Helping to bridge the digital divide

Public schools ought to take seriously the technology partnerships proposed by Trish Millines Dziko and her nonprofit Technology Access Foundation.

Dziko brings authority gained from a decade of using her foundation to provide access and technology skills to disadvantaged children. Dziko left Microsoft a decade ago when the concern was narrowing the gap between those with access to computers and other technology and those without it.

The gap persists. While two of every three white students use the Internet, fewer than half of black and Hispanic children do.

But credit goes to organizations like Dziko's and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which have ensured computers are available in libraries and classrooms and students are trained to use them.

Dziko is again in the forefront at a critical juncture in the digital divide: training students to use technology to succeed academically.

Technologically savvy students have long used the Internet for research and academic help. But minority students have lagged behind in their use of technology as a teaching aid. Dziko adds a smart piece to this puzzle with a proposal to create five new public schools in the region over the next seven years with an emphasis on technology, math and the sciences.

Dziko, whose foundation will enroll 300 students this year, gets it. Access to technology is there. Now the goal rightly shifts to getting students to use it for academic success.

For more information on Dziko and the Technology Access Foundation, go to: www.techaccess.org