The St. Petersburg Times
Tuesday, April, 18, 2000

Lone School Offers Benefits of Technology

By Vita Bekker
STAFF WRITER

As soon as the newcomers entered his classroom, a predatory glint appeared in Boris Dozoretc's eye. Grabbing his notepad and pen, Boris waited for his chance, and pounced.

"Can I have your e-mail address?" the 11-year-old asked one of the visitors, his hand ready to jot down information he would later put to use in practicing his new skills: using the Internet to meet people and search for information.

Boris and his classmates have the advantage of attending the International School of General Education, one of the only schools in St. Petersburg which offers new information technologies in its curriculum.

Teachers at the school use the Internet and multimedia resources, available in every classroom, to teach courses such as physics, history, culture and foreign languages.

Few schoolchildren in the city are that lucky. Experts say most elementary schools do not have access to the Web and are equipped only with old computers. The city administration is providing little financial help to improve conditions, they say.

"The main problem is that school administrators do not consider Internet access [for children] a priority, and simply misunderstand its importance in education," said Alexei Sigalov, of the George Soros - financed Open Society Institute.

Sigalov said that about five schools in St. Petersburg have unlimited Internet access, including school No. 239, which focuses on physics and mathematics, and the International School of General Education. The latter is financed by the Israeli government, and by the non-governmental technical training organization, World ORT Union, in an agreement with the local administration.

Sigalov is the director of the St. Petersburg Internet Project, an Open Society Institute program, which mainly provides Internet resources in the areas of culture, education and health care. The services go to 30 organizations, including the St. Petersburg State Medical University, the Russian Museum, the Russian National Library and the European University of St. Petersburg.

The project also envisages installing Internet access via leased lines in at least 40 city schools by the end of this year, and at least 200 by dial-up.

The $338,000-project includes financing from the Soros Foundation, the private funds of two Legislative Assembly deputies - money made available to all local lawmakers - World ORT Union, and several of the universities participating in the project.

The rest of the city's more than 600 elementary schools have to settle either for no Internet access at all, or for joining a network financed by the city administration.

According to Larisa Melikhova, coordinator of the school computer network in the institute, under the city government's scheme about 200 schools receive free e-mail access, while about 50 get discounted Web resources.

This means that accessing the net for 20 hours a month costs a school 1,000 rubles ($34) a year.

Although that's cheaper in comparison to the prices of commercial servers, Melikhova said the phone lines - there are five available - are often busy and the connection is slow.

"Many schools have bad equipment," she added, "some schools have only one computer on their premises, and there are schools whose computers are so old they can hardly be used for e-mail."

Melikhova said there are plans to improve the network, but that at least 50 more phone lines would be required.

Igor Bazlov, who works with information technology in the City Education Committee, defended the network, and said it was one of the first introduced in Russia to accommodate the need to keep up with online technology. He said more than half of St. Petersburg's schools were using the server.

Still, experts said that no one in the administration understands the importance of the Internet. For that matter, neither do the teachers, they said.

"Many teachers are not ready to work with the Internet, and are afraid that students will see this," said Valery Pianchenkov, director of Valo Consulting and an Internet expert.

Sigalov that said one of the main problems his school program will face that teachers will have to be trained en masse to use the Internet.

In the meantime, his organization offers free seminars on Internet use, free access daily, to anyone who wishes to sign up. Sigalov said that most îf the participants were teachers and students.

Among those children who do have Internet access, the fad is contagious.

At the International School of General Education, Boris' classmates spoke enthusiastically about the wonders of being surrounded by the World Wide Web.

"It's a good way to chat, and no can find out what you wrote," said Yanit Zhistanikova.

"It's a way for me to rest," Yanit's classmate, Diana Forshtein. "I read different things, like the news, and socialize with people."