A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

   FOR RELEASE                             Contact: Melinda Kitchell Malico    June 29, 1996                                    (202) 401-1008

Gore, Riley Present National Technology Plan to NET DAY Participants

Vice President Al Gore and U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley today will release a comprehensive new report on technology and education, Getting America's Students Ready for the 21st Century: Meeting the Technology Literacy Challenge.

They will release the report at a meeting in Washington of teachers, parents, community organizers, and technology specialists who have come together to plan state efforts to wire and connect schools to the information superhighway.

Today's "NetDay 96 How To" conference is designed to help states plan to create their own NetDays -- many to be held this October -- much like the California NetDay held earlier this year. In March, President Clinton joined 20,000 volunteers and 2,000 businesses in California as they installed about 6 million feet of wire to connect classrooms in 2,600 schools to the Internet.

"As parents, educators, communities, businesses and states join together to connect our schools to the information superhighway, we move closer to the goal of providing every student and every classroom with a window that opens wide to a world of vast knowledge," said the vice president. "Every day, more information, resources and connections are created on the Internet. But access is not enough. We plan to use these new resources to revitalize classrooms -- training teachers to use new technologies to stimulate their teaching and student learning. Taken together, all this will result in progress as we prepare young adults for the world they will inhabit and the jobs they will fill in the 21st Century."

The report lays out what needs to be done to help schools and communities use technology to help the nation's students become technologically literate by early in the 21st century, as proposed in the president's Technology Literacy Challenge. The challenge is designed to encourage states, local communities, the private sector, schools and individuals to work together to integrate technology into teaching and learning. Clinton has asked for $2 billion in funding for the five year challenge.

"Computers are the 'new basic' of American education, and the Internet is the blackboard of the future," Riley said, "but the future is here and now, and we cannot miss this opportunity to help all of our young people grow and thrive. I strongly believe that if we help all of our children learn the basics and become technologically literate, we will give a generation of young people the skills they need to enter this new knowledge and information driven economy."

The 70 page report focuses on how schools, communities, and states can use information technology to raise student achievement, engage students in reaching challenging standards set by states and local communities, and accomplish the following four goals of Clinton's challenge:

All teachers in the nation will have the training and support they need to help students learn using computers and the information superhighway;
All teachers and students will have modern multi media computers in their classroom;
Every classroom will be connected to the information superhighway;
Effective software and on-line learning resources will be an integral part of every school's curricula.

Students across the nation typically make little use of new learning technologies, employing them for only a few minutes a day. Only 4 percent of schools have a computer for every five students, and only 9 percent of classrooms are connected to the Internet. In schools with large concentrations of low income students, the numbers are often even lower.

When properly used, technology increases students' learning opportunities, motivation and achievement; helps students acquire skills that are becoming essential in the workplace; and breaks the barriers of time and place, enabling students in any community, no matter how remote or impoverished, to have access to high quality learning.

In this year's State of the Union address, Clinton challenged the nation, saying "every classroom in America must be connected to the information superhighway with computers and good software and well trained teachers."

Adding technology and well prepared teachers to classrooms can:

allow students to work at their own pace;
help students develop problem solving and writing skills;
enable students to take challenging classes, not offered at their schools, via distance learning;
expand access to learning for students with disabilities;
track student progress through video and on-line examples of student writing and school projects;
increase family involvement by linking parents and homes to schools and offering home learning opportunities;
offer teachers a way to share ideas and experiences with other educators via networks, and ways to access research and libraries; and,
provide on line courses and electronic seminars to help educators advance their skills and knowledge.

Studies examining the success of technology rich schools show four features that help these schools work:

planning among schools, families and students to create "learner centered" classrooms that focus on how technology can support students' individual learning needs and capabilities, not on technology for its own sake;
clearly articulated goals and challenging academic standards for student achievement;
redesigning schools to support learning and achievement of high standards through better use of space and time, enhanced instruction and use of partnerships; and,
near universal access to computer technology -- or at least one computer for every five students.

In February, President Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which ensures that schools and libraries will have affordable access to telecommunications services.

But estimates of the cost of providing up to date technology and training for classrooms range from $10 to 20 billion a year for five years -- including hardware, software, connections to the Internet, training and support for teachers and infrastructure improvements. Riley said that careful planning and a partnership of the private sector, states, local communities and the federal government is needed to secure the necessary resources and ensure that the benefits of educational technology are made available to all children, including those in poor communities. To meet the president's challenge, each federal dollar of support will generate a match of dollars and in kind contributions from state, local and private sector sources.

"Although the federal government has an important role in helping to galvanize efforts," Riley said, "the challenge is a clarion call to local communities and states and to the private and non-profit sectors from which leadership and initiative must come."

The administration has also supported ongoing federal investments in distance learning, use of technology in math and science education, and research and development of technology.

In developing the plan, the U.S. Department of Education sought and received advice from teachers, students, parents, administrators, employers and technology experts. The report is divided into sections that cover benefits of technology use, reaching the technology goals, and roles supporting local action plans. The full report will be available in the department's online library (http://www.ed.gov/Technology/Plan/) or by calling 1(800)USA LEARN.

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