Home PublicationsL&LIssuesVolume 27 (1999-2000) May (No. 8)

Is there a crisis in American education? Read reviews of research supporting the claim of the “digital divide” in society as a whole and in education.

Editor’s Note

The L&L editorial staff thanks M. D. Roblyer (aka Peggy) for all of the hard work, time, and dedication that went in to making the Research Windows column such a useful resource. We wish Peggy all the best in her continuing endeavors to incorporate technology into teaching and learning. We are grateful that Peggy will remain Chair of the ISTE Publications Committee.

Web Sources
Note. The Web sites listed here were valid when this supplement was posted. However, The Web is volatile, and we have no control over these other sites. Please e-mail the L&L Webmaster (ll_webmaster@iste.org) if you find a broken link, and we’ll do our best to fix it.

Birdsell, D., Muzzio, D., Krane, D., & Cottreau, A. (1998). Web users are looking more like America. The Public Perspective, 9(3), 33–35. Available: www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/pubper/pp93b.pdf.

Coley, R., Cradler, J., & Engel, P. (1997). Computers and classrooms: The status of technology in U.S. schools. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service. Available: www.ets.org/research/pic/compclass.html.

Goslee, S. (1998). Losing ground bit by bit: Low-income communities in the information age. Washington, DC: The Benton Foundation and the National Urban League. Available: www.benton.org/Library/Low-Income/home.html.

Hoffman, D., & Novak, T. (1998). Bridging the digital divide: The impact of race on computer access and Internet use. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University. Available: http://ecommerce.vanderbilt.edu/papers/pdf/digital.divide.PDF.

Hoffman, D., & Novak, T. (1999). The growing digital divide: Implications for an open research agenda. Report sponsored by the Markle Foundation. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University, Owen Graduate School of Management. Available: www.markle.org/news/proj_index.html.

National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), U.S. Commerce Department. (1998). Falling through the Net II: New data on the digital divide. Washington, DC: Author. Available: www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/net2.

Sax, L., Astin, A., Korn, W., & Mahoney, K. (1998). The American freshman: National norms for fall 1998. Los Angeles: Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. Available: www.acenet.edu/news/press_release/1999/01January/freshman_survey.html.

Closing the Digital Divide

These are just some of the ways ISTE staff, members, and partners are working to close the gap between the technology haves and have-nots.

NETS Project (http://cnets.iste.org)
After successfully completing the NETS for Students (NETS•S), ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards Project is now in its third phase—NETS for Teachers. NETS•T addresses teacher preparation standards and is funded by a U.S. Department of Education Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT³) grant. NETS•T will describe standards, assessments, and conditions that facilitate the use of technology to support learning. In addition, much emphasis will be placed on how technology can be used to help all learners.

Minority Leadership Symposium
The first of these invitation-only events took place at NECC ’99 and was designed to provide an annual forum to gather minority leaders at all levels of education to share information and discuss the unique technological perspectives, issues, and needs of their peers. Read a report on the 1999 symposium.

The 2000 theme is “Mapping the Digital Divide—Making the Home, School, Community Connection through Technology.”

ISTE-DC
To keep members apprised of U.S. federal educational technology policy, we provide information on important issues ranging from the E-Rate to the reauthorization of Title III of the ESEA as part of our Washington Notes column, which appears in ISTE Update, the online member newsletter. (Note: Update is accessible by ISTE members only. Find membership information here.) Various calls to action also are posted periodically on ISTE’s Web site.

To help us with these tasks, the law firm of Leslie Harris & Associates represents ISTE at all relevant White House, U.S. Department of Education, and education technology events. Ongoing activities include:

• arranging meetings and participation in congressional events for ISTE members,
• responding to members of the media on public policy issues,
• assisting ISTE in the identification of program partners and funding opportunities, and
• participating in organizational board meetings and conferences.

Conference Workshop Planning
ISTE, through its Professional Development Services and Publishing Departments, collaborates with other organizations and associations to provide high-quality workshops, seminars, and other professional development opportunities at their conferences. As of press time, ISTE staff members had coordinated workshops for the Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC, February 28–March 2, Orlando, Florida) and were finalizing workshops for the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC, June 26–28, Atlanta, Georgia).

Anita Best, acquisitions editor of L&L and program co-chair for the NECC conference (www.neccsite.org) said, “To highlight the importance of equity in access to technology, the NECC program committees consistently make social and ethical issues a conference theme. As a result, the number of sessions on this topic is growing every year.”

ISTE is committed to closing the digital divide. To see more ways your professional society is addressing it, visit the Web pages listed here. You might even find ways you can help.

Copyright © 2000, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). All rights reserved.