Little is known about how students and teachers can get high quality and equitable access to the educational and scientific resources that are becoming available on the Internet. With the proposal of a new NSF program that will develop resources and virtual communities on Internet to support the widespread implementation of advanced technologies and curricula in science, math and engineering education, our lack of understanding of local communication infrastructures becomes an urgent concern. This project will examine the technological and pedagogical infrastructures that are required for teachers and students to make optimal use of these resources. The exploratory research will investigate1) the major issues schools and materials developers will face in implementing programs making use of the Internet,2) models that are currently available for providing access 3) the current resources, capabilities and mechanisms of the Internet and 4) new developments and approaches that are most likely to provide maximum leverage in obtaining educational advantages from Internet resources.
