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.