InformationWeek

March 26, 2001

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Divided We Fall

continued...page 2 of 3

Online only:

Reporter's Notebook: Musing From East Palo Alto

More on the digital divide:

sidebar: IT Assessments Are Key To Avoiding Hidden Costs

Worklife: E-Inclusion: It's Not A Choice by Richard Florida

Global Opportunities

E-Learning Crossfire (2/26/01)

IT Execs Speak Out On Technology (1/8/01)

TechWeb: Broadband Have-Nots Face Life Without E-Business (12/27/01)

The issue is even broader for Cisco Systems, which also has digital-divide initiatives in place. It's not just the IT workforce, says Christine Hemrick, the networking vendor's VP for strategic policy. "As companies reinvent business processes around technology, virtually every job will require a basic understanding of how IT works," she says. At Cisco, where company benefits information is distributed online, even manufacturing workers must know how to use a browser at a kiosk.

After hearing Cisco CEO John Chambers speak, Jack Cassidy, CEO of telecommunications and wireless services provider Cincinnati Bell, says he found himself thinking about computers in education. "Education represents two things that are lifeblood" for Cincinnati Bell and other companies, he says. They are future employees and future consumers. That's why Cincinnati Bell is creating a telecom curriculum for Taft High School, so that it can open an IT academy slated to open in September. The academy was born out of a collaboration between the Cincinnati school district and the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce.

Around the time that Cincinnati public school administrators realized they had to do something drastic to address a 40% to 75% high school dropout rate, the chamber of commerce began a program to transform the area into a high-tech region. So the two groups teamed up to create the IT academy that will offer students an opportunity to acquire skills and certification in IT, telecom, and electronic media. Despite its technology slant, the program isn't vocational; students will attend traditional high school classes, too.

As for the students who will attend Taft's IT academy (many of whom live in nearby projects in the poorest areas of the city), Cincinnati Bell is considering wiring their homes with free digital subscriber lines so they can have Internet access, Cassidy says. Also on the idea board: on-site telecom classes for Taft students at Cincinnati Bell's state-of-the-art data center, company employees as teachers, and internships for the academy's best and brightest.

IT Workers Wanted Though most companies involved in digital-divide initiatives are technology vendors, some nontech companies are providing funds and volunteers. Richard Shellito, VP of systems at State Farm Insurance Co. in Bloomington, Ill., says the digital divide goes beyond just the lack of computers or Internet access. "Students must also have the analytical and math skills to understand technology," he says.

In addition to participating in a computer-donation program with its communities, the insurance company has established policies to promote technology know-how in disadvantaged areas. Mark Harms, a recruiting and hiring analyst, runs an eight-week summer program designed to integrate technology into schools and to meet state education objectives. Two teachers and 13 students meet at company headquarters each year. Last year's effort resulted in TeacherOutreach.org, an online resource for teachers about using software and the Internet. Created by a handful of people, it's now used by 1,100 Illinois teachers.

There's another divide that's harder to measure than socioeconomic status, geography, and race: the cultural chasm between business and education. Without bridging that cultural gap, good intentions, and even tightly focused, well-funded programs, may miss the mark. CIOs have long known that they can't just throw money at IT and expect it to succeed. Similarly, companies can't throw money--or hardware and software--at schools, hoping that somehow the technology will catch on.

The business milieu is one that involves clear outcomes, measurable goals, and specific, agreed-to standards: Money is its driver. But schools aren't in business to turn a profit. Their culture is hard for businesses to grasp, says Brown's Amirault. "We haven't done a good job of explaining why people should use technology. Job preparedness is a lame explanation," he says. "Teachers aren't buying it. Schools aren't set up to embrace technology the way corporations are."

Photo by David Turek Eric Hartwig, principal at Menlo-Atherton High School in Menlo Park, Calif., agrees that companies need to understand the culture of education. "It's easy to say, 'Schools should behave as businesses.' But we don't have the structure or the liberty to act as businesses," he says.

Hartwig's school draws students out of five communities, from tony Atherton to East Palo Alto, which has the highest dropout rate in the San Francisco Bay area. The school is proud of its ethnic diversity: Caucasians, African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Pacific Islanders make up the student body, and there's no ethnic majority. Some come from homes where the technology includes T1 lines and personal tech support from parents who are IT executives. At the other extreme are students with no PC at home and working parents to whom the Internet remains a mystery.

Step into Manuel Delgado's class in computer basics, and it's quiet except for the tikka-tikk-tikka of 30 sets of hands working 30 keyboards. Delgado says a lot of his students don't have PCs at home, so they need to increase their skills at school. For some, this course will serve as the foundation for programming courses; for others, it's a good basis for college or for entry-level jobs after graduation.

Business Angst Where do Menlo-Atherton's computers come from? A variety of sources, including the school budget, donations, grants, fund-raisers, and lobbying by parents who are Silicon Valley heavyweights who want more technology in the school.

On the surface, Menlo-Atherton would seem a good fit for Cisco's Networking Academy, which was highly publicized when it was launched in 1997. Initially created to train teachers and students to maintain their schools' IT infrastructures, the program has evolved into an in-depth curriculum leading to student certification in Cisco networking and a near-guarantee of IT employment.