SIMtone Corporation, a privately held company delivering Universal Computing, announced it implemented virtual desktops for students and faculty at a high school in Minnesota.

The company started a program under the name SIMtone Education Thunder Program to provide access to full PCs in the cloud to an estimated five billion people who cannot afford it, without requiring them to own a computer.

The program is specifically designed to provide students with their own, school-managed, SIMtone-powered PC in the cloud, containing their own coursework, homework, school services, personal files and other education materials.

Minnesota Online High School (MNOHS), a public, state-funded school offers a comprehensive high school curriculum and college prep courses to students in grades 10-12.Here, teachers connect with one another online and on their own schedule. The school’s comprehensive curriculum provides students the flexibility of attending to their work and family obligations while pursuing a rigorous college preparatory program.

 

The new arrangement from SIMtone is helping students to investigate, read, write and debate their ideas across the curriculum to themselves for college and work in a connected world.

 

“Prior to this exciting pilot with SIMtone, it was a very cumbersome process to deliver applications and coursework to our home-based students,” said Ned Zimmerman-Bence, Executive Director of the Minnesota Online High School.

 

He said that, SIMtone Virtual PC service is helping them to provide students and faculty with virtualized desktops from any computer at home or public library.

 

Each virtual desktop is pre-loaded with course-crucial software including Microsoft (News - Alert) Office, Geometer’s Sketchpad, Fathom and Adobe Premiere and Elements.

 

“We are pleased to expand the SIMtone Education Thunder program by working with the Minnesota Online High School which heavily relies on technology to interact with its home-based students,” said Chris Mellon, VP for Sales at SIMtone Corporation. “We look forward to helping the school deliver educational applications via the cloud directly to students utilizing our virtual PC service.”

 

The company said it is also working with several other schools across the country to deliver virtual PC environments. The Frank Porter Graham Elementary School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina is one of the most recent projects where SIMtone provided approximately 600 students and faculty with “PCs in the Cloud.”