solution for access-
ing CD-based
resources, and the
Communications
Solution for e-mail
and elec-
The Apple Internet Server Solution
includes all the software needed to tronic bul-
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,
Server Specifics
The 7250
The Workgroup Server 7250 combines fast connectiv-
ity and a processor speed of 120 MHz, and is config-
ured with 16MB of RAM, 1.2GB on the hard disk, and
a quad-speed CD-ROM drive. Three PCI slots are stan-
dard, and the new industrial design makes expansion
easy. Designed for use in classrooms, small adminis-
trative networks or libraries, this low-cost PCI server
is Apple’s most versatile Workgroup server.
14 Sponsored Supplement
and then automatically translates that material
into Web code (HTML text) with a touch of a
button. Teachers need not spend time program-
ming in HTML in order for their home pages to
be seen on the World Wide Web.
The latest Internet Server Solution also fea-
tures a RealAudio Server, allowing for “audio
publishing” on the Web. Audio can be down-
loaded 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 inte-
gration into the school network and allows users
to share files, printers, and/or applications.
AppleShare 4.2.1 allows as many as 250 concur-
rent users, compared to 150 allowed by the pre-
vious version. Additionally, AppleShare 4.2.1 sup-
ports up to 3,000 open files, nearly a tenfold in-
crease 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.
The 8550
For networks requiring greater power and perfor-
mance, Apple offers the Workgroup Server 8550,
running on the RISC-based 604 (PowerPC) proces-
sor 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 class-
rooms 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

T helping a student learn. That’s my motiva- download text, photos, graphics, video clips, doc-
tion 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 sum-
hooked 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
9
9.005430
identify his particular style with real teachers who know
of learning! Since then, 1 7 5 teaching and technology.
I’ve made it my busi- 3 3 Join our virtual faculty and
3
. 33
ness to take my stu- 2 let us take you through
dents online. But not the learning process.
enough of us have
access to this greatest Looking ahead. We keep
of level playing fields. hearing about how in the
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 informa-
the 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 pre-
country 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 informa-
fied 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
would represent a small portion of the education bud- Bonnie Bracey is an Arlington (Va.) schoolteacher,
get; roughly 1.5% to 3.9% of the total K-12 budget dur- and a member of the National Information
ing the initial installation. By comparison, 1.3% of the Infrastructure Advisory Council. Contact her at:
public K 12 budget is spent on technology today. BBracey @aol.com

Sponsored Supplement 15