"Citizenship in the Digital Age" will be a tremendous undertaking that will require significant resources, ingenuity, commitment, passion, hours and effort from each stakeholder. The participants in the focus groups were able to identify certain items that must be addressed for the proposed initiative to be viable, including the following four essential actions:

• Outline in detail the intents and goals of this initiative-teachers feel the "Citizens in a Digital Age" initiative needs more definition before plans and priorities can be established.

• Find county-level contacts to provide leadership and a dedicated staff-leadership and support for any initiative was identified as crucial to its survival.

• Guarantee access to hardware and software for students and teachers-without the tools, teachers feel this initiative will be difficult to pursue.

• Establish a coordinating mechanism to bring interested businesses to the table with schools.

The champions of this initiative are encouraged to act quickly. The schools are ready and eager to move forward. With the tools in their hands, teachers and students will come up with creative ways to apply the technology. Delays will only stymie the efforts to educate and train our future workforce.

Previous Page