[rtpnet-tact] [Fwd: [DDN] Children, the Digital Divide and Federal Policy]

[Michael Rulison]

I'd like to register some reservations. I am greatly in favor of the 
internet and access thereto. But I suspect that parental attitudes 
toward and involvement with education for their children is the most 
important variable in children's development.

For example, following the one of the links derived from the one to an 
RTPnet page I found:
http://www.childrenspartnership.org/youngamericans/statefacts_nc.html
 From which I quote:
"There are 8.8 students for every Internet-connected computer in North 
Carolina’s public schools, yet in high-poverty schools this figure jumps 
to 9.6 students per connected computer (national average is 6.8 and 8.1, 
respectively).11" 
<http://www.childrenspartnership.org/youngamericans/statefacts_nc.html#7>

Well lets parse this carefully: the NC figure 'jumps' to 9.6, which is 
9.1% higher; by contrast the national average rises to 8.1, a rise of 
19.1%. So did NC or the national average do the jumping? I conclude that 
NC did better than the nation on this measure.
Does the report have a bias? It seems to me it might. Could NC do 
better? Of course, and we should try.

I know I have taken this out of context; there is a huge pile of data 
out there, even on the one www page. My point is that we want to promote 
the internet, but keep in perspective that the attitudes and behavior of 
individuals (parents and children) will be major determinants of their 
learning and progress and that the internet cannot make up for all 
deficiencies.
==============================================================
Judy Hallman wrote:

> To rtpnet-tact list:
>
> I'm forwarding a message posted to the DigitalDivideNetwork list. I've 
> added a link to the report (16-page .pdf file) on 
> http://www.rtpnet.org/comp/ under "Statistics."
>
> There's a lot of interesting and useful information in this report.

-- 

---------------------------------------------
Michael Rulison, 919/782-9576
3256 Lewis Farm Road
Raleigh  NC  27607-6723
re78vm at mindspring.com
---------------------------------------------