School technology initiatives must follow the kids home

There was an exciting article posted last week, "Friday Institute Leads State Pilot Initiative to Provide Broadband Connectivity to All K-12 N.C. Schools."

At the request of the N.C. Board of Education and Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University is leading the implementation of a $6 million state-funded pilot project to provide high-speed network connectivity to all K-12 schools in North Carolina.

The article stated that less than 8% of North Carolina schools has adequate high speed internet access.  The plan only calls for state funding to tie the schools to the states internet backbone, provides for discount buying, assistance in applying for federal money and technical support.  The 6 million dollar pilot will potentially roll into a 24 million full rollout in 2007

Lt. Governor Bev Perdue said in the article  "Technology is the chalk and blackboard of the 21st century."  I would go a step further.  It is also the textbook and notebook of the 21st century.   While this is a huge step in the right direction, I would add that to have a program that focuses on the schools and does not address the lack of access to the home is faulty. It is like buying great textbooks for every student and then not allowing them to take them home to study use for their homework; it's like have a great teacher but making the kids leave their notes in school.

Fortunately there is another initiative in North Carolina that addresses the second half of this equation: the E-NC Authority.  According to a recent article in the Independent Weekly, Jane Smith Patterson, executive director of the state economic development project now called e-NC Authority, is tackling the issue of the last mile, working to provide high speed affordable access to every home in North Carolina, no matter how remote.  She is a women just a familiar with the needs in the most rural parts of her state as she is with the global digital divide.

Patterson believes that in order for the United States to bounce back, the federal government has to invest in technology deployment by offering incentives to get broadband to the people. "The governments in those countries have really been involved in pushing this," Patterson says. "They see it as important as water and sewer and electricity and roads, something it hasn't yet risen to in this country.

This combination of deep local knowledge with the understanding that this is an issue that must be addressed politically on the State and Federal level is precisely why the Speed Matters initiatives are so important.

Friday Institute Leads State Pilot Initiative to Provide Broadband Connectivity to All K-12 N.C. Schools
e-NC Authority goes the 'last mile'