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This document serves as a forum for posting news items related to information technology, higher education, the intersection of the two, and all other Vision 2010 concerns. We hope this will be a location you regularly check for early indicators--the clues that may tell us in which quadrant the future of higher education seems to be unfolding.
We will try to share pertinent news items that come across our desks. You can post an item of your own to this forum directly. Please try to cite the source of the news item so that other users can find more information if they wish. If the source is online and you know its Universal Resource Locator (URL), please include it in your posting.
Lure of the Education Market Remains Strong for Business
A recent study estimates that for-profit companies now take in $30 billion
of the
$340 billion that the U.S. spends each year on primary and secondary education.
"When you look at the raw numbers, this is a very big industry with enormous
potential for growth," said the CEO of Eduventures Inc. of Boston. "Education
has
reached the point where the status quo is no longer acceptable."
---- from The New York
Times,p.A1,
January 31, 1996
A New Gulf in American Education, the Digital Divide
"We're facing a new illiteracy--computer illiteracy," said Malcolm Cohen,
author
of Labor Shortages: As America Approaches the 21st Century. At present,
only 3 percent of the nation's classrooms have Internet connections, according
to a research group in Denver. Linking all classrooms could cost $30 billion
or
more, plus at least $5 billion in annual operating expenses. A NYT article
compares two San Jose elementary schools: affluent and private Harker, and
poverty-constrained Anderson. Harker students have Power Macs. Anderson
has 386
PCs. Harker uses the Internet to aid "inquiry-based learning." Anderson
has its
computers loaded with drills in reading and arithmetic. A task force
commissioned by President Clinton concludes that the nation needs to spend
$150
billion over the next decade to provide adequate information technology for
its
public schools. But the commission recommends that state and local governments
foot the bill through tax increases and bond measures.
---- from The New York Times,
p.C3,
January 29, 1996
