October 5, 1999 Web posted at: 10:11 a.m. EDT (1411 GMT) by Ed Scannell

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(IDG) -- What started seven years ago as a project to establish a collaborative learning environment among elementary school students and their teachers has blossomed into a network that has created closer educational and cultural bonds across the community of Lemon Grove, Calif.

Via a high-speed network and a Windows-based, thin-client implementation, Project LemonLink links teachers, students, and parents in this low-income community nine miles outside of San Diego.

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"What we think is unique here is that the technology is used throughout the school district by all levels of employees, whether they are teachers, the superintendent, or the custodian. All of us now use a computer for our work, which has created a common culture across our district," says Barbara Allen, director of Project LemonLink.

But the project's positive results in the classroom quickly led to the development of an intranet that also tied in city government, local libraries, parochial schools, and community centers, such as teen and senior centers, thereby essentially giving the community around-the-clock access to a variety of Web-based applications and services.

Like most school districts, Lemon Grove has never had unlimited funds to spend on technology. Consequently, the project team decided it needed a centralized network, which would be much cheaper to maintain and support.

The Hybrid Wireless Fiber Network, which currently supports up to 200Mbps links, uses point-to-point microwave links and fiber-optic technologies to tie all sites across the community back to the town's technology center.

With cost as a major consideration, the team decided to adopt a thin-client strategy, believing it would save not only on up-front costs but also on the associated long-term maintenance and support costs.

The technology center has a server farm of 25 to 30 Compaq servers, which run Microsoft's Windows NT and Windows Terminal Server, and Citrix's MetaFrame 1.8. The team bought two Cisco 6509 routers to serve as the communications backbone connecting its remote LAN links to the servers.

For desktops in the classroom, the team bought a combination of Pentium II 400-MHz multimedia-ready Compaq PCs, running Windows 95 and Office 97, and WinTerm 3350 Windows terminals from Wyse Technology. A typical classroom has four high-powered workstations and eight to 12 Wyse thin clients.

"We took a look at other technologies, but Windows servers and thin clients were easily the best solution. We needed something easy and cost-effective to maintain," says Darryl LaGace, IS director at the Lemon Grove school district.

The savings were significant enough that the team was able to buy more clients, and it currently has one PC or thin client for every four students. This high ratio has resulted in greater interaction among students, who teach each other how to use the technology as well as about their academic subjects, thus aiding the education process.

Allen and LaGace say the return on their technology investment is already paying dividends. Not only have students become more productive through greater collaboration in the classroom and the ability to continue classroom projects at home, but there has also been significant cost savings associated with Wyse's thin clients.

Bolstered by their success, Allen and LaGace will now push to expand the network's reach to many more families. They hope to bring online every family that wants to be online, as well as all other government agencies, within three years.

Ed Scannell is an InfoWorld editor at large based in Framingham, Mass.