During the 1980s, students, faculty, and institutions embraced the use of computers for writing across the disciplines, financial analysis in business, and statistical analysis in the social sciences. Data bases, libraries, and other information sources have become increasingly accessible via computer networks to both faculty and students. Today, increasing numbers of faculty are utilizing the Internet and web sites. The fiscal pressures facing higher education combined with the increased demand for access, also have prompted renewed attention to technology. NEA recently conducted in-depth interviews with the education chairs of state legislative committees in 49 states.
Technology is viewed as a critical linkage between colleges and universities and the public schools.
In sparsely populated states, technology will provide educational access to students who are in remote locations. In the long term, technology is seen as a way to reduce the need to build new campuses. It also, mistakenly, is viewed as a cheap solution to educating masses of students. The excitement about distance education raises some important questions. When colleges and universities were first formed, their primary role was as a community of scholars with the library as the central storehouse of knowledge.