No Child Left Offline is part of Connected Nation, a non-profit initiative.
A similar program is happening in Kentucky
Thanks to the ConnectKentucky program, 94 percent of Kentucky households can get broadband, compared to only 60 percent in 2001. GovTech Magazine reports Kentucky will be the only state in the nation to have full broadband coverage by the end of the year — meaning every citizen in the state will be able to subscribe to some form of high-speed Internet.
Plans are to roll something like this out nationwide, especially in rural areas. Good!
I’d be a lot happier if they had a national “no child doesn’t know how to read a newspaper or magazine.” There are two problems with this: except for the New Yorker and the Economist, there are few magazines worth reading and virtually no newspapers, after the sale of the WSJ to Murdock.
I don’t believe that the Internet is an adequate method of teaching reading because it does not reward persistence and patience. Until beginning readers master those skills, they can’t begin to harvest the richness of the materials available on line, nor will they like to be able to separate the nuggets from the much-greater dross (not to say drek) that awaits them in cyberland.
Personally, I think “No child without a meal and access to health care” should be a higher priority. But then, I’m no liberal.
Well yeah, food and health care must come before being online (except for hardcore geeks, of course)