May 22, 1996 Contact: Robert Irion (408) 459-2495; irion@ua.ucsc.edu

CALIFORNIA COUNCIL ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MEETS AT UC SANTA CRUZ

Business, education, and government leaders focus on the technology revolution in the classroom

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--The California Council on Science and Technology (CCST), the leading partnership of officials from academia, government, and industry in California, held a two-day "education summit" this week at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Attendees at the summit, held on May 21 and 22, focused on how to improve the use of the World Wide Web and other advanced communication and computing technologies in education at the K-12 and university levels. UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Karl S. Pister, who has chaired the CCST Board of Directors for five years, hosted the summit. Speakers included representatives of the governor's office, the state Department of Education, several universities and colleges, and firms such as Apple Computer, NETSchools, The Learning Company, and Jones Digital Century, Inc.

"We want to initiate a call to action by the CCST to provide the leadership needed to make these new technologies available to every educator in California," said Ed Zschau, former U.S. congressman and chair of the CCST education committee. "I assert that technology will revolutionize education within the next five years, and that California should provide the leadership to make this happen. In my opinion, we haven't done that yet."

Indeed, Pister noted, California ranks in the bottom 10 percent of states in terms of student access to computers in the classroom. "Clearly, the use of technology in education at every level presents us with enormous challenges and opportunities," Pister said. "CCST is a means for us to involve both the academic and business communities, together with government agencies, to discuss how to move toward the classrooms and campuses of the future."

At their private meetings, participants saw demonstrations of communication and computing technologies, with a focus on the tremendous power and flexibility of the World Wide Web. Members of both the CCST Board of Directors and the overall council discussed how to help shape the state's policy on technology in the classroom.

The state legislature created CCST in 1988 to provide independent findings on public-policy issues in science and technology that affect the state's economy. The council comprises 30 corporate CEOs, academicians, scientists, and eminent scholars, directed by a 11-member Board of Directors. Six key academic institutions sponsor the council: the University of California, California State University, the California Community Colleges, the California Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of Southern California.

The primary objectives of CCST, which meets four times each year, are as follows:

* identify the long-range research requirements to sustain the state's economic development and competitiveness;

* provide direction for new scientific and technological activities;

* stimulate technology-transfer links between university researchers and the private sector;

* produce analysis of public-policy issues and create policy recommendations in the areas of science and technology;

* establish an organizational structure to develop collaborative public/private sector initiatives targeted to spur research and development activities, innovation, and growth of new industries and jobs in science and technology.

Editor's note: For more information about the California Council on Science and Technology, call the council's headquarters in Newport Beach: (714) 442-7800. Information about CCST initiatives also is available at the following World Wide Web address: http://ccst.ucr.edu

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