Susan Whitney/The Gazette Armande Condillac, the technology coordinator of Our Lady of Sorrows school in Takoma Park, helps third-grader Kureece Gordon, 8, of Lanham use a computer program in the lab that will soon be connected to the Internet and cable television.

Personal computers and the Internet play an important role in many classrooms across Montgomery County. But even with the explosive growth of networked computing, there are still schools in the area that lack the basic tools to connect their students to the Internet, including Our Lady of Sorrows School in Takoma Park.

Although the school has a 28-seat computer lab, its Internet connection is limited to two computers in the main office that use a relatively slow dial-up connection. That's about to change, however, thanks to the work of school staff and the generosity of a business owner from the far northern end of the county.

Our Lady of Sorrows School opened in 1950 as a Catholic school behind the church off New Hampshire Avenue bearing the same name. Bill Murray, the school's development director, said the racial make-up changed dramatically in the 1980s, and today's student body of about 205 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade is made up mostly of Haitian, West African and Latino students, some coming from homes where parents face economic challenges and language barriers.

The effort to upgrade the school's technology began when Murray contacted Oscar Fuster, president of Damascus-based F-Squared Communications, a technology infrastructure and consulting firm which specializes in building networks for businesses and schools.

"We've always been involved in community service," Fuster said Monday, noting that the work at Our Lady of Sorrows School was "a perfect match for what we're doing here."

F-Squared will donate several personal computers, Internet routers, a cable modem and the wiring needed to create a high-speed network in the school. The company also will help the school determine the most cost-effective way to use the new technology.

Principal Gail Ruffin is trying to secure discounted Internet and cable TV service from Comcast, a local cable and high-speed Internet provider, Murray said. Once the service is turned on, the system will carry video signals to each classroom while connecting all of the computers to a local network and the Internet.

Fuster said he will enlist the help of his brother and former business partner, restaurant owner George Fuster of Darnestown, to complete the work. He has even gotten his 17-year-old son, also named Oscar, involved in the project. The younger Fuster, a senior at St. Johns at Prospect Hall in Frederick, will install most of the wired connections between computers and other equipment as part of his community service requirement for high school.

"This means a lot to us," the senior Oliver Fuster said. "Catholic schools in general don't have the resources that public schools have, yet they do a pretty good job educating our kids. I'm looking forward to working with the school."

Fuster, who attended Catholic school in Peru from first through fifth grades, said he hopes the work at Our Lady of Sorrows will begin this weekend and wrap up by the end of the month.

Hands-on experience

Although the budget for new computer equipment is tight, Our Lady of Sorrows School's existing computer lab has made a difference in the lives of the students and their families, said technology coordinator Armande Condillac. Now in his fifth year at the school, Condillac works with children as young as 2 years old, introducing them to basic computer hardware like the keyboard and mouse.

While the younger children use the computers to learn shapes, colors and other fundamentals, he said they also get important lessons in self-esteem and confidence.

"It's nice to see their tiny fingers holding the mouse," Condillac said Monday, "but it's better to see the excitement that comes to their faces when they are able to achieve something. Their small minds can really learn a lot."

Tuesday morning, one of the school's third-grade classes had an opportunity to brush up on its math skills using a software suite called Math Blasters. Xavier Carter, 9, of Takoma Park rapidly typed the solution to math problems in order to earn ammunition for his on-screen space ship, while his classmate, Simon Pompey, 8, also of Takoma Park, used the arrow keys on his keyboard to throw bananas at flying monkeys that represented the solution to a math equation.

Condillac said he tailors his teaching to the age of the student so that older students can learn more advanced concepts like word processing and basic business writing. He said the students are able to share their computer skills at home, allowing parents and siblings to learn valuable skills, sometimes in their native language.

Once the school's upgrades are complete, Condillac said he will teach the students how to use Internet search engines and e-mail. "We'll increase their ability to access online reference materials for assignments like research papers. Down the road, our teachers could even have their own Web pages for posting homework assignments."

Until then, the students will continue using programs like Math Blaster in the computer lab without actually connecting to the Internet, and that's fine for third-grader Kureece Gordon of Lanham. As the 8-year-old student looked up momentarily from the on-screen cockpit of his fighter ship, he smiled and said the computer lab has made learning math fun.

"It's great," he said, his attention abruptly pulled back to the game by a loud alert. He quickly typed the answer to two multiplication problems before flying off to save the universe.