TO THE REMOTE island town of Anda off the coast of Pangasinan, bridges have proven invaluable, linking the long isolated community to the mainland. Now, the roughly 300 students of St. Nicholas Catholic School of Anda are breaking free from isolation and connecting to the global community using an even more extensive bridge -- that of information technology.

While their town is 75 kilometers away from Pangasinan's capital, Lingayen, and about 200 km away from Manila, St. Nicholas' students are just a mouse click away from anywhere in the country and the globe, thanks to the power of the Internet. In fact, a day after their school was chosen to be this year's Luzon recipient of Microsoft's Connected Learning Community program, St. Nicholas' students were already able to set up their own website. While getting help from their teachers and Microsoft Philippines partner Bitstop Computers Inc., the students had the satisfaction of seeing the immediate results of their hands-on training in different Microsoft applications.

''I was very excited when I saw our faces there, and the faces of our teachers,'' said Analyn Lazo, a 4th-year high school student at St. Nicholas, describing her reaction when she first saw the website they made. This is part of the website at www.clcphils.org, which collates the output of the different schools that received over P1.5-million worth of free hardware and software from Microsoft Philippines through the CLC educational initiative. The other recipients are Cabancalan National High School in Mandaue City, Cebu for Visayas, and Mintal Comprehensive National High School in Davao City for Mindanao.

''While we handle the hosting for all the sites, we had to get the output from Cebu and Davao. So we coordinated with them via NetMeeting version 3.0. We told them to allow us to get control and we'll show you how to do it. As the students learn more techniques, the website would be updated and enhanced,'' said Bitstop's president Wilson Chua.

The use of NetMeeting, a Microsoft application for collaboration and remote desktop control over the web, was just one of the most vivid examples of the Internet's potential for changing the way these students learn and play.

''Before, I had to go to an Internet café just to chat or research. It's really faster and easier to use computers and the Internet to help me in my studies,'' said Redda Pableo, a 4th-year high school student at Cabancalan. She added that she might take up a computer course in college. ''I'm really getting to like computers,'' she said with a smile.

''We have around 30 minutes for computer use during Technology and Home Economics class, but the students can still use the computers during their other subjects. Sometimes they stay late just to continue using the computers," shared teacher Liza Gulbin, Cabancalan's computer coordinator.

Apart from donating the solutions and setting up the CLC networks, does Microsoft Philippines also help design the information technology curriculum for these schools?

''That's difficult to do, because each school has a different requirement, and they would know best how to design their own curriculum,'' said Microsoft Philippines managing director Darren Lockie.

He said, however, that Microsoft also gives advice to the schools to help their students get the most benefits from the solutions.