Elementary Schools and the Internet:

Introduction: Equating 'Literacy' and The Internet

There are any number of inherent questions that come to mind when attempting to make an assessment of the Internet's given or potential impact in combating illiteracy in the elementary educational system. These questions are further compounded when the equation must factor in the average intelligence of schoolchildren somewhere between the first and eighth grades.

To begin with, such children are û by standards set forth by the U. S. Office of Education for children with less than six years of schooling û considered to be functionally illiterate. The given "job" of the school system is to make them, at least by the end of the eighth grade, literate citizens of the new economic and information age, capable of reading and writing at certain predetermined levels of competence.

A second consideration is whether or not the Internet, in itself, is defining new and lasting benchmarks for the very concept of literacy. Already we are seeing the acceptable standards by which one can be accredited as being "computer literate." Extending that definition by taking it off the desktop hardware/software arena and throwing it out into the ever-expanding flux of what is called "the Internet" presents newer and more challenging definitions of what is currently called "Internet savvy."

Further complicating our analysis is the impact of such computer

. . .
Classroom connectivity is expected to grow die to the allocation of funds through the Education rate (E-rate) program, which was established to make services and technologies in telecommunications available to schools and libraries at discounted rates based upon the income level of the students in their community and whether their location is urban or rural." According to a report from the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (1997, 21), 4 to 5 students per computer is the ratio "that many experts consider to represent a reasonable level for the effective use of computers within the schools." The NCES "Stats in Brief" report continues: "In 1999, the ratio of students per instructional computer in public schools was approximately 6, the same as 1998. Overall, within types of schools, ratios of students to instructional computer stayed the same or decreased slightly between 1998 and 1999. "The ratio of students per instructional computer with Internet access [italics theirs] decreased from 12 to 9 from 1998 to 1999, although differences remain across schools with different characteristics." The "different characteristics" referred to is the impact of average regional family incomes and wheth
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Turner Dipinto, Office Education, Stats Brief, Returning DOE's, Statistics Public, Introduction Equating, Public Schools, Science Technology, Connell Erickson, Statistics NCES, public schools, students instructional computer, education statistics, reading writing, center education, elementary schoolchildren, national center, stats brief, computers internet, center education statistics, national center education, students instructional, instructional computer, teacher computers internet, lehrer connell erickson,
Approximate Word count = 1245
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Elementary Schools and the Internet: