CUNY hosted three meetings during Spring and Fall of 1996 to explore practical and philosophical questions posed by the 1996 Telecommunications Law, which calls for access to technology for American public schools. The meetings, entitled "The Universal Access Forum," were sponsored by NetTech, the Northeast Regional Technology in Education Consortium, of which CUNY is a lead partner (see articles in FYeI Fall 1995 on NetTech and in Spring 1996 on the Telecommunications Law).

The Forum meetings, held at the CUNY Graduate School and University Center, were co-chaired by Walker Crewson and Chuck DeVoe, from the Office of Technology Policy, New York State Education Department, and included representatives from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island.

The K-12 population in the next five years is expected to grow from 44 million to 94 million. A survey conducted in 1995 by the U.S. Department of Education found that a large percentage of classrooms are unconnected to communication links, and the barriers to introducing online learning included not only lack of funding but also lack of technological information within school communities. The Forum has been instrumental in allowing representatives to understand the widely divergent situations within states in the Northeast region.

There is growing pressure from business, industry and government to have schools train students to be capable of taking their place in the technology-based workforce of the future. At the same time, there has been resistance from many quarters (including voters, school administrations, parents and others) to telecommunications technologies as learning instruments because no valid assessment methodology has definitely demonstrated its contribution to improvement in learning.

Is too much expected of educational technology, or is it delivering too little? NetTech's view of this issue reflects the fact that for the first time in our history we are living in a technological revolution/evolution and technology is here to stay until the next version or the next tool comes along. Our challenge as educators is to recognize the new possibilities that technology offers in support of the acquisition of knowledge and utilize them appropriately. No one can argue that, with access to the Internet and WWW, students now imagine themselves as members of a world, not just part of a neighborhood.

More importantly, however, methods must be developed to keep parity among schools for telecommunications access in an area that is constantly changing. The consensus is that the states must take a more proactive role in this area, disseminating information, articulating issues and building strategies for providing telecommunications technologies equitably in the schools.

Among the issues raised at the two sessions was whether the focus of energy should lie in developing a technology-based classroom curriculum, or in developing more general knowledge within the school itself, thus allowing it to adapt more flexibly to changes in technology as they occur. Public awareness was considered to be important, and efforts to educate legislators, school superintendents and other policy makers were deemed to be the thrust for future action.

Other plans for action include:

* setting up a NetTech WWW site as a repository for state reports on the progress of dealing with public utility commissions;

* having state departments of education deliver guidelines and models on dealing with telecommunications issues brought up by the Telecommunications Law (to be shared via the WWW site or newsletter, both within and outside the region);

* providing tutorials or invitational meetings to educate the public on issues surrounding telecommunications, including:

- using technology and hanging the educational curriculum;

- promoting expertise in technology and learning;

- dealing with wiring and connectivity;

- establishing pricing for telecommunications access.

The next meeting, in November, will occur through a teleconference via satellite uplink to educate legislators and state policy-makers across the region.