|
Embargoed until:
NSF PR 98-35 (NSB 98-126) - July 1, 1998
This material is available primarily for archival
purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information
may be out of date; please see current contact information
at media
contacts.
Growth of Information Technology Is Changing the Face
of the Economy
S&E Indicators '98 Says IT
Likened in Scope to Industrial Revolution
The impact of new information technologies (IT) has
been pervasive on society but productivity benefits
are more difficult to pin down, according to a new
National Science Board (NSB) report to Congress, Science
and Engineering Indicators 1998.
The NSB report notes a tremendous upward demand for
employment in computers and data processing across
a wide range of industries. These skills are increasingly
in demand by manufacturing, service and other industries
that are modernizing their processes.
The report also notes recent studies indicating that
the impact of IT is mixed, saying there are measurable
payoffs in productivity, but that IT has diffused
unevenly throughout the economy. Its effects, therefore,
are often difficult to measure precisely.
Highlighting the challenge, says the NSB in a special
chapter on IT, is the difficulty in tracking the rapidly
developing and changing technologies that are permeating
all sectors of the economy.
Nevertheless, the use of IT is widespread, says the
report, and is contributing to the retooling of the
U.S. economy.
"We've entered a new era. Information technology is
shaping our economy and many elements of our society,"
Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, NSB chair of the Science
and Engineering Indicators subcommittee, explains.
"Our high-speed, high-volume information systems need
to enhance our international competitiveness, global
research capabilities and our personal well-being."
Indicators reports that in education,
there has been a large jump in the use of computers
and related technological tools. However, schools
with a large percentage of economically disadvantaged
students have one-third to three times less access
to these technologies than schools attended by primarily
white or nondisadvantaged students. In addition, disadvantaged
students can't compensate in their homes for this
lack of access in schools, the report points out.
African Americans and Hispanics had (in 1993) about
half as much ownership of home computers as whites.
Research, meanwhile, indicates that when the "informationally
disadvantaged" are given access to computers and the
Internet, they use these resources effectively for
self-empowerment.
The URL for the web version of Science and Engineering
Indicators 1998 is:
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind98/start.htm
For other press releases about S&E Indicators,
see:
- PR 98-34 Upswing in
Industrial R&D Creating Positive Economic Benefits:
New data released in S&E Indicators 1998
- PR 98-36 Science
and Engineering Indicators '98 Survey
Shows Americans' Interest in Science Grows: But
actual understanding of scientific terms and concepts
still lags
|
