HIT:DIGITAL DIVIDE

[Josephine Dervan <rderva@injersey.infi.net>]

Dear All-
I recently posted a survey about computer use and training in your
schools. The term "digital divide" is being used to delineate between
the haves and the have nots in regard to the availability of computers
in the nations schools. A National Center for Education study released
this past week also addresses the questions:
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000086

The Results of my survey:

I received responses from 135 people in 34 states plus the Philippines
and Australia (1 each).

All but 2 schools had Internet access

The number of computers in the school ranged from 3 to 650 with the
majority in the 100 range. I did not ask respondents to separate the
computers with Internet capabilities from those without.

Not every respondent answered the question about where computers were
located. Most schools (89) had computer access in classrooms, the Media
Center and the computer Room.
20 had access in the Media Center and classrooms.
10 had access in the Media Center and the Computer Room.
4 had access in Media Center only
2 had access in the classroom and the Computer Room
2 had access in Computer Room only
1 had access in the classroom only

Only 7 schools had no technology training offered.

In most school the training is optional. A few schools mandate some
training. Some other schools demand that a teacher attend training
sessions before receiving a computer in her classroom.

Statewide Technology support ranged from a fiber optic network in Iowa
to
access to a state library database in other states. Florida, North
Carolina, Missouri, Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Texas, Ohio, North Dakota,
Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, South Dakota,
California and North Carolina all offer some state access. New Jersey
will begin to offer database access in July, 2000. The state of Arkansas
demands that all school districts have Internet access to allow for the
sharing of records.

Only a few respondents indicated that they had financial support from
the private sector. One respondent from West Virginia responded "Thank
you, Bell" to the comment about Bell Atlantic World School in WV. This
initiative is a model of what can happen when a telecommunications
company teams up with a state education department. It is at:
http://wvaworldschool.org/

In summary (I feel like I'm doing a paper here) I think that the answers
that I have gathered reflect the statistics in the NCE study mentioned
above even if they were gathered in a less than scientific manner.

Jo
********************************************************************
Josephine G. Dervan, Library Media Specialist
Strathmore Elementary School
Aberdeen, NJ 07747

Home- rderva@injersey.infi.net
School- jdervan@marsd.k12.nj.us
He who has a garden and a library, wants for nothing- Cicero

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