By Shari Kaplan
When NetDay '96 arrives March 9, Los Gatos students will be wired--literally.
On that date, which President Clinton designated a national event, more than a dozen Los Gatos public and private schools will join thousands of other schools nationwide getting connected to the Internet and World Wide Web, and thus, the world.
NetDay '96 is unique in that there is no central office, phone number or paid staff planning it; it exists solely via a home page on the World Wide Web that is connected to a plethora of other information-laden pages. A small team of volunteers from California high-technology firms maintains and updates the Web site in their free time.
Santa Clara-based Smart Valley Inc. will be heading a local NetDay spin-off called SmartSchools, a collaborative effort among 60 Silicon Valley companies, the San Jose Education Network, the Santa Clara and San Mateo County Offices of Education and parents, teachers and community volunteers.
These participants, as well as independent volunteers, will use the plans and basic equipment found in special NetDay '96 kits to achieve the day's goal of wiring at least five classrooms and one library or computer lab in each school. The materials required have been simplified down to electric cables, a patch panel to be installed at a central point and two electronic information ports for each of the classrooms and the library or lab.
Local and statewide companies and individuals sponsor participating schools, which otherwise might not have been able to afford the time and equipment necessary to upgrade so many classrooms.
Participating local schools listed on the NetDay '96 Web page include, from the Los Gatos Union School District, Blossom Hill, Daves Avenue, Fisher, Lexington and Van Meter schools; Loma Prieta and C.T. English schools in the Loma Prieta Joint Union School District; Lakeside Elementary; Los Gatos High School; and private schools Hillbrook, Mountain Bible Christian, St. Mary's and Yavneh Day School.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, March 6, 1996.
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