FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 15, 2001 CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119 DRAKE RECEIVES $400,000 GRANT TO BRIDGE THE 'DIGITAL DIVIDE' THROUGH SERVICE LEARNING Stuart W. Shulman, assistant professor of environmental science and policy at Drake University, has received a $400,000 research grant from the National Science Foundation to promote information technology literacy and identify methods for narrowing the "digital divide." The grant is the largest Drake has ever received from the NSF. Shulman, along with Sally Beisser, assistant professor of education at Drake, and professor of education and statistician Mack Shelley of Iowa State University, will conduct the three-year study. The project will involve a new class in Digital Citizenship that Shulman will teach for the first time at Drake this fall. "Individuals who lack Internet access or the skills necessary to use information technology are on the underprivileged side of a widely recognized 'digital divide,'" said Shulman, principal investigator for the project. "This class will explore the possibility for educational innovations that seek to identify, understand and remove these barriers in a comprehensive and systemic manner." Citizenship is increasingly dependent on computer literacy, Shulman added. "Political parties interact with members online. Interest groups use Web sites and electronic mail to woo the public. Media organizations perpetually update the news on their information-rich sites. Government makes vital information and documents available via the World Wide Web. Online information can provide the basis for environmental or personal health protection." Students in the class also will have the option of attending a lab session on Saturday afternoons at Drake's Dial Center for Computer Sciences. The goal of the lab is to make the students fluent in information technology and to prepare them for a service-learning project: teaching others how to communicate digitally. Students who successfully complete the lab sessions will have the opportunity to teach under-served citizens in central Iowa. The study will measure the impact of the program on both citizens and students. Control groups from similar geographic areas also will be evaluated. The project's primary objective, Shulman said, is to see how well service learning – students using their knowledge to educate others – can improve citizenship by increasing computer literacy. "Service learning is more than a good deed," professor Beisser said. "The process begins with identification of a problem or need within a specific community or population, in this case the digitally disenfranchised. Students as problem solvers, together with faculty members at Drake and Iowa State, will generate ways to collaborate and implement a service project in order to make a difference in the lives of others." Beisser is co-author of a chapter on "Service-Learning and Community-based Teaching and Learning: Developing Citizenship through Social Action" in a new book titled "Crossing Cultures: School/University Collaboration in the Social Studies." The research project will be evaluated by Iowa State's Research Institute for Studies in Education, which is coordinated by professor Shelley, co-principal investigator. "There are few things more essential today than democratizing digital access," Shelley said. "This will help to equalize the advantages of high technology and make it easier for everyone to be able to play a role in shaping public policy decisions. The Drake-ISU collaboration makes the best use of the resources and skills of both institutions. This can be the beginning of a beautiful friendship along I-35."