Are Electronic Conferences a Solution in Search of an Urban Problem?

Abstract

This article briefly reviews initiatives that have attempted to create communities of educators using Web-based, electronic conferencing. The authors critically analyze the advocacy for electronic communication as a medium for bringing educators together across time and distance with an emphasis on what is known about urban schools, access to Internet connections, and teachers’workloads. Although not a research report, the analysis is grounded in 4 years of ongoing research and development of the Novice Teacher Support E-mentoring Project and in the evaluation of the expansion of this concept to institutions in the Greater Chicago area. The authors raise questions about the role of technology and the intensification of expectations of urban educators.