In the last few weeks, federal and state officials have introduced a plethora of plans and proposals with implications for education and the role of technology that is perhaps unprecedented in scale and scope. The latest is the “National Broadband Plan: Connecting America” released today by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in response to a Congressional request in the Recovery Act a year ago. The others: the National Education Technology Plan, titled “Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology” released two weeks ago, the Obama Administration’s ESEA “blueprint for reform” and the NGA-CCSSO Common Core standards, not to mention the final Investing in Innovation (i3) rules. The timing is largely coincidental. The question: What does it all mean?
A few observations specific to education technology and SIIA members:
-The Obama Administration (including the independent FCC) seems to view technology as an important means to educating our students to maintain our global competitiveness.
- The Obama Administration is proposing a new federal policy path to realizing that goal, proposing to increase the E-Rate, eliminate targeted DoED funding through the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program, infuse technology in other ESEA programs, and look to “supply-side solutions” such as investment in open educational resources (OER) and interoperability as well as potentially far-reaching regulation around copyright, technology standards, etc.
- It is unclear whether the Obama Administration’s vision for transforming education through technology is a priority or sufficiently backed by “demand-side” targeted federal policies and investments (i.e., those directly supporting educational agencies and teachers around technology) needed to help lead the nation’s education system in this new direction.
- It is less clear how the U.S. Congress, not to mention education leaders, will react in that their actions are largely need to legislate and enact these policies and recommendations. For example, “Many of the FCC’s proposals are short on details, and lawmakers and the agency can accept or reject any number of the ideas.”
A few examples of policies of potential concern that seek to expand the federal role on the “supply-side” around technology or change federal regulation:
- “When the Department of Education funds technology-based learning tools and resources, they should give priority to bids that will produce open resources, and the Department should identify and promote new business models that provide for sustaining and maintaining these resources.” (NETP, p.62)
- “The Department of Education with the Office of Science and Technology Policy should convene a cross-agency effort to create, publish, and maintain open standards for content, student learning, and financial data interoperability.” (NETP, p.73)
- “Congress should consider taking legislative action to encourage copyright holders to grant educational digital rights of use, without prejudicing their other rights. (NBBP, Rec. 11.4)
- “Whenever possible, federal investments in digital educational content should be made available under licenses that permit free access and derivative commercial use and should be compatible with the standards defined in Recommendation 11.1.” (NBBP, Rec. 11.2)
- “The U.S. Department of Education, with support from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), should establish standards to be adopted by the federal government for locating, sharing and licensing digital educational content by March 2011.” (NBBP, Rec. 11.1)
- “The U.S. Department of Education should provide a simple Request for Proposal (RFP) online ‘broadcast’ service where vendors can register to receive RFP notifications from local or state educational agencies within various product categories.” (NBBP, Rec. 11.13)
With regard to the Broadband Plan, reactions are mixed. SIIA commends the FCC for a comprehensive National Broadband Plan recognizing the importance of ubiquitous high speed broadband access to our nation’s educational and economic health. While many education ideas are touched on, we encourage the FCC and Congress to focus on those most appropriate and direct to the core goal: improving broadband access to schools and students necessary for learning in this digital age, including especially the raising of the E-rate cap.
Out of “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” of these plans and proposals, SIIA looks forward to working further with our members, policy makers and other stakeholders to create an appropriate and positive set of policies and investments needed to transform education through technology.