ACADEMICS were the first group to recognise the Internet's potential and bring it out of the shadow of the Cold War for widespread use. As it became easier to use and richer in content over the last 10 years, it became obvious that the network had a lot to offer to second level, and primary schools as well.
The ability to communicate with fellow students across countries and across the world, to download educational software and to access a huge range of information, make it a natural asset for schools. And as the western world moves ever more towards an information economy, where jobs depend on using bits rather than atoms, it is crucial for students to be familiar and comfortable with information technology.
Free offers
Irish schools are a step closer to getting on the Internet, now that the two largest service providers are offering them free access. Ireland On Line's offer was matched at the recent education show in Dublin by Indigo, in partnership with Microsoft Ireland and the National Information Technology in Education Centre (NITEC).
Both are offering schools free Internet access, which would normally cost £10 plus VAT per month (although Indigo has a start up offer for home users of £25 registration with no monthly fees for this year). They are also offering schools free access software and technical support in getting connected and in constructing Web pages (see panel).
Cynics might say the service providers are carrying their rivalry into the classroom, to make the next generation of consumers familiar with their companies. Educational access has become a political football in the US, where the federal government has defended the billions it made from auctioning a public resource (sections of the radio broadcast spectrum) by saying some of the money would go to networking schools. In Britain, British Telecom has offered to connect up all schools without charge - but only if the government removes the legal ban on it using its network to distribute entertainment services.
The Irish offer seems to have plenty of genuine enthusiasm for the usefulness of the Internet as an educational tool.
"It's my own background, and where I started out [in online services]," says Colm Grealy, managing director of Ireland On Line (IOL). As a teacher in special education, he saw deaf children using e mail in a school in Wales. They explained that they loved it because it was the only medium of communication that they could use where the other person didn't know they were deaf ... with e mail it didn't matter."
That encounter sparked an interest that led him into IOL. From the beginning, he says, IOL has been committed to making the technology as widely available as possible to the disadvantaged. This culminated in the recent offer of free access to schools and libraries.
Ann Riordan, country manager for Microsoft Ireland, says the joint offer with NITEC and Indigo has not come out of the blue. "Each individual organisation had been exploring what we could do in the educational market" for some time. She says the offer is not a once off deal, and there will be a follow up next month, offering "courseware" for teachers and other educational materials.
Indigo's managing director, Michael Branagan, said last week that over 100 schools had been in contact with Indigo, not counting others who had gone directly to NITEC.
Based at Dublin City University, NITEC was set up eight years ago at the request of the Department of Education, as part of an EU initiative to foster the use of information technology in schools. Until recently, its services were all text based and involved e mail, access to databases and electronic connection to the CAO system.
It also distributes software such as career guidance programs, and co ordinates participation in international projects like the young reporters for the environment, where students gather environmental information. From an initial eight schools in 1988, the number of schools registered with NITEC has grown to almost 400.
Some observers, however, say the number of regular users is much lower, partly due to the text based interface. With access to the Internet and its graphical area, the World Wide Web, the text only interface will change.
New services
"Initially we would see that schools on the NITEC network would be the first to take part," Sean Dower of NITEC says, adding that the involvement of Indigo and Microsoft will allow them to offer an all in one access package to schools.
NITEC plans to pilot a range new services on the World Wide Web this month, including links to educational sites worldwide and pointers to a large amount of educational information already hosted by NITEC.
Ireland On line already has a large amount of educational material online, including links to Irish schools' home pages and the EdNet section. These were put together with the advice of a committee of teachers. EdNet will eventually be housed on its own server, so that it is effectively separate from the rest of the Internet. This is a precaution against the fact that some material on the Net is not suitable for school students because of nudity or crude language. Also, some US student oriented sites have suffered from intrusions by paedophiles masquerading as children to get access to discussion areas.
Schools will be given two separate logons and passwords by Ireland On Line, one restricted to EdNet and the other (intended for use only under supervision) will give a full Internet connection.
"At the end of the day, teachers will be responsible," says NITEC's Sean Dower. "We will see what help we can give them in this."
But not all schools have computers, and those that do in many cases have older machines like BBC micros which will not easily run Internet software. Even with an adequate computer, a modem costs another £100 plus and then there are the peak rate phone charges.
Schools which are larger and better funded (by parents) may be able to afford the costs, but disadvantaged and smaller schools will not. Just as some observers predict a new gulf between "information rich" and "information poor" countries, some schools could have their disadvantage compounded if they cannot take part in networking opportunities.
Phone costs
The service providers and their partners recognise the problem and they have similar approaches. On hardware, NITEC says it will encourage companies and others to sponsor computers for schools. IOL's Colm Grealy makes the point that many companies, after upgrading PCs to run Windows 95, may have 386 or even 486 based PCs they no longer use. If companies would pass these on to schools the schools in turn might repay the favour by helping the company to design its Web pages, for example. Ultimately, all the parties would like to see computers supplied to schools by the Department of Education, which has been supplying increasing numbers in recent months.
Michael Branagan says telephone charges are outside of Indigo's control, but that approaches have been made to Telecom Eireann to offer schools cheap or free access. NITEC has also lobbied on this.
Ireland On Line has put it to Telecom that in response to the huge amount of business generated by callers to Internet service providers (see Modem World) the company could make a gesture by providing schools with free lines and free calls, even if these were restricted so that they could only be used to access the Internet.
The issue is also live in the Dail. In the debate on the white paper on Education last November, Fianna Fail's education spokesman, Micheal Martin, complained that information technology hardly figured in the document. "Under the next Fianna Fail government we will ensure that the schools network will be upgraded so that every school will have access to the Internet and World Wide Web," he said.
He said last week he was close to completing a party policy document on information technology in education. This is a priority, since "we're behind other countries in terms of IT and access to the Internet [in schools]".
Telecom Eireann's press officer Padraig Corkery says: "We haven't made any firm decision [on call rates for schools]. We are looking at it."
Telecom Eireann is currently carrying out a survey of what facilities and equipment schools have, and whether they are on the Internet. "At the moment we are gathering information to see how `computer scoped' secondary schools and primary schools are.
The Department of Education and Telecom Eireann are both looking at the issue. The next logical step is up to them.