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n-1-4-020.04a
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Subject: n-1-4-020.04
The Icelandic Educational Network - ISMENNT
Art St. George
<stgeorge@bootes.unm.edu>
The use of computer communication has been growing rapidly for
the past 2-3 years in Iceland. New steps are taken to make it
easier and less expensive for Icelandic schools to use computer
communication.
It began in Kopasker, a tiny village in north-east Iceland, when
the schoolmaster of the primary school there, Petur Thorsteinsson,
became interested in computer communication. He first used
the computer center of the University of Iceland, Reykjavik,
but it was too expensive. The telephone bills grew rapidly
each time he connected, and the same did the online charge.
Finally, he realized that this was an expensive method for him
and for other schools with tight financial budgets. The only
reasonable solution would be a computer center for Icelandic teachers,
owned and operated by the teachers themselves.
Thornsteinsson decided to establish his own center. The presumption
was that the center would be UNIX-based and linked to the Internet, but
that the schools must be able to use the hardware they already have.
He wanted a friendly user interface where users should not have to know
a single Unix command to use it. He also wanted to make sure that
the center supervisor would visit every single school that connects to
the network, to help people in the start and make sure that the equipment
and connections work. Finally, he wanted a system where the cost was
low, communication to remote schools was provided and, most important,
a center where atmosphere of cooperation and mutual aid would prevail within
the usergroup.
In the schoolyear 1990-1991 the connections grew and in the
spring 1991 over 50 educational institutions where connected
to the center. These institutions are from various places in
Iceland. Over 170 user ids were actively used and in March and
April 1991 over 5000 calls were made to the center.
In March 1992 over 100 educational institutions were
connected to the center and Petur had visited almost all of them.
Petur's center was an experiment from the beginning but obviously
very successful. Last spring the demo period was over and a decision
was made to establish a network with 3 real computers, located in Kopasker,
Akureyri (north coast) and Reykjavik (the capital, south-western coast).
The Icelandic Educational Network (ISMENNT) is now an
TCP/IP based network of 3 HP 9000/700 workstations, linked
by dedicated high speed lines, to each other and to the
Internet backbone of Iceland.
Teachers access the computers via modems, either through X.25
or normal telephone lines. Standard communications programs
are used, and ISMENNT can be accessed from most types of
computers.
The interface is menu based, but uses traditional,
public-domain Unix-programs, like 'elm', 'nn' and, more
recently, 'gopher', a data search tool. Shell scripts
facilitate postings of documents written on the home computer,
and transfers of documents between the network and home
computers.
Teachers have used ISMENNT to discuss the curriculum,
teaching, exchange views, the use of computers in education,
make poems and just chat. Both students and their teachers have
taken part in various projects. I will just mention few.
<BULLET>Birds. Students observed migratory birds when they came to Iceland
in the spring. They went outside and looked for birds and sent
notes of what they saw. In the classroom they studied the
birds they saw. The children thought it was very exciting to
see when the birds came to the south coast and see how long
it took them to get to other parts of the country.
<BULLET>Weather. Students observed the weather and sent information about
the weather at their school. Then they compared their weather with
the weather at other places and studied why it was different.
<BULLET>School paper. Students in the northern Iceland collected articles
together and published a school paper for the area.
<BULLET>Volcanoes. Students in Hawaii and in Iceland compare notes
about volcanoes in both countries.
Iceland is an island with only 260.000 inhabitants, located in the
North Atlantic ocean, far away from the rest of the world.
Computer communication opens a new dimensions for our schools.
The teachers can cooperate with other teachers, both in the country
and nearly everywhere in the world. It is often very expensive and
impossible for us to participate in what other nations are doing.
With computer communication the world seems smaller, we feel closer to the
world and we feel much stronger that we are part of a bigger
community, the world.