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The skills required to use the switch hook flash on one's telephone pale in comparison to the skills and knowledge needed to use resources and services in the evolving National Information Infrastructure (NII) and the Internet/National Research and Education Network (NREN). While some people begin to develop and others expand and refine their network skills and competencies, the vast majority of the public has no skills related to using these new communications technologies, and many live in fear of a passing thunderstorm that might force them to relearn (again) how to reset the LCD time display on their VCR or microwave.
There is an educational disconnect between the rapidly developing communications technologies and information resources available to the public, and the public's ability to use these resources. An elite few, typically academics, researchers, technology enthusiasts, and "network junkies," are network literate. While the gulf between these network-literate "cybernauts" and the nonliterate continues to widen, the educational system remains largely oblivious. Individuals in this emerging electronic society primarily learn on their own to be productive in and empowered by this new environment, or they are left behind.
Significant changes in the communications infrastructure are affecting the very fabric of society. Information technologies in telecommunications, cable television, wireless satellite transmissions, the Internet/NREN, and other areas now provide an incredible, and seemingly endless, array of information resources and services. Experts knowledgeable about these technologies tell us that future uses and applications will be limited only by one's imagination (The Info Highway 1993). Network literacy--the ability to identify, access, and use electronic information from the network--will be a critical skill for tomorrow's citizens if they wish to be productive and effective in their personal and professional lives.
The NII, an amorphous term for the collection of these information technologies and the infrastructure that supports them, appears to be taking shape (U.S. Congress 1993a). We are moving toward establishing an ubiquitous electronic network that connects different information technologies to endless streams of digital data throughout the country and the world. Indeed, "network" is an evolving term that includes these various computer, telecommunications, cable TV, and other technologies.
Meanwhile, the telephone, telecommunications, and cable television companies are battling for the rights for (and profits from) wiring individual homes to a massive...