America's Technology Literacy Challenge

President Clinton's
Educational Technology Initiative
In our schools, every classroom in America must be connected to the in formation superhighway with computers, good software, and well-trained teachers. Our aim is to connect every classroom and every library in the entire United States by the year 2000. I ask Congress to support this education technology initiative so that we can make sure this national partnership succeeds
With these words, spoken during his State of the Union Address in 1996, President Clinton launched a national mission to make all American children technologically literate by the dawn of the 21st Century. He challenged the private sector, schools, teachers, parents, pupils, community groups, state/local government, and the federal government, to meet this goal by building four pillars (see figure).

Funding
The President urged Congress to provide $2 billion to fund this challenge. Individual States could qualify for funding to meet the four-pillar objective by developing a strategy to enable every school in the state to meet the four goals. States would also be required to secure significant private
sector participation/commitment to meet the four pillars (the idea being that private-sector commitments should at least match the amount of federal support). Further, to ensure accountability, each State is required publicly to report at the end of every school year the progress it has made, and how it will achieve the ultimate objectives of its strategies in the most cost-effective manner.

21st Century Teachers
President Clinton then, challenged America (the private sector, states, schools, and communities) to transform teaching and learning in America's schools, through use of
IT, so that every American child can become technologically literate.

An important response to this challenge came from the educational community. Following several months of planning and work with the White House, leading education organisations stepped forward together to meet a vital component of the President's challenge: the teacher development pillar (i.e. that all teachers will be trained to use the new educational technologies). The idea behind this new initiative (called 21st Century Teachers) is that teachers currently experienced in/comfortable with IT in the learning situation, will share their expertise and experience with fellow teachers.
During the current school year, the aim is for 100,000 teachers already familiar with the new technology to train a further 500,000 teachers in using this technology. These 100,000 volunteer teachers were recruited during summer
1996 through the Internet, meetings, newsletters, and email from the education organisations to their teacher members. The core of the program is that beginning in October 1996, each IT-experienced teacher will, on a local basis, share his expertise with at least 5 teacher colleagues.

In a spirit of partnership and in commitment to the initiative, parents, school boards, business groups, colleges, and
universities have volunteered to provide new resources and support to help technologically literate teachers spread their expertise among other teachers.

 Tech Corps
In addition to this, several States will have NetDays -deadlines by which to connect classrooms to the Internet (referred to as 'electronic barn-raising'). These NetDays will be followed by programmes designed to help teachers learn howto use computers, educational software, and the learning resources available on the Internet. Tech Corps (a national organisation of private sector volunteers with technical expertise, now chartered in 30 States) is prepared to offer training to 21st Century Teachers in all levels of technology, and mentor these teachers as they begin to apply what they have learned, offering the one-to-one support so critical to learning new skills. This participation by the business community and their co-operation in providing expertise and support is seen as critical to the success of the venture. Indeed, business leaders themselves have been unanimous in recognising the importance of training teachers to teach the new technologies.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) will inaugurate a new online service which will allow 21st Century Teachers to collaborate on the Internet. Through this, teachers will be able to help their communities develop guidelines and standards for: teaching technology skills, using technology throughout the curriculum, and assessing pupil progress.

Emerging concensus
U.S. educators, business people, parents, and pupils all agree that integrating technology into school curricula will
increase the educational achievement of the nation's pupils. Indeed the U.S. Department of Commerce's Telecommunications and Information Administration cites several recent reports as having confirmed that educational benefits of IT include improved all-round pupil performance, and more cost-effective teaching. Corroborating this, the President's Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure (NIIAC), is convinced that 'technology can be the key to higher levels of (academic) achievement.' NIIAC has collected an impressive set of empirical data, which identifies the following as some of the advantages of using IT:

. lT brings the world into the classroom - pupils are introduced to people, places, and ideas they might otherwise not be exposed to

. IT facilitates learning by doing - children who are actively engaged in learn ing, learn more. Computer-based activities can transform pupils into committed and exhilarated learners

o IT makes it possible for educators to teach at more than one location simultaneously - this vastly expands opportunities for pupils in small remote areas, linking them to pupils in more diversely populated urban and suburban areas

. IT encourages pupils to become lifelong learners

. IT makes pupils proficient in the basic technological skills needed in today's society


(Source: NIAAC Kickstart Initiative. Further information at: http:// www.whitehouse.gov.WH/New/edtech/5etbulle html)
Index Primary Computing January 1997
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