Former President Bill Clinton's 1997 State of the Union Address discusses the issue of ensuring that Americans have the best education in the world. He issued the following 10-point call to action for American education in the 21st century: (1) set rigorous standards, with national tests in fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math; (2) make sure…

This paper discusses why distance education is not the cure all that political leaders hope it will be, and outlines some of the reasons why distance education sometimes results in education that is separate and unequal. It identifies some of the major categories of distance education: correspondence courses, one-way televised courses (broadcast,…

This brief paper considers the application of "universal design" principles to Web page design in order to increase accessibility for people with disabilities. Suggestions are based on the World Wide Web Consortium's accessibility initiative, which has proposed guidelines for all Web authors and federal government standards. Seven guidelines for…

This report analyzes the "digital divide" between those who have access to online information and opportunities and those who do not. The research included discussion groups with more than 100 low-income Internet users, interviews with nearly 100 community technology leaders and other experts, analysis of 1,000 Web sites, and a review of the…

Where other educational technologies like television, the VCR and the stand-alone computer have failed to have much of an impact in public schools, local school networks and the Internet have been succeeding. As of 1997, 89% of America's high schools were connected to a computer network. This paper presents a view of network technology from the…

As helping professions enter the 21st century and nascent network technologies realize their full potential as therapeutic and educational modalities, it is an ethical and moral imperative that the digital divide be bridged. It is important that those in counseling and related fields take active steps to ensure that cybercounseling is available to…

Since 1994, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has surveyed public schools to measure what proportion of them is connected to the Internet. In the fall of each academic year, a new nationally representative sample of approximately 1,000 public schools has been surveyed about Internet access and, since 1996, about the types of…

This Strategic Educational Technology Plan for the State of Tennessee responds directly to the U. S. Department of Education's (USDoE) rule that state applications for Title II Part D funding under the No Child Left Behind Act must have statewide long-range strategic technology plans for K-12 education. Guidance from the USDoE Office of Technology…

Handheld computers, sometimes known as PDAs, have been available for purchase since the mid-1990s, as have their handheld relatives, the graphing calculators. It is only in the past few years, however, that these diminutive devices have made their way into K-12 schools in numbers significant enough to allow us to draw conclusions about their…

Discusses educational uses of the Internet in light of experiences with previous implementation efforts for the use of computers in education. Topics include access problems; identifying educationally relevant uses of the Internet; cost effectiveness; funding; and the role, needs, and influence of the teacher. (LRW)

This column explains the National File Format, a proposed voluntary standard for accessible digital instructional materials for students with disabilities. It considers the role of digital materials, difficulties with the present system of disseminating accessible materials, how a consistent file format for digital materials will help, and ways to…

This international and interdisciplinary study investigated and compared computer access, attitudes and perceptions towards computers as well as preferred settings for computer learning among college freshmen in Australia, China Ghana, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Discusses implications for computer training in teacher preparation and international…

Argues that little research has focused on the preparedness of new college students to cope in a technologically driven campus, particularly in community colleges with a large percentage of non-traditional students. Identifies strategies for exposing students to technology during student orientation programs. (Contains 13 references.) (NB)

Presents several key findings from several recent National Center for Educational Statistics reports related national trends in education involving elementary school enrollment, poverty concentration, language minority students, student family characteristics, reading comprehension, academic achievement (math, science, geography), student access…

Researchers studying subject searching distributed an online questionnaire to users who access the University of California's online public access catalog, MELVYL, from public access terminals in the libraries of the University of California at Santa Cruz. This article discusses the results of transaction log analysis, comparison of in-library and…