What constitutes learning in the 21st century will be contested terrain as our society strives toward post-industrial forms of knowledge acquisition and production without having yet overcome the educational contradictions and failings of the industrial age. Educational reformers suggest that the advent of new technologies will radically transform…

The digitally marginalised communities are in focus in the EU-funded Rural Wings project 2006-2008. The aim is to identify and analyse the user learning needs in non-connected communities and to meet these needs by providing satellite Internet broadband connections, education and tools. This article reports the findings of the user needs…

The responses of 81 Canadian junior and community college students with disabilities were used to develop and evaluate the Scale of Adaptive Information Technology Accessibility for Postsecondary Students with Disabilities (SAITAPSD). This is an 18-item self-administered tool that evaluates computing accessibility for and by students with various…

This report explores the true position of public libraries today, in the minds not only of library users, but of the people who run libraries and those who provide oversight and funding. This study is the first step in the development of a national agenda for libraries and library funding in the 21st century. Findings from this study indicate…

The work points out the importance of the use of the information and communication technologies in education. The overview of elementary, advanced and specialized informatics and information related knowledge and skills that every teacher should master and apply in the educational process is presented. Stress is laid upon the importance of the…

The phenomenon called digital divide was the focus of this paper. Diversity, disability, and geographical digital divide were relevant to this collaborative project. An extensive review of the literature was conducted for the completion of this project. The evidence for the digital divide in terms of race, level of education, and gender in the…

In this article, the author reports the ripple effects of the energy squeeze due to Hurricane Katrina and other factors that sent energy costs skyrocketing. Energy costs are a good part of why budget growth, which has been steady over the past five years, has been slowing down. The projected change from FY2005 to FY2006 is only 3.3%, compared to…

Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have for long been celebrated as the solution to access in education. New innovations like the internet and mobile technologies provide a great opportunity for mass delivery of education information especially in Africa where governments and institutions are struggling to equip the people with much…

A new study shows that students aged 6 to 17 who have access to the Interact at home are growing afore and more dissatisfied with the access to the Net available to them at school. Grunwald Associates, a California market research firm, released the results of their survey, "Children, Families and the Internet," on December 4. Seventy-six percent…

The purpose of this study was to identify needs, interests, and obstacles related to obtaining health education by means of a Web site for elderly people who do not use the Internet. A total of 34 participants were divided into five discussion groups, one of which was made up of blind people. An analysis of the semantic content of the…

In the Western Pacific, the People First Network project has since 2001 been building a growing network of rural email stations across the conflict-ridden Solomon Islands. These stations are based on robust technology and consist of solar panels, short-wave radios and compatible modems, laptop computers and printers to provide email communication…

As countries continue to invest in information and communication technologies (ICT) and they become even more common in the workplace, there is an increasing demand for schools to produce technologically literate students. This report presents results from the "Programme for International Student Assessment" (PISA) 2003, and examines how…

Discusses progress on connecting schools and classrooms to the Internet and explores relationships between school characteristics and Internet access. Public schools have nearly reached the goal of connecting every school to the Internet, but differences by school characteristics remain regarding access in instructional rooms. (SLD)

Focuses on trends in the availability of and access to technology in private schools. There has been a marked increase in access to computers and the Internet in private schools from 1995 to 1998, with 67% of private schools having Internet access in 1998. (SLD)

Discusses pre-college access and use of computers by different groups of students, cross-campus computing initiatives, the potential impact of the present inequities experienced by students of color in the context of cross-campus computing, and recommendations to enhance access to computers and the computer competence of students of color. (EV)