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Motivation
In 1994 for many scientists it became clear that
Internet in general and WWW in particular will
revolutionize the way the people communicate and
share the knowledge. The vision of Global
Information Society, which will soon change many
aspects of our lives, was very real. On the
other hand giving people as many access
possibilities as possible and teaching them how
to use the network has been recognized as an
essential condition for the development of the
country, both in economical and social aspects.
In the course of intensive discussions, hold in
the physics community, several options have been
studied how the awareness of the network
possibilities and the basic knowledge of network
usage should spread into the widest circles of
the society. Finally it was decided that in the
Polish realities the most effective way is to
concentrate on the secondary schools (grades
9-12).
Goals
In the autumn of 1994 the group of 6 scientists
from the Faculty of Physics have designed and
implemented a simple and inexpensive technical
solution allowing to connect the school with the
Internet using a standard telephone line. In the
beginning of 1995 the Rector of the University
formally created the Programme "Internet for
Schools" (IdS). The "Internet for
Schools" Programme, apart from providing the
financially affordable physical connectivity of
schools with the Internet, assumed:
- universal
basic training in network usage;
- creation
and availability of Internet's didactic
content in Polish language;
- participation
in school to school [mainly
international] telematic projects.
Programme
realization
The "Internet for Schools" Programme
have been officially started on March 9th, 1995
when 17 schools have been connected in 4 cities.
In the end of 1998 there were approximately 1400 Internet
connected schools in more than 300 localities. Several
regional access nodes have been created.
Additionally 250 county
offices and 150 educational,
medical and artistic NGO's have been
connected.
Special
courses and textbooks have been
created, which allowed to train 1500 teachers,
who in turn trained approximately 150 000
students in their schools. A methodological
conference and various seminars for
teachers have been organized. Best Polish young
Internauts had a possibility to attend 3 vacation
camps in Kaletka, Zalesie and Bielsko Biala, where they
could listen to a series of lectures, take part
in various contents and master their skills in
hands-on exercises. More than 100 international
cooperation projects have been started, mainly in
frame of I*EARN, ThinkQuest, ESP and NASA K12
Programmes.
Programme
impact
Initially IdS gave schools free of charge: the
modem, the training of two teachers, a set of 5
textbooks and the disquettes with the Internet
related software. Additionally, by using a
call-back system each week the first 10 hours of
Internet connectivity have been free of charge.
The "Internet for Schools" Programme
have been enthusiastically accepted by the youth,
the main obstacle was the lack of know-how and
poor command of English of teachers. To overcome
this barrier a massive teacher training courses
have been organized during the summer of 1998.
The increasing number of teachers familiar with
the information technology encouraged the
Ministry of Education to start in 1998 their own
project "Internet in each County" and
later "Internet in each Gymnasium".
"Internet for Schools" Programme have
been financed mainly by the Stefan Batory
Foundation (Polish branch of the Soros Foundation). Some equipment
for the regional access nodes have been sponsored
by telecommunication and computer industry.
Governmental subsidy was only 6% of the total
funding.
In 1996 the international jury of the EC Global Inventory G7
Project awarded the
"Internet for Schools" Programme as the second
best European project in practical
implementation of the Global Information Society.
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