The toll free number was a key feature in everyone's eyes. School budgets are lean and don't leave room for expensive experiments unless the benefits are easy to see. Teachers of the Science Department are experimenting with MEOL, but find it hard to use. Commands were not visible and pitfalls were awe inspiring. The worst pitfall was oddly with the ability to turn to advanced mode.
Advanced mode removes the menus from the screen to allow the user to see more of the screen.
Unfortunately there is no obvious way to turn them back on and a novice user might be stuck without any menus. Luckily, no one had done it. They were able to use news, but felt limited because only educational newsgroups were offered. They did express the need to keep kids from wandering into newsgroups that parents might find offensive. Mail was available and they saw this as the easiest and most important part of the system.