Global SchoolNet's roots can be traced back to that summer of 1984. The 
Internet was not yet fully realized. Apple computers dominated 
classrooms.if there were computers at all. Teachers were just beginning to 
use computers in the teaching environment, but educational software was 
not well developed. The importance of computers in education was never in 
question. The predominant question was .How do I successfully integrate 
computers with curricula?. Al Rogers and Yvonne Andres had an answer.

In the summer of 1984, Al Rogers worked for the San Diego County Office of 
Education as a Computer Coordinator. Rogers, a 20-year veteran teacher, 
was interested in how educational software was being developed. He was 
especially fascinated with developing effective teaching methods for 
writing. Yvonne Andres was a middle school teacher and Title I coordinator 
in the Oceanside School District and was seeking innovative ways to 
improve student literacy skills and to help her students develop an 
awareness of the world beyond their local neighborhood. It was obvious to 
both Rogers and Andres that the computer could play a powerful role in 
improving student literacy.

Because commercial word processors were awkward to use and did not address 
any issues regarding a good writing program, Rogers developed Free 
Educational Writer (FrEdWriter). This application would become the first 
in a suite of tools that Rogers would create to support effective writing 
instruction. FrEdWriter introduced the concept of Prompted Writing and 
enabled teachers to focus on the development of effective writing 
instruction. Because FrEdWriter was free, schools were able to design a 
writing program without worrying about software budget limitations.

A good writing program also requires an audience beyond the teacher. Thus 
the idea of telecommunication was introduced. Most methods of connecting 
computers between schools were too inconvenient or complex. This prompted 
Rogers and Andres to explore bulletin boards.

One of the commercial products that he evaluated was FidoNet. Once again, 
the program was too complex for the school environment. Also, it was IBM 
based. Schools were equipped with Apple IIs, not IBMs. So they developed 
Free Educational Mail (FrEdMail), an Apple II.based networking 
application. This was a tool created by a teacher for teachers. The 
technical strength of FrEdMail lay in the fact that the program did not 
require any special technical skills or knowledge to operate, which 
addressed a key concern.the system operators (sysops) were most likely 
English teachers, science teachers, and elementary school teachers. These 
sysops were also the moderators in the classroom.determining what was 
appropriate to post or censor.

In 1985, Al Rogers set up the first FrEdMail network. Composed of five 
systems in different schools, it was administered by teachers. FrEdMail 
proved to be an effective way to encourage students to write and 
participate in a cooperative learning environment. The network expanded 
slowly at first, primarily through word of mouth and personal contacts 
made at conferences. In 1986, FrEdMail systems were set up in 
Philadelphia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, and Puerto Rico. 
Eventually this grassroots movement would spur the network to grow from 5 
San Diego schools to 200 and, eventually, to 350 nodes with a total of 
12,000 participating schools and 350 worldwide Internet evangelists.

FrEdMail encouraged one-to-one correspondence. However, good writing 
instruction is not born out of pen-pal correspondence. FrEdMail enabled 
schools to overcome distance and create an online environment. It 
encouraged students to write because students were more willing to write 
for a sympathetic audience, and this generated wonderful grist for 
reading. Three successful online learning projects were NewsDay, 
Tele-Field Trips, and GeoGame.
 
GSN's NewsDay was based on a number of predecessors, including the early 
Computer Chronicles (1981.1983) and the London Times Newsday project. GSN 
adopted, blended, and adapted the ideas and developed its own curriculum 
to support it. NewsDay became a biannual favorite. For this project, 
classes posted ten articles each on the NewsDay newswire service. Students 
spent two weeks acting as reporters for their local areas, states, and the 
nation. Each class picked the ten best news articles for posting. For the 
two or three days following Newsday, the students at each site downloaded 
articles, read, selected, and edited them. Then, they assembled and 
published their own newspaper, which they mailed to all the participating 
sites.

Another FrEdMail project was Tele-Field trips. Teachers submitted a list 
of places that their classes would visit during the school year. Every 
three or four weeks, FrEdMail administrators published a database of these 
destinations. If a teacher found a destination that applied to his or her 
curriculum, the students would write questions for the other class to 
answer. The other students would visit a destination armed with the 
questions posed by their peers. These students were more likely to be 
observant and to report than if they were simply completing an assignment 
for a teacher.

In GeoGame, each participating class researched and answered eight 
questions about the local geography and sent it to the FrEdMail 
Foundation. The administrators collected the responses, scrambled the 
cities, and mailed the list to all participating classes. The students had 
to match the descriptions with the cities. In 1984 Tom Clausett conducted 
the first GeoGame on the FrEdMail Network in North Carolina. There were 
over 50 cities represented. There were schools in Puerto Rico, South 
Africa, Finland, and the Virgin Islands. At one point, over 1,500 
classrooms participated in this project.

In the fall of 1990, CERFNet and FrEdMail Foundation received a grant from 
the National Science Foundation (NSF) to build a gateway between FrEdMail 
and the Internet. The gateway software was completed in 1991. By 1992, 
there were over 200 systems that composed the FrEdMail Network, and there 
were nine Internet gateways, creating the first low-cost International 
backbone for FrEdMail teachers.

In 1993, FrEdMail Foundation changed its name to Global SchoolNet 
Foundation (GSN). During that same year, the NSF awarded a grant to GSN to 
create an educational Web site called .Global Schoolhouse.. Global 
Schoolhouse.s vision was to provide a living curriculum that made the 
world a laboratory, promoted the quest for lifelong learning, and 
established a .global. electronic community that would benefit all 
sectors: education, health care, local government, business, and the home. 
The main objectives of the Global Schoolhouse were as follows:

Demonstrate how people and information resources on the Internet can be 
used as a classroom tool for research and as a medium for interactive 
collaborative learning.

Teach students how to become active learners and information managers.

Develop an online system training and support for teachers, so they can 
use technology in an effective and appropriate manner in their classrooms.

Demonstrate the most current technologies in both conductivity and network 
tools and their use in a classroom.

Encourage business, government, school, higher education, and community 
partnerships for ongoing collaboration.

By 1995, Global SchoolNet Foundation had over 350 nodes with a total of 
12,000 participating schools.
 
In 1996, Global SchoolNet Foundation launched CyberFair, GSN.s premier 
collaborative project. Now in its ninth year, it is an award-winning 
learning program used by schools around the world, in which students 
conduct research about their local communities and publish their findings 
on the World Wide Web. Prizes are awarded to schools for the best entries 
in each of eight categories: local leaders, businesses, community 
organizations, historical landmarks, environment, music, art, and local 
specialties.

At the end of 1999, the last FrEdMail server was taken offline. FrEdMail 
was not year 2000.compliant and the FrEdMail Network ceased to exist.

However, with the Internet as the new medium, Global SchoolNet Foundation 
continues. Its mission is to recognize and applaud the innovators.the 
teachers who serve as role models, mentors, and pioneers in combining the 
physical teaching environment, curricula, and cyberspace.
 
Learn more about Global SchoolNet at globalschoolnet.org