Digital Discourse / Education Policy

SIIA Applauds President Obama and Senator Rockefeller for Proposal to Enhance E-Rate School Connectivity

June 18, 2013 By

The Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee held a hearing today on the nomination of Mr. Thomas Wheeler to be Chairman, Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (WV) used the occasion to highlight the priority of ensuring that the nation’s students and schools have access to digital learning opportunities through expansion of the E-Rate program. This effort received a significant boost recently when President Obama proposed his ConnectEd initiative, calling on the FCC to take steps to improve and extend the E-Rate.

SIIA strongly supports expansion of the E-Rate program, and applauds both President Obama and Senator Rockefeller for their proposals and leadership. Expanding the E-Rate program will help transform the educational experience for the nation’s students by expanding the availability of high-quality digital learning opportunities. Swift action on this initiative is also critical to support full implementation of new college- and career-ready standards and aligned online assessments.

SIIA President Ken Wasch commented today:

“The nation’s students and schools require modern tools to compete in an increasingly digital, connected and competitive world. SIIA applauds President Obama for his proposal to enhance the E-Rate program to ensure all students and educators can realize the educational benefits made possible by technology. SIIA calls on the Federal Communications Commission to act swiftly to ensure these increased resources can quickly and effectively be directed to teaching and learning objectives.”

SIIA supports and has championed increased public investments in education targeted to both improve access to, and enhance the use of, educational technologies. Learning technologies are needed to improve educational opportunities, student engagement and the personalization of learning. Yet, SIIA’s soon to be released 2013 Vision K-20 educator survey results found that, while their goal for access to robust bandwidth is 3.98 (on a 1-4 scale), educators rate their actual access as only 3.14. Similarly, their need for ubiquitous, wireless access to resources and services ranks as a 3.89, but their actual access is only a 2.64.

Mark SchneidermanMark Schneiderman is Senior Director of Education Policy at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Government Forum, Education, Education Policies, Education Policy, Mobile: Education, Policy Tagged With: , , ,

May’s What’s New in Common Core Standards & Assessments?

June 6, 2013 By

May has been a busy month for Common Core. There appears to be increased backlash against the standards and assessments as the reality of implementation creeps closer. One could argue about the degree to which the concern is genuine or political, real or perceived. The pushback ranges from those citizens and political groups critical of a national curriculum influenced by the federal government  to educator groups concerned that resources and time are inadequate for an accountability (student, teacher and school) system based on CC-aligned assessments (including online SBAC and PARCC).  These pressures have caused several states to pause or rethink their adoption policies. It remains unclear if this is a bump in the road, or less likely, the tip of a significant retreat.  At the same time, there are also many key stakeholders standing up for Common Core and calling for states and education leaders to renew their commitment to implementation by the 2014-2015 school year.

Highlights from SIIA’s summary of happenings this month in CC include: a report on the state of common core by leading researchers; statements from key education leaders on recent Common Core debate; and perspectives from leading media sources. Other featured items include the recently released practice tests and recommendations for teachers and administrators to implement the CCSS.

With all of the recent uncertainty surrounding Common Core, SIIA sees it as vital that our members have access to the latest data and resources on CCSS. Look for more updates by SIIA in a month!

Meanwhile, SIIA members can review past SIIA webinars on CCSS, view session summaries from SIIA’s Ed Tech Government Forum in Washington, DC, and look for our upcoming (TBD) webinar on the Common Core timeline and implementation.

 

 

Lindsay HarmanLindsay Harman is Market and Policy Analyst for the SIIA Education Division.

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Filed Under: Education, Education Policies, Education Policy, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Momentum Growing for Federal Investment in Digital Learning

June 6, 2013 By

Educators and public officials are no longer asking “if” technology, but instead “how” can they best support and leverage the modernization of schools and teaching through technology and digital learning. That effort has received several boosts this month, including today when President Obama will announce the ConnectED initiative.

Most significantly, “The President is calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to modernize and leverage the existing E-Rate program [to] . . . within five years, connect 99 percent of America’s students, through next-generation broadband (at speeds no less than 100Mbps and with a target of 1Gbps) to, and high-speed wireless within, their schools and libraries.” E-Rate funding has been relatively flat at $2.25 billion since its creation in 1996, while the need for, and the demand for, connectivity has grown dramatically.

