US/ND-3: Re: SCANS and Universal Service

Re: SCANS and Universal Service

Betty Dawn Hamilton (bhamilt@tenet.edu)
Sun, 15 Sep 1996 06:54:41 -0500 (CDT) 

On Sat, 14 Sep 1996 EricElert@aol.com wrote:

> As Betty mentioned re: SCANS (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary
> Skills) form the Dept. of Labor in April, 1992 has been held as a landmark
> study.

Thanks, Eric! I could not remember what the "A" stood for even though I
*thought* the Secretary of Labor's Commission stood for the SC.  I
appreciate the clarification.  You may be surprised (if you aren't a part
of the education community) that *last* year was the first year that many
educators at the grassroots levels made much to do over the report.  A
colleague and I presented some staff development workshops right after it
came out, and obviously, no one in our groups had heard of it. 

However, those in our workshops clammored for more information, addresses,
and phone numbers -- that was in Feb of '93.  We had copies of the report
in the Fall of '92 because that was when we started planning the
workshops, but then WE were both users of the internet at that time. I
don't remember if we heard of it there or where we were initially
introduced to it -- perhaps it was at a conference since both of us are 
active participants in such. 

Sometimes it takes far too long for such research to reach those who
really need it. I feel that the Universal Service that we are discussing
will alleviate that gap to some extent.  From spring 1992 until fall of
1995 is quite a time lag for important information to get to where it
belongs. Teachers tend to follow state and local guidelines as to what
they teach (since they are held accountable for those things), so I'm not
sure *who* is at fault in the delay in implementing the SCANS
recommendations. 

Of course, students (and teachers) can't "select the correct technology 
for a job" (as in #4 or #5 of the SCANS competencies) if hardware and 
software and connectivity aren't physically available to them or if they 
don't even know such exist. Perhaps the SCANS report *did* cause schools 
to look more closely at providing more technology for students, and those 
doing the implementing just didn't mention the SCANS.

Betty
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