Technology amid need http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-te.software21sep21,1,2780480,pr int.story?coll=bal-home-utility
The new digital divide is on clear display in Camden, one of the poorest cities in America. Just across the Delaware River from the skyline of a rejuvenated Philadelphia, much of Camden remains a bleak grid of weed-filled vacant lots and abandoned buildings. The school system's 19,000 students are almost entirely African-American and Hispanic, and nearly all from low-income families. They've become accustomed to occasional shortages of workbooks and other supplies, with the district having faced deficits as large as $40 million in recent years. Step inside the schools' Compass Labs, though, and the atmosphere of need vanishes. Rows of gleaming Dell computers fill the labs, complete with large headsets that students use to receive audio instructions and encouragement from Compass Learning, a San Diego-based company that is owned by WRC Media and used to be called Jostens. The district's superintendent signed the $8 million, three-year deal for the software in early 2001, the same year the district agreed to a $2.6 million deal for Lightspan educational video games that run on Sony PlayStations. At the time, New Jersey, like many other states, was raising its testing standards amid the accountability movement that would culminate in the passage of No Child Left Behind. ( rest of article at URL listed above) _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
