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By themselves, technologies are only tools. They cannot create new products, solve problems, or deliver quality work instrumental to the prosperity of the United States. They are only effective when put to use by those who can master them. Today's students must have access to such technologies in order to become masters of today's knowledge and meet national demands for qualified workers, educated consumers, and responsible citizens. But in some communities with school budget cutbacks, over-crowded classes, poorly trained teachers, and limited parental involvement, students are not being prepared well enough to meet those demands.
The scenario is not hopeless, however. U.S. schools are projected to have spent about $5.2 billion on educational technology during school year 1997?98, a 21 percent rise from 1996?97. By 1998, they are expected to spend $12 million for online and subscription-based services, double the amount spent in 1995. In addition, the number of schools with Web sites jumped from 134 in January 1995 to 2,850 in June 1996. And 87 percent of schools that do not have access to the Internet plan to secure access in the near future.
The rising awareness of technology's importance, combined with nationwide concerns that the future workforce will be ill-prepared to fill technology and knowledge positions, has led corporate America to take an active role in helping students meet high academic expectations, standards, and achievements. With both the financial and human resources to lead the effort, businesses across the United States have joined with partners from the public and private sectors to create a variety of programs that infuse technology into schools, train teachers to become more familiar with computers and the Internet, and forge a stronger link between parents and their children's education.
Still, the challenge to use technology to foster, guide, and strengthen employee and family involvement in education efforts is monumental. Six major hurdles exist, but effective partnerships and projects have begun to successfully chip away at them.
Lack of time appears to be the largest barrier to family involvement in education. The increase in the number of single-parent households, those with dual income earners, and those with parents working more than one job, has led to a sharp decline in how much time is spent helping children with their education. Such integral involvement also suffers from many parents who do not feel that schooling is their responsibility or who lack self-confidence in school settings. Others simply do not know how to get involved.
Corporate experiences that focus on this challenge include:
Technology Illiteracy Among Teachers and Students
Acquiring computer skills and the ability to use technology to improve learning and productivity is critical for students to achieve high academic performance, yet many teachers and schools are still on the fringes of the Information Era. Only 14 percent of public school teachers had more than eight hours of training in educational technology during the 1993-94 school year. And as of 1996, 18 states still did not require training in technology for all teachers seeking certification.
Unequal Community-Based Learning
Low-income students have much less access to technology in both schools and homes. In some urban and rural schools with high concentrations of low-income children, the student:computer ratio often exceeds the already high national average of 9:1. On the homefront, only 11 percent of families with an income of less than $20,000 owned a personal computer, compared with 56 percent for those with an income of $50,000.
A Poorly Prepared Future Workforce
Business and community organizations are facing growing demands for qualified knowledge workers. Current needs cannot be met, and associated challenges relating to future productivity, recruitment, retention, and company growth are mounting. By 2000, 60 percent of jobs will require skills with information technologies. But studies from around the country reveal a future workforce that is not up to the task. For example, in Virginia, only 38 percent of applicants who apply for technical positions have the necessary skills. And in Maryland, 38 percent of 335 surveyed employers reported that a lack of skilled workers has had a negative impact on their ability to do business, and 43 percent said that skilled-worker shortages have prevented them from expanding their facilities.
Overlooking Special Populations
Many of the parents who feel uncomfortable in school settings do not speak English as their first language or have children with disabilities. They require additional support to be involved with their children's education, but workplace support is often limited or non-existent and school schedules that foster greater involvement are frequently inconvenient. They remain largely uninformed about special instructional materials and methods required of them to support their children at home. Further, teachers who work with special student populations are often isolated and do not have access to the most current technologies.
Technology as an Ancillary Tool
Technology is currently not integrated as a tool to manage, deliver, and inform instruction throughout and across academic disciplines. Although computer training is gradually becoming more available to teachers, more than 50 percent of teachers do not have access to training for integrating technology into the classroom and making it integral rather than purely ancillary to the core of instruction.
Early results of business partnerships are promising, but it is still too soon to gauge the impact of technology on student performance, the management and delivery of instruction, and family and employee involvement in education. Certainly, business' wealth of practical experience with technology has enabled viable programs to develop and flourish in the 1990s where none had existed before. As technology becomes more firmly implanted in schools, such business-led programs aimed at making students, teachers, and families more technologically competent and involved with one another are bound to proliferate. -###-
[Introduction]