Subject: n-1-4-020.04 The Icelandic Educational Network - ISMENNT Art St. George 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. 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. 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. School paper. Students in the northern Iceland collected articles together and published a school paper for the area. 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.