The President’s proposal also directs the U.S. Department of Education “to make better use of existing funds to get this technology into classrooms, and into the hands of teachers trained on its advantages,” including especially around teacher professional development through Title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

Notably, the President’s propsoal identifies the need to “Build on Private-Sector Innovation” to “allow our teachers and students to take full advantage of feature-rich educational devices . . . and high-quality educational software (including applications) . . .”

Federal support is also growing in Congress. Representative George Miller, Ranking Democrat on the House Education & the Workforce Committee, has introduced the Transforming Education Through Technology Act (HR521) to support school technology readiness and teacher professional development to ensure all students can access and benefit from technology. And Senate H.E.L.P. Committee Chairman Tom Harkin includes a number of related programs and provisions in his recently introduced Strengthening America’s Schools Act of 2013. The Harkin proposal builds on legislation (S1087) recently introduced by Senators Hagan, Murray and Baldwin.  At SIIA’s April policy forum (in conjunction with CoSN, ISTE and SETDA), FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel announced a related package of proposed changes to the E-Rate to increase its funding and improve its administration.

SIIA supports and has championed these federal proposals to increase investments in education targeted to both increase access to, and enhance the use of, educational technologies. Learning technologies are needed to improve learning opportunities, engagement and personalization. Yet SIIA’s Vision K20 educator survey and other data shows that access to and use of these technologies is limited.

SIIA calls on the FCC and Congress to advance these and related initiatives needed to ensure all students and educators can realize the educational benefits made possible by technology.

As the President’s proposal articulates: “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, this technology is real, it is available, and its capacity to improve education is profound.”

Mark SchneidermanMark Schneiderman is Senior Director of Education Policy at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Government Forum, Education, Education Policies, Education Policy, Legislation, Mobile: Education, Personalized Learning, Policy, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Data Driven Innovation Case Study: Pearson-Enabling the Digital Ocean to Improve Student Outcomes

May 20, 2013 By

Data-Driven Innovation (DDI) benefits all sectors of our economy, increases efficiency, saves money and resources, and improves quality of life. From safety and security, to the environment and infrastructure, to health and education, the opportunities for DDI to improve our lives are boundless. In SIIA’s whitepaper, Data-Driven Innovation A Guide for Policymakers: Understanding and Enabling the Economic and Social Value of Data, we explored the ways our member companies are leveraging data to provide cutting edge solutions. Here’s one case study, from Pearson:

Today, we’re in the digital ocean. We can gather information about students’ daily learning activities and interactions with content as they happen in computer-based instruction. The increase of technology-based learning in schools enables us to have all students doing meaningful activity on digital devices. Computers now allow us to capture all kinds of data about what students do as they interact with learning material, seamlessly recorded as they go about their daily learning activity. These interactions can produce an “ocean” of data that, if used correctly, can give us a completely different view of how students progress in acquiring knowledge, skills, and attributes.

This ability to capture data from everyday student learning activity should fundamentally change how we think about assessment.

Invisible assessments allow us to gather information much more frequently without interrupting the flow of instruction, hence the term “invisible.” This lets us provide teachers, students, and parents with feedback about progress immediately and in time to make adjustments to teaching and learning. It also eliminates the common complaint about the heavy time requirements of traditional assessment.

By capturing many, many observations of a student’s learning activity over time, we are able to build models of student learning and proficiency without the pressure of performance on a single test.

David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy. Follow the SIIA public policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPubPolicy.

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Filed Under: Data-Driven Innovation, Education, Education Policy, Government, Policy, Policy - Privacy, Software

Pending Senate Immigration Bill Advances High Tech Workforce Policies

May 15, 2013 By

The information technology industry, as well as the nation’s students and workforce, received an important policy boost this week when the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee passed an amendment to the pending immigration reform bill investing in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) views this support as a core element of the multi-pronged workforce policy solution needed to ensure the United States maintains its global economic competitiveness.

While information technologies continue to be the stalwart of the United States economy, our high tech companies have struggled to find an adequately skilled workforce and our students have struggled to obtain the necessary education and training.

