(FORTUNE Magazine) – A mere 31 years ago, I graduated from the Suffield Academy prep school, in Suffield, Conn., where, needless to say, I didn't use a computer. Recently Suffield wooed a bunch of its old and allegedly wealthy West Coast alums with a presentation from the headmaster and, yes, the director of technology. And let me tell you, corporate America could learn a thing or two about technology by observing how this little New England prep school has integrated computers into its curriculum and daily life.

Under the leadership of Dean Ellerton, the chemistry teacher turned technology director, Suffield has developed an altogether rational and reasonable approach to computing. Back in 1993, the school required that every student and every teacher have a laptop Macintosh computer (the school pays when students don't have the means). Now there are more than 600 computers for 365 students on a campus that is completely wired (with full-bore wireless connections in the academic buildings), supported by just three full-time employees. (I'm sure there are other schools that have done an even better job of integrating computers. I just didn't happen to attend them.)

Here's what corporate IT managers can learn from Suffield.

Don't teach computing; use computers to teach. While the school required laptops, it refused until two years ago to offer computer science as a curriculum. It even declined to create a computer lab. The theory is that the computers are tools to help teach and learn, like pencils, paper, and textbooks, not an end in themselves. So rather than create a techie ghetto for computers, Suffield made sure that every student had one and knew how to use it.

Ellerton talks passionately about how both students and teachers have become comfortable with computers and use them to produce movies, write reports, do research, and so forth. Maybe schools are just too different from corporations, but what amazes me about Suffield's approach is that it didn't decide in advance exactly what purpose the computers would serve and then fit all the human beings into that mold. Instead, it allowed people to discover uses and expand what was possible on their own.

Put users in charge of technology. Ellerton was perfectly happy teaching chemistry before he was drafted to run Suffield's technology program. That experience probably helped him focus closely on how technology could be applied to education. A more traditional approach would have been to hire an outside IT director, who probably would have arrived at the school with lots of preconceived ideas about how technology should or should not be used. It is a classic issue--whether a technologist or a user should manage the technology--and I think a good argument can be made for letting the users rule.

Maintain a sense of humor. Suffield doesn't treat technology as some deadly serious thing that only the elite can understand--there's nothing threatening, nothing to intimidate anyone. One application the school has developed, for instance, tracks attendance and alerts administrators to students who are AWOL regularly. The program uses photographs to make sure that a teacher keeps an eye on the right students. The picture of the teacher is labeled YOU?, and the picture of the student is labeled THIS KID? That may not sound like much, but I defy you to come up with an amusing touch from one of your corporate programs.

Be sensible about usage rules. The school cuts off access to the Internet at midnight so that students won't be tempted to surf when they should be sleeping, and it does monitor which Websites are visited. But the school also has a privacy policy and won't monitor e-mail or chat unless there's reason to suspect something illicit. That's the policy the school maintains about students' lockers and rooms. In other words, the school's sense of right and wrong doesn't change because computers are involved.

Forget about being hip. Don't even bother looking at Suffield's Website, www.suffieldacademy.org. It's terrible, as Ellerton knows. But that's yet another sign that the school knows how to compute. A public Website can't serve as anything more than an advertisement for a private boarding school, and Suffield doesn't need anything more than a site that serves up its brochures.

There's a simple theme here: Relax and focus on the users. Corporate IT people get so hung up on justifying their budgets that they make narrow, silly decisions that don't serve their clients, the company's employees. If the IT crew can relax and have some fun, everyone will get more out of computers.

STEWART ALSOP is a partner with New Enterprise Associates, a venture capital firm. Except as noted, neither he nor his partnership has a financial interest in the companies mentioned. He can be reached at alsop_infotech@fortunemail.com. His column may be bookmarked online at www.fortune.com/technology/alsop.