IBM Reorganizes: As part of its sweeping internal reorganization, IBM has restructured its Atlanta-based education subsidiary to better compete in the precollegiate market. The company announced in January that IBM Educational Systems has been reorganized into EduQuest, a new company that will focus exclusively on selling IBM administrative and instructional products in the K-12 market. Although IBM Educational Systems, created in 1985, was frequently described as a relatively autonomous subsidiary of the corporation, it actually has had very little control over the products offered to its customers. While officers of the Atlanta-based operation were encouraged by corporate headquarters to determine the needs of their education customers, they had to depend on subsidiaries for engineering and development services. EduQuest, which is described as a “company within a company,’' will develop new products for the K-12 market and sell those products through a network of marketing representatives.
Not Enough Technology Training: Investments in new technology for schools in some states is outpacing the training necessary to realize its potential, a new report from the Southern Regional Education Board concludes. Writing in a preface to the report--which surveyed the planning and purchasing patterns of state precollegiate and postsecondary technology programs in the group’s 15 member states--Mark Musick, the board’s president writes: “Few teachers have progressed beyond the simplest computer operations, and most schools have not even begun to explore ways to fully integrate technology into the daily curriculum.’' The report also recommends steps that states should consider as they move toward an information-based curriculum. The report notes, for example, that “planning strategies need to become more systematic.’' Furthermore, it notes that there is a “critical absence’’ of research on faculty interest in technology and an “unmet need’’ for research on the effectiveness and efficiency of information technologies. Copies of the report, titled Plans and Investments in Educational Technology, are available for $10 each from the Southern Regional Education Board, 592 10th St., N.W., Atlanta, GA 30318.