As the U.S. Congress and President Obama advance immigration reform, as well as additional education and training programs, SIIA urges inclusion of the following policies: 

  • Investment in STEM education, including as provided by adoption of the Hatch amendment to the immigration bill this week, which will dedicate an estimated $100 million to U.S. Department of Education programs to help states boost STEM teaching and instruction (in addition to other STEM education funds directed to the National Science Foundation); 
  • Enhancement of the H-1B program to ensure that American companies can fill skilled jobs through foreign talent if a qualified American citizen is not available, including an increase in the arbitrary and insufficient caps as well as improvements to the process;
  • Increasing the number of EB green cards for the best and brightest workers regardless of their country of origin, and easing the pathway for foreign students graduating from American institutions of higher education with STEM degrees to remain in and work in the United States immediately post-graduation; and
  • Leveraging technology to redesign our secondary and postsecondary education system to increase learning opportunity and efficiency, moving from a system based on fixed time, place and pace of learning to one more customized around student’s individual needs and interest, including through investment in educational technology and digital learning.

Only with this multi-faceted policy agenda can the United States both address its current, short-term workforce needs while also growing the future pipeline needed to meet high tech workforce needs over the long-term.

Mark SchneidermanMark Schneiderman is Senior Director of Education Policy at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Government Forum, Education, Education Policies, Education Policy, Policy, Postsecondary, Uncategorized

SIIA’s Perspective on Open Educational Resources

April 30, 2013 By

Last month, SIIA released a Guide to Open Educational Resources (OER) to help inform the field about the benefits, challenges and total costs that must be considered around the funding, development and adoption of educational resources, including OER. Included in the Guide was an SIIA editorial sharing our perspective and public policy recommendations.  

SIIA views open educational resources (OER) as one of many appropriate models for the development and distribution of content needed to meet the needs of students and educators. SIIA expects that future educational needs will be addressed by a mix of instructional materials, including OER, and that there is a critical, though perhaps evolving role for commercial partners and proprietary models. 

SIIA recognizes that interest in OER among government agencies and education decision makers, as well as many non-profit entities and foundations, appears driven largely by the goals of reducing costs, improving access, providing quality, and supporting educator/student customization of their content.  SIIA urges the community of OER investors (e.g., legislators and education officials) and users to consider the following:

  • Even in an age of common learning standards, the need to personalize learning will continue to require a robust choice of curricular resources – proprietary and OER – and related technology tools and services. Investments by government authorities or other organizations based on the assumption they can simply ‘build it once’ could inappropriately limit options. No single resource or set of resources will be sufficient to meet the wide range of educational needs.
  • The principles of academic freedom and personalization of learning require that government agencies and educational institutions continue to support educational choice. They should not in the future limit the use of funds to only the development/adoption of OER, but instead should continue ensuring grant and other funding for acquisition/implementation of any and all resources that meet the particular educational need, whether OER or proprietary.
  • To meet diverse and evolving educational needs, the nation’s education sector demands an environment that encourages R&D investment – public and private, for-profit and non-profit – to ensure ever more innovative and effective resources. Education leaders should strive for a sector that encourages investment and competition, provides resource choice, and rewards innovation.
  • Educational resources, including OER, require not only the initial investment, but as importantly must budget for the total, long-term cost of development and use. These ongoing and recurring costs include user training/support, as well as content hosting and maintenance, content updates, and technology updates that, according to some SIIA members, can often require as much as an additional 20% annual cost. 
  • When making cost-benefit calculations and comparisons, it is important to consider these total initial and ongoing costs of development and adoption. Comparisons require both short-term and long-term factors, as well as recognition of both individual use and systemic impact.
  • Institutional, local, or state adoptions of content should use the same review standards, criteria, and process when the content is of the same or similar type – e.g., core, supplemental, etc. – no matter whether OER, commercial or other license.
  • To the degree that public funds are invested in the development of (open) educational resources, they are best targeted to address gaps where quality resources are not currently available to meet educational needs. In addition, such public investments should consider the benefits of public-private partnerships or related models that ensure an ongoing user commitment and a recurring revenue stream needed to update, support, and sustain the resource over time.
  • To the degree that government funds are invested in the development of OER, those resources should be available through a CC BY license allowing third parties to revise, reuse, remix and redistribute