DOCUMENT RESUME

In 1997, Maine's local telephone companies have been required to provide free Internet access to all public schools, which will help to eliminate cost as a prohibitive factor in bringing the Internet to schools. The inservice training and support, however, must be supplied by individual school districts. This study provides an overview of how the University of Southern Maine is helping to prepare both graduate students and teachers for educational technology use. Specifically, it investigates the extent to which graduate students enrolled in the University of Southern Maine's Special Education Department are using computers and the Internet in their classrooms. An original survey was used as the main instrument to measure the use of computers and the Internet; an original World Wide Web page with an electronic version of the survey attached to the site was also available. Research findings suggest that graduate students need to be better educated in the use of computers and the Internet. The fact that 72 of th