Throughout the school district over the next few months, we will all witness a major change in the way our computers work. A wide-area network, or WAN, will be added between the buildings to give everyone the ability to use resources in our schools. Some of these resources will include the Internet, an electronic card catalog, CD-ROM sharing, and E-Mail capability.
Currently, Denny Thompson, Dan Pautzke, and I, have been evaluating different E-Mail systems for the District. Our goal is to provide an easy-to-use, yet powerful application that both teachers and students will be able to use. We will try our best to keep it a system that will allow you to walk up to any machine and be able to get your E-Mail and personal address book right at that computer. Right now, we are evaluating QuickMail LAN, QuickMail Pro, FirstClass, and GroupWise.
Fed up with lock-ups? We are also evaluating FoolProof, which is a security application for both Macs and PCs. FoolProof lets students explore the actual Mac Finder or Windows Explorer, which will prepare the students for machines without protection, but keeps them from getting into critical areas such as the Control Panel and the Trash/Recycle Bin. Eventually, FoolProof will be installed on at least one machine in every school as a test to make sure it will suit our needs. When FoolProof was installed at the Junior High Technology Center on two Macs and two PC’s, we experienced less lock-ups on both platforms. FoolProof uses “Launcher”, which is built into Mac System, to launch applications in a way that is similiar to “At Ease”. The PC users can still use the Start Menu to launch programs.
Through our current projects, we are trying to come up with a solution that will best fulfill the needs of students and staff. It is our hope, in the Data Service Department, that everything will run smoothly and efficiently during the summer, to provide an up-to-date and speedy network for everyone. Have a great vacation, and we’ll see you back in September!
FAST FACT
Netscape 2.02 will run on a Macintosh LC with at least 8MB of RAM.