Those pages eliminate the need for Facebook or MySpace, he says, and allow the schools to monitor all student-teacher communication.

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Nevertheless, as more parent and student commerce and communication goes online, it makes sense that Schoola will grow along with the trend.

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Mr Aekawit, an architecture student, sat next to Information and Communication Technology Minister Anudith Nakornthap as he gave a news conference at his ministry in Bangkok.

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And because in the Zinch model the student has to give specific permission to allow communication from the school, the kids sense they have more control.

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As an example of this collaboration, the City of Seattle has proposed implementation of the Great Student Initiative, an effort to form new partnerships with information, communication and technology companies including Microsoft, Comcast, One Economy and lenders to provide low-cost, high-speed Internet access, computer, software and services for low-income students in the Seattle Public Schools.

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"We hope that this training initiative will be the start of an ongoing partnership between the University of Pretoria and the community of Zithobeni, where information and communication technologies could be more and more used for sustainable development, " says Kirstin Krauss, a PhD student from the Department of Informatics, who has piloted the previous UNESCO-funded ICT training project in deep rural Kwa Zulu Natal.

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