The only really difficult thing for Malcolm (a pseudonym, as he requested anonymity) is that his exploration of this preselected slice of the Web is constantly interrupted as his attention is drawn elsewhere. In one corner of the computer screen, a video plays, showing a group of soldiers storming a target. It turns out to be an ad for the U.S. Army. A click of the mouse on another corner of the screen brings up a full-screen interactive video for Kodak cameras. "Cool!" declares the 16-year-old.

Welcome to the brave new educational world of ZapMe, a company that offers free state-of-the-art computers and Internet access to schools in exchange for delivering students' eyeballs to commercial sponsors. Check it out at back-to-school night.

ZapMe's arrival at Harrison High School in Colorado Springs is like manna falling from heaven, says Terry Smith, the technology coordinator at the school. "With our small budget we could never have purchased a lab like this," Smith says.

Lisa Seed, Malcolm's English teacher, agrees: "I realize we are selling our kids to advertisers, and I don't like it. On the other hand, I'm happy to be sitting in a room with 15 free computers."

Ever since President Clinton declared his goal of "connecting every classroom in America to the Internet by the year 2000," schools have been scrambling to get online. Yet, despite the federal government's spending billions of dollars on school technology over the past eight years, when classes begin in a few weeks, millions of students still won't have access to computers or the Internet and the educational benefits they offer.

Last year, the federal government spent $789 million on technology for schools -- but only about $42 million of that went toward wiring classrooms. (That doesn't include the $2.25 billion allocated for the E-Rate program, which helps schools obtain Internet access at a discount.)

And while the Department of Education asserts that 96 percent of all public schools are connected to the Internet, that figure is highly misleading, according to Joy Kamiko of the department's Office of Educational Technology. "'Connected' can mean one computer tucked away in the principal's office or in the library," she says. "The key is how many students per class have Internet access. There is still a vast need for equipment and training in schools."

Increasingly, budget-crunched public schools are turning to private companies like ZapMe for a solution. According to the San Ramon, Calif., company, some 6,000 schools have signed up for the service since it launched two years ago. So far, 1,800 schools have been connected, representing 1.5 million students.

The schools get a sweet package of hardware: 15 state-of-the-art personal computers with jumbo screens, a furnished computer lab, high-speed Internet access, a printer and a satellite dish. Under the ZapMe contract, participating schools must promise that the system will be in use at least four hours per school day and that the company will have access to the system for its own marketing use after school hours.

For students, ZapMe means Net access with a hitch. The system limits kids to about 13,000 educational sites chosen by ZapMe editors, and forces them to view everything through the ZapMe "Netspace," a bordered frame containing a constantly rotating series of ads and on-screen videos for corporate sponsors like Dell Computer, Frito-Lay and Topps bubble gum.

And while the kids don't seem to mind, plenty of educators and politicians are up in arms about such programs. "Interactive media is the most powerful marketing tool ever known to mankind," says Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Media Education, an electronic-media public interest group in Washington. "It sends a powerful, shaping message to young people. Teachers and students need to pay much closer attention than they are," he adds. "Right now, they're playing Russian roulette with our kids' psyches."

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