Howard Hughes Medical Institution funded the purchase of laptop computers, which students now use for word processing, spreadsheets, collecting lab data, and, with interactive multimedia software, for lab simulations.
Students turn in their assignments on disk, which has nearly done away with paper.
Alwan's plans to expand the use of technology in the future include instituting a mobile server so that students can download and upload assignments over phone lines, and putting biology texts on disk, enabling teachers to customize a text to fit their curriculum as needed.