Dr. Joyce Williams-Green knows from direct experience that using
computers in the classroom can be daunting for both students and
faculty.
When she first taught “Introduction to Black Studies” at Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University (also known as Virginia
Tech) in 1994, most of her students were – like her – African American.
But the next time she taught the class, she required students to use
the Internet and electronic mail to complete class assignments.
Thirteen of fifteen Black students left the course, and although six of
them eventually returned, Williams-Green found the experience troubling.
Nevertheless, “Introduction to Black Studies” has retained its
computer elements – including a requirement that students design and
publish pages on the World Wide Web.
“Black student enrollment in intro Black studies is increasing, but it hasn’t gotten back to where it was,” Williams-Green says.
That experience helped spur her and like-minded colleagues to
spearhead an initiative to help twelve historically Black colleges and
universities learn how to use computers and the Internet in teaching.
The initiative, entitled VITAE (Virtual Institute for Technology
Advancement in Education), is inspired partly by Virginia Tech’s
intensive adoption of computers in the classroom, and partly by
Williams-Green’s teaching experiences with African American students at
that institution.
Williams-Green, who is director of Black Studies at Virginia Tech,
says the regional consortium is necessary because it helps to bring
more information technology resources and expertise into the African
American community. She attributes diminished Black student enrollment
in her Black Studies class to a discomfort with computers that she has
found among a number of African American students who have not had
prior exposure to the technology.
While discomfort with computers is not unique to African American
students, Williams-Green believes that the lack of computer access in
the Black community, and in urban and poor school districts, can have a
detrimental effect on students’ attitudes toward technology once when
they reach the college environment.
