Industry helps schools get online
German students are set to benefit from the Internet revolution, thanks to an injection of cash from ISP AOL.
AOL announced at the CeBIT conference, on Wednesday, that it plans to give free accounts to 44,000 schools and 900,000 teachers. It is seen as part of AOL's plan to dominate in Europe, and follows a similar announcement from Deutsche Telekom earlier this month.
AOL Europe president Andreas Schmidt believes the move will be a big step towards wiring the youth of Germany. "AOL's new school initiative is the biggest step ever to catapult Germany into the Internet age," he said.
It's not just the German government that is keen to get schools wired. In the UK, the government is offering a £500 discount to teacherrs buying PCs from a list of approved suppliers. One of these -- Tiny Computers -- has sold over 2,000 systems in the last month.
Teacher Melissa Huxford is delighted with the scheme. "I used to stay late after school to prepare work for my lessons, but now there's no need to as I can work from home. Having an up-to-date PC is very important for me because I can go through what I am going to teach and make sure it actually works," she said.
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