9454719 Friedman The establishment and assessment of the networking infrastructure for education (NIE) testbed described in this document is an integral component of New Jersey's Statewide Systemic Initiative (NJ SSI) to achieve excellence in mathematics, science, and technology education throughout the state. Furthermore, the activities described herein are guided by, and central to, efforts toward the full implementation of New Jersey's State Educational Technology Action Plan. The critical importance of NIE in achieving statewide systemic educational reform is reflected in the rate at which new materials are compiled, new instructional tools are applied and new instructional methods are adopted. The curriculum alignment cycle has been dramatically shortened. If we are to keep pace, NIE must be used to provide opportunity for teachers who will create astounding instructional projects that must be captured electronically and shared with colleagues at other schools to support instructional reform throughout the state. Our goal is to learn more about effective networking strategies and to develop a significant component of a networking infrastructure which: 1) enhances student learning; 2) empowers teachers, and; 3) supports statewide systemic school reform. Our objectives are: 1) to design and implement the technological infrastructure; 2) to design and implement strategies for helping teachers to develop the knowledge, skills, and ability to use the technological infrastructure to access information and to use such information resources effectively in their classrooms; 3) to develop broader public understanding of the educational benefits that result from the effective use of the technological infrastructure and to consider public policies which promote such use; 4) to assure that the benefits to be derived from the use of the evolving technological infrastructure are available to students regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, and poverty level , and; 5) to document strategies and results so that others may learn from our experience.
