Issue 1.3, May 1995

>From the Publisher

To follow up our discussion on demographics last month, where do the children
fit in in terms of online use? It's pretty obvious that those from
financially strapped families are less likely to have a personal computer in
their home. Many school districts do not even have one computer for their
students. The situation in K-12 looks a bit better in some areas how-ever.
Just last month, the American Electronics Association (AEA) released a major
survey of the education community investigating what role technology and the
"information superhighway" should play in the classroom. Their findings on
the availability of current information technology revealed:
 
>A higher level of technology deployment was found in K-12 than is commonly
believed, though much of it is in administrative support services.

>Eighty-five percent of the K-12 librarians have multi-media capabilities
(e.g. audio, video, graphics, text, and CD-ROM), forty-nine percent use
networked computers, and forty-eight percent have an Internet connection. 

>Technology deployment lags in the classrooms where it 
is needed the most.
 
>Fifty-nine percent of the respondents who are teachers (represented by the
NEA) have multimedia capabilities, twenty-nine percent have networked
computers, and twenty percent have an Internet connection.
 
>Only seventeen percent of the teachers indicated that they have access to
online services.
 
>More than seventy-five percent of survey respondents believe that the
information superhighway will alleviate such problems as a lack of student
motivation and 
obsolete curriculum.
 
>About eighty percent believe that distance learning will be more available
to students and that accessing of information by educators will increase.
 
>More than seventy-five percent of the respondents believe a revision of
curriculum content to emphasize greater computer skills for students will
occur.
 
>Budget constraints, the lack of equipment and lack of 
training were seen as the major roadblocks to applying information
technologies.
 
Locally, The MESH and Computer Users for Social Responsibility are creating a
project call KIDSCONNECT. The goals of the project are to work with a few
local schools and target disadvantaged students who do not have the
opportunity to go online. A few of us will act as online tutors and work with
the kids as we guide them through the 
complexities of using this online technology for their learning experience.
We will help fund the project by buying modems for the schools and arranging
free online time from a major commercial online service. If your school is
interested, please give us a call. 
 
I want to welcome our new sponsors this month. If you want great seafood, be
sure to check out the Cape House  in Troy (and a nice 15%-off coupon you
shouldn't pass up is included in this issue). Jamal, the owner, is also an
accomplished author of many books. He teaches math at SUNYA. CompUSA in
Latham joins us and also is the new home of our Mac user group meetings
(MECCA). We start meeting there the second wednesdays of the month. Be sure
to say hi to Joe, Rich, and Bob when you are there. Great prices and lots of
goodies to buy. One of my favorite local bookstores, Book House, is now with
us and has an online 
conference on our BBS, Newslink, where you can order  books online, talk to
the staff, ask questions about books, and more. Looking to get your own WEB
page, talk to Carmen Natalie. He can do it for you quickly and affordable.
AlbanyNet, a local Internet provider offers their services to our readers as
well. Need legal work? Who doesn't. Call Walter, Thayer, and Mishler. Ask for
Lanny. This is a law firm with people who really care about their clients.
And of course we are grateful for our regular sponsors.