ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 13, 1996 TAG: 9609130108
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
A COMPUTER-LEARNING research project at Riner Elementary School in Montgomery County could help support a proposition that remains mostly a hope and a fear: that home computers can improve students' ability to learn, both at home and at school.
It's a hope, because computers are easier to upgrade than the learning process. It's a fear, because affluent families can more easily afford home computers, further exacerbating the inequality of educational opportunity in America today.
There is danger in over-emphasizing computers' value in education. Their impact will be less than it could be, for example, among the 76 percent of U.S. high school students who spend less than five hours per week on homework. In any case, computers address the "how" of learning, not the more important "why."
Still, it seems clear enough that the world is undergoing an information revolution, that people unconnected to it will find themselves at a serious disadvantage, and that information technology can at the very least help along the education process.
The Riner research, though based on a tiny sample, aims to avoid correlation-confusion. (Do kids with computers at home do better in school because parents who buy home computers are also more likely to read, or get involved with their kids' schoolwork, or send their children to better schools?)
No doubt educators will be paying attention to the progress of the project, financed by a federal grant and coordinated by school administrators and Virginia Tech. But policy-makers, too, should keep an eye on this venture in a small, rural community. If home computers can be linked to higher test scores, as well as to parents' increased involvement in their children's education, the obvious next question arises: Should the public somehow ensure that all students have access to home computers?
The Riner research could merely underscore the gap between haves and have-nots - a gap that, when it comes to home computers, already is wide.
A 1993 Census Bureau report showed, for instance, that only about 14 percent of blacks and Latinos have computers in their homes, compared with about 27 percent of whites. (It also showed more computer literacy among whites than blacks and Latinos because more white workers use computers in their jobs.) Like most such indicators, this presumably has less to do with race than with varying income levels, on average, among the races.
In Riner, 24 fifth-graders were chosen by lottery to take part in the research project. Those children's homes will be provided computers, which the families can keep if the youngsters successfully complete the three-year project. (Parents of participating youngsters had to agree to supervise their children in using the Internet, among other things.)
If successful, the Riner experiment and others like it could strengthen arguments for more computers in classrooms, and for more older schools to be renovated to handle computer hookups. It ought to be obvious anyway that computers should be part of every American's education.
But the results also might help spur public demand that all students, regardless of income level, have access to home computers. Though prices of personal computers, software and on-line services have been declining, that access isn't likely to occur without a significant political push.
Two years ago, House Speaker Newt Gingrich was lampooned for proposing that the government provide laptops for the poor. Riner Elementary may show the idea isn't so outrageous.
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