RE: Technology in Education

This is another area illustrating the need to take adult education needs more fully into account in the state's comprehensive educational plan. No thought has been given systematically to providing necessary technology, internet access, staff development, or funding of positions in adult education programs to bring them fully into the 21st Century. E-rate formulas, for example, are based on school lunch statistics. Adult secondary schools and occupational centers, even ones with very large numbers of minor students, do not serve school lunches and are out of the loop on such services.

On the other hand, providing adult learners with access to technology and technological schools is yet another way adult ed impacts positively on K-12 education. Any adult ed teacher you can give you plenty of anecdotal evidence about the way in which adult learners become more capable of communicating with and helping their kids -- even, or especially, on the computerwhich sometimes creates an enormous cultural divide within families, particularly immigrant families.