Two Reports on Computer and Internet Use by U.S. Students

"Computer and Internet Use by Students in 2003", U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, September 2006. Description:

"This report examines the use of computers and the Internet by American children enrolled in nursery school and students in kindergarten through grade 12. The report examines the overall rate of use (that is, the percentage of individuals in the population who are users), the ways in which students use the technologies, where the use occurs (home, school, and other locations), and the relationships of these aspects of computer and Internet use to demographic and socioeconomic characteristics such as students' age and race/ethnicity and their parents' education and family income. This report confirms that patterns of computer and Internet use seen in previous research are observed in more recent data. One of the more important findings presented in the report is that schools appear to help narrow the disparities between different types of students in terms of computer use. Differences in the rates of computer use are smaller at school than they are at home when considering such characteristics as race/ethnicity, family income, and parental education."

Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994-2003, U.S. National Center for Education Statistics, February 2005. Description:

"This report presents 10 years of data from 1994 to 2003 on Internet access in U.S. public schools by school characteristics. It provides trend analysis on the percent of public schools and instructional rooms with Internet access and on the ratio of students to instructional computers with Internet access. The report contains data on the types of Internet connections, support of computer hardware/software and websites, technologies and procedures used to prevent student access to inappropriate material on the Internet, and the availability of hand-held and laptop computers to students or teachers. It also provides information on school websites, the availability of computers with Internet access outside of regular school hours, and teacher professional development on how to integrate the use of the Internet into the curriculum."

I am quite impressed at how fully computers and the Internet have penetrated U.S. schools, but somewhat surprised that the digital divide is still so evident in the homes of minority children.