With the new system, teachers spend less time searching for vanished files and students get greater access to their homework

September 26, 1999
Web posted at: 7:55 p.m. EDT (2355 GMT)

From Correspondent Deborah Feyerick

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Taking part in a pilot program that could revolutionize education, Intermediate School 381 in Brooklyn has replaced personal computers with a single network server, which could change the way students read, write and research.

The new system gives greater access to the Internet and allows students to access their work from any workstation at school, just by inserting a card key.

"I think it's faster than my computer at home," said sixth- grader Jenny Kwok.

Students in San Francisco and Georgia are also testing the system, which consists of separate monitors, keyboards and boxes -- no hard drives -- all monitored from a single teacher's station.

The arrangement means schools can modernize their technology more efficiently. "Everything that's upgraded is upgraded in a central location so schools will no longer have to upgrade PCs and individual systems in the classroom," said Kim Jones, a representative with Sun Microsystems, which created the server. "Everything will be done in one location."

Students use cards to access their lessons from any school computer

It also discourages tampering and means teachers spend less time searching for students' vanished files and fixing crashed hard drives.

"You can never break it, so you can't press something wrong," said one student.

At $400 each, the new units costs a third of the price of personal computers. And while students gain greater access to the Internet, teachers gain greater access to the students.

"We can access it through the teacher's station, if a child looks like they're doing something they're not supposed to be doing," said teacher Joyce Jacovetti.

Sun Microsystems thinks the technology will give serious competition to the personal computer. Unlike PCs, the Sun network can allow users to access personal files from anywhere in the world.

Students may never be more than a phone call away from logging on and catching up on homework.

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