September 30, 1999

        Andy Carvin Joins the Benton Foundation

        Addition of EdWeb author to the Benton team highlights Foundation's
                expanding commitment to digital divide, edtech issues

The Benton Foundation is pleased to announce the recent hiring of noted
education technology expert and author Andy Carvin as Senior Associate in
the Communications Policy and Practice (CPP) program. "We're so fortunate
to have such an acknowledged leader in the field of educational technology
join CPP," said its director Tony Wilhelm. "Andy understands better than
anyone I know the marriage of the Internet and broadcasting, and what it
signifies for educational equity and excellence in the digital age."

Carvin, 28, previously served as New Media Program Officer for the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He is best known for his pioneering
education Web site, EdWeb: Exploring Technology and
School  (http://edweb.gsn.org). Named by NetGuide Magazine as "One of the
Top 50 Places to Go Online," EdWeb was one of the first websites to
advocate the use of the World Wide Web in schools, and has served hundreds
of thousands of educators since its premiere in October 1994. He is also
the founder and moderator of WWWEDU, the Internet's oldest and largest
email discussion forum on the role of the Web in education. Andy and his
writings have appeared in numerous publications, including Harvard
Educational Review, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Esther Dyson's
Release 1.0, Web Review, and the 2nd edition of The Internet Unleashed,
published by Sams/Macmillan. He also contributes a bi-monthly column, 1's
and 0's, to the education magazine Multimedia Schools. Andy was recently
named by eSchoolNews Magazine as a member of the Impact 30, an annual list
highlighting 30 of the most influential people in education technology
today.

Carvin will manage the Digital Divide Clearinghouse, a news and research
website developed by Benton and the AOL Foundation which will focus on
efforts to bridge the gap between technological haves and have nots. Carvin
will also spearhead Benton's next-generation work on education technology,
building on its nationally-recognized report, The Learning Connection, by
exploring methods to harness the potential of new media to promote quality
education.

Andy holds a Bachelor degree in rhetoric and a Masters in
telecommunications from Northwestern University, where he received the
prestigious Annenberg/Washington Graduate Fellowship. While living in
Illinois, he was co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Chicago Northshore
arts magazine, Art+Performance. In his free time, Andy has traveled
extensively around the world and has written about his adventures in
popular online travelogues. In January 1999, Andy premiered From Sideshow
to Genocide: Stories of the Cambodian Holocaust
(http://edweb.gsn.org/sideshow), a multimedia history of the Khmer Rouge
regime and collection of survivor accounts. Most recently Andy published
High Plains Backpacker: An Andean Adventure from Cusco to La Paz
(http://edweb.gsn.org/altiplano). He is currently beginning work on a Web
site regarding his September 1999 travels across Turkish Kurdistan.

Andy lives in Arlington, Virginia.

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