In his paper ôForum on Technology in K-12 Education: Envisioning a New Future Science,ö Steven J. Rakow assesses the effects of technology on todayÆs K-12 classrooms. Acknowledging that technology has already become part of many classrooms, Rakow points out that students in schools equipped with computers and other technology are more engaged, are more active and independent learners, and are developing better problem-solving abilities. With the extensive growth in Internet access to schools and classrooms, as well as the growth in student use of computers and the Internet, Rakow expects ôvirtually universal access to the Internet in U.S. public schoolsö in the near future; his only concern is that inequities exist between low and high minority enrollment schools and between low and high income schools (Rakow).
Rakow identifies two types of classroom that incorporate technology and describes their impact on learning. The first is what he refers to as the ôglobal classroom.ö Since the Internet can bring the world into the classroom and ôtransport students to places undreamed of,ö it essentially places all the resources from places all over the world at the studentÆs fingertips. Students can obtain original research documents, reference materials, access to databases, help with homework, and satellite imagesùall from their desktop PC. The down side to this vast information access advantage is that it is difficult to monitor the quality of information students get, and there is a lot of information that cannot even be accessed. However, the up side is that projects such as sciLINKS eliminate the problem of obsolete textbooks by linking textbooks to online updated information that never goes out of date.
The other classroom Rakow describes is the technologically enhanced classroom. Technologies such as the CD-ROM, laser videodiscs, DVDs, robotics, and laboratory interface devices are enabling
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