The objective of this project is to discover effective mechanisms for
reducing the disparity between the technological haves and have-nots,
in terms of employability, income and societal participation (aka The Digital
Divide). Since a disproportionately large number of African-Americans fall in
the category of have-nots, we have taken on the "so-called" African American
Problem as our research challenge. Recent data suggest that Hispanic Americans
have begun to close the gap in the Digital Divide. However, this is not the case
for African Americans. Despite years of affirmative action and targeted programs,
African Americans as a group have not benefited in proportion to the resources
expended. The Internet, the World Wide Web, and new information technologies are
powerful engines for change and rapid technological change tends to exacerbate
pre-existing social and economic conditions. Thus, the "Digital Divide"
continues to grow because it is firmly supported by existing racial, economic
and social divides, despite what appear to be grand efforts to the contrary.
Our project will implement a multidisciplinary approach to the solution of the
Digital Divide problem for African Americans through basic research in
information technology, distributed systems, human computer interfaces, and
collaboration technologies with a central emphasis on how culture expresses
itself in and influences information technologies. We will utilize our results
to develop technologies that diminish the Digital Divide.
In this project we will conduct basic research in distributed systems,
information retrieval, human computer interfaces, collaboration technologies,
social/cultural preferences of African Americans, public policy analysis and
culture-specific pedagogies and assessments. A unifying framework for our
project is the development of a culture-specific, distributed, distance
learning system for African Americans based on the single-learner
multiple-teacher model. Our basic research is complemented by a number of
educational technology development projects and community deployment assessments.
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