Further, affluent students use computers as much as 20 percent more than the average student. The addition of networking to school computer arsenals has only widened this gap. According to Becker, computer networking is confined primarily to the northeastern United States. Network use in 1992, for instance, was 70percent higher in suburban secondary schools than for secondary schools as a whole, while black elementary school kids used networks 66 percent less than theaverage. To the extent that such disparities exist, the consequences could be serious.
Many students become familiar with information technologies in a general sense.
Such students become passive consumers of electronic information-usually in front of the television. They may catch on as data-entry clerks, typing page after page in deadly monotony. As the U.S. marches into the Information Age, and schools increasingly build on-ramps to the information superhighway, the issue of equal access will requireclose attention. In particular, if grassroots efforts and market forces fail tomeet the needs of poorer school districts, government may have to assume a larger role.