Even for teachers who have home computers, after-hours access to the Internet is virtually impossible because the district server is swamped during evening hours. Underpaid teachers are not inclined to pay personally for work-related Internet access. First, those drives are fast enough that you can run software directly off a Zip disk. Some software will be used by several classes or teachers, but usually no more than one or two at a time. Instead of buying a multi-site license, the school can save money by purchasing one or two individual copies and installing them on Zip disks.
Zip drives are relatively inexpensive and portable.
Second, 100Mb of storage is enough for storing Internet resources, images, and other large files offline. Student works, class projects or teacher materials about a particular topic can be stored together on a single disk. Disks can be shared between schools, classes, students, teachers, parents and other education partners. Storing large amounts of related files and data on Zip disks keeps valuable hard drive space free on computer lab and classroom machines. Data can be easily updated or copied as necessary.