Ed. note: Today at 3:30 PM ET, we're holding a virtual "show and tell" with three schools that are embracing technology and digital learning. Tune in to wh.gov/show-and-tell to watch live, or join the discussion on Google+ or Twitter using the hashtag #WHhangout.
President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, right, talk with students while visiting a classroom at the Yeadon Regional Head Start Center in Yeadon, Pa., Nov. 8, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Preparing America’s students with the skills they need to get good jobs and compete with countries around the world relies increasingly on interactive, individualized learning experiences driven by new technology.
From digital textbooks that help students visualize and interact with complex concepts, to apps and platforms that adapt to the level of individual student knowledge and help teachers know precisely which lessons or activities are working, many schools are already seeing the benefits of digital learning and connectivity. This technology is real, it is available, and its capacity to improve education is profound.
But today, millions of students lack access to the high-speed broadband internet that supports this sort of learning technology. Fewer than 20 percent of educators across the country say their school’s Internet connection meets their teaching needs.
Although the United States was once a pioneer in connecting schools to the internet, we’re now falling behind while other nations move forward with aggressive investment in digital learning and technology education. In South Korea, for example, all schools have high-speed internet connections, and all teachers are trained in digital learning. Printed textbooks will be phased out by 2016.
The fact is, schools without internet access put our students at a disadvantage.
That’s why President Obama is unveiling a bold, new initiative called ConnectED, which will connect 99 percent of America’s students to the internet through high-speed broadband and high-speed wireless within 5 years.
The President also directed the federal government to make better use of existing funds to get Internet connectivity and educational technology into classrooms, and into the hands of teachers trained on its advantages. And he called on businesses, states, districts, schools and communities to support this vision, which requires no congressional action.
Here’s how ConnectEd works:
Upgrading connectivity
The ConnectED initiative will, within five years, connect 99 percent of America’s students to the digital age through next-generation broadband and high-speed wireless in their schools and libraries. The President is calling on the Federal Communications Commission to modernize and leverage existing programs, as well as the expertise of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to deliver this connectivity.
ConnectED will also provide better broadband access for students in rural areas, by expanding successful efforts to connect parts of the country that typically have trouble attracting investment in broadband infrastructure.
Training teachers
Our teachers are being asked to do more than ever, and they need to be equipped with better tools to help them succeed. Fortunately, technology can play a central role in this.
For example, new digital education tools that allow for real-time assessments of student learning, provide more immediate feedback to drive professional development, and enable the creation of interactive online lessons can empower teachers to understand each student’s strengths and weaknesses and design lessons and activities that better meet their needs.
The ConnectED initiative invests in improving the skills of teachers, ensuring that every educator in America receives support and training in using education technology tools that can improve student learning.
Additionally, ConnectED will lead to new resources for teachers from any school, at any time, to open their classrooms to interactive demonstrations, lessons from world-renowned experts, or the opportunity to build learning communities and to collaborate with other educators across the country or world.
Encouraging private sector innovation
Educational devices supported by high-speed networks are the portal to the world of online earning and interactive content, to personalized education software that adapts to students’ needs, and to breakthrough advances in assessing understanding and mastery.
These devices give students access to more rigorous and engaging classes, new learning resources, rich visualizations of complex concepts, and instruction in any foreign language. They also give students more opportunities to work at their own speed and receive additional one-on-one help they need to develop their knowledge and skills.
Leading technology companies are capable of producing feature-rich educational devices that are price-competitive with basic textbooks.And a robust market in educational software can unlock the full educational potential of broadband investment, while create American jobs and export opportunities in a global education marketplace of over $1 trillion.
At NC school, Obama calls for federal money to help bring ‘digital learning’ to US classrooms
MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Touting the need to give every child the tools for success, President Barack Obama on Thursday toured a North Carolina school where every student has a laptop and called for 99 percent of American students to be connected to super-fast Internet within five years.
At a middle school in Mooresville, Obama announced he was directing federal regulators to turn the nation’s classrooms into digital learning centers by equipping schools with broadband and high-speed Internet connections — at a cost of several billion dollars.
In a country where we expect free Wi-Fi with our coffee, why shouldn’t we have it in our schools?” Obama said.
Citing competition from other nations that are working feverishly to out-educate the U.S., Obama said American schools, where only 20 percent of students are connected to high-speed Internet, is falling behind nations like South Korea, where he said 100 percent of students are wired. He portrayed the move to prepare Americans for the jobs of the future as part of a broader strategy to foster economic growth.
“We can’t be stuck in the 19th century when we’re living in a 21st century economy,” the president said.
Earlier, eighth graders flanked Obama in the school’s media center, showing him a math project on a laptop. “So this is eighth grade math,” Obama said, stooping down between two students. Other students showed the president how they used the video software iMovie in their studies and how they take notes on a projection screen that get transferred automatically to their laptops.
“Some people ask if technology is going to replace teachers,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters aboard Air Force One. “That’s not ever going to happen. The answer is always great teachers.”
Forty percent of the kids in the Mooresville district receive free or reduced-price lunch — a key indicator of poverty — but all the students use laptops, as part of a program initiated by the district’s superintendent. Despite ranking near the bottom of the state in funding per pupil, the school now has the second-best test scores and third-best graduation rates, the American Association of School Administrators said.
Obama came to Mooresville, just north of Charlotte in the heart of North Carolina’s NASCAR country, to push an initiative that calls on the Federal Communications Commission to use an existing program that funds Internet access in schools and libraries through a surcharge on telephone bills to meet his goal. He also directed the government to do a better job of using existing funds to get Internet connections and educational technology into classrooms, and into the hands of teachers who know how to use it.
“Here’s the best news: None of this requires an act of Congress,” Obama said, alluding to the roadblocks Republicans on Capitol Hill have thrown in front of many of his other efforts.
One option for raising the several billion dollars needed for the program would be for the agency to impose a new, temporary surcharge on phone bills, administration officials said.
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