Unit 7 Child's Play Lesson

Some schools can teach big companies a thing or two when it comes to international com­munication - thanks to TTNS electronic mail. Let’s look at the system's potential.

1) Read and translate the first part of the text.

Electronic mail and the use of on-line databases are no mystery to many of today's schoolchildren. There are primary schools in, for example, Rotherham with efficient world-wide communications links which put many of Britain's big companies to shame. The secret is that they use TNS - The Times Network Systems dedicated electronic mail system.

This is aimed at all education users from the smallest schools to the highest of higher education establishments, and the national coverage comes from the fact that TTNS is part of Telecom Gold, British Telecom's electronic mail system. International connections are due to Telecom Gold being part of the Maryland-based Dialcom system -bought by ВТ this summer - whose network extends over 16 countries, including the US, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Me­xico and Singapore.

Emailing a user in another country is as easy as one in the UK, sin­ce each computer in the network is identified by a unique two-digit code. TTNS is system 01, so every mailbox address takes the form 01:ABC 123. Israel is system 05, so every address is 05:ABC 123 and so on. Messages are delivered virtually instantaneously.

To cite one example of the use of this facility, 10 primary schools in Devon are "twinned" with schools in Tasmania, which enables them to exchange messages and information on a daily basis. Primary school children don't have the money to phone up Tasmania, and even if they did their Tasmanian friends might be fast asleep during British school hours. The Twinning is possible because the TTNS computer, which is actually in London, is accessed by a local call in Devon, while the Tasmanian children call only their own Australian Dialcom system Minerva. Email thus allows immediate communications that would be impossible physically and financially, by other means.

Bob Speeding, the advisory teacher for Information Technology (IT) in Devon, says all the country's further education colleges also use TTNS for communications, while the majority of secondary schools use its database facilities.

All Telecom Gold systems have electronic publishing (EPUB) software which make it fairly easy to create databases. Every local education authority can do this, and about 30 already have. As Alan Walker of the pioneering Derbyshire group points out: "Pupils in school can become genuine "Information providers", thus giving a tre­mendous insight into this aspect of it".

2) Translate the following sentences or parts of the sentences.

1. This system is aimed at all education users...

2. International connections are due to Telecom Gold being part of the Maryland-based Dialcom system...

3. Emailing a user in another country is as easy as one in the UK, since each computer in the network is identified by a unique two-digit code.

4. ...which make it fairly easy to create databases.

3) Ask your classmates the following questions:

1) if e-mail is a mystery to schoolchildren in Britain.

2) what puts many of Britain's big companies to shame.

3) how international connections are made.

4) why emailing a user in another country is as easy as one in the UK.

5) how the Twinning is possible.

6) what facilities all the country's further education colleges and secondary schools use.

7) what makes it easy to create databases.

4) Write down the translation of the second part of the text.

Because it is fundamentally part of a successful, commercial email system, TTNS offers a number of business facilities such as on-line diaries for appointments scheduling, and interactive forms processing.

Currently there are almost 3,000 users of TTNS including local education authorities, schools and the numerous different types of colleges and universities. TTNS isn't just for children. Email can be used for teacher-to-teacher or authority-to-head-teacher communi­cations about, say, staffing, funding or inservice training. Separate mailboxes can be used for confidentiality, but if teachers and pupils have to use the same mailbox, email can be password protected and on­line files can be encrypted to keep them private.