The Talking Internet

The Net is beginning to be used for a dizzying array of voice communications--and you don't even need a computer

Spokane is 250 miles east of Seattle, far enough to avoid the traffic jams but close enough to be caught in the orbit of the nearby technology center. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that this small city has started a revolution of its own. School officials ripped out the district's old phone network and, last fall, started using radically new Internet technology for all its communications. The Net system is saving the school district about $100,000 a year in telephone- and Internet-access fees. More important, it's doing wonders for the education process. One example: Students scattered throughout the district can listen in real time to a teacher giving a lesson over the Net--and ask questions through their computers if they have them. ''The payoff has been unbelievable,'' says information technology manager Dennis Schweikhardt. ''But the real value is that it has changed the way teachers teach.''

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