BREA : Computers Expand Students’ Scope

For 17-year-old Jeremy Stewart, getting access to files of the Central Intelligence Agency is pretty much routine. He does it at least once a week--as often as he goes to his journalism class at Brea-Olinda High School.

Stewart is in no danger of starting a world war. Or compromising U.S. security. In the new world order, he’s just one among thousands of American high school students who routinely use information compiled by the CIA for their homework or classes.

Thanks to computers and high-tech communication networks now available in many schools, the CIA’s “fact book,” an analysis of practically every country in the world, available at the University of Maryland library, is just a sign-on away.

“I learn something new every time I step into this room,” Stewart said, referring to the computer lab at Brea-Olinda High, which features computers capable of gaining access to most large libraries and research labs in the world.

Students can browse over the courses offered by the University of Moscow, check the current weather in New York, or ask a Japanese toy maker about his newest product.

“What we have here is a global classroom,” said Laurry Bishop, who runs the school’s computer lab.

The computers are part of a so-called “Knowledge Network” provided by Pacific Bell at no cost to the school. Bishop said that in August the school obtained 30 computer terminals, which are hooked to a main computer at Cal State Fullerton.

That main computer, in turn, is connected by modem to an international network of large universities and research laboratories dubbed Network of Networks, or Internet, which was formed by the National Science Federation and the U.S. government, Bishop said.

Through this network, Brea-Olinda High students will have access to the same libraries, data files, electronic mail and bulletin boards that university students can reach, he said.

Bishop said students may acquire “pen pals” through the electronic mail and could actually get in touch with professors to help them solve calculus or mathematical problems.

In addition, Bishop said there is the so-called “Net News,” a computer equivalent of the telephone party line, where participants can “converse” on various topics from hobbies to research.

So far, Bishop said, about 40 Brea-Olinda students from journalism and calculus classes have hands-on experience with the computers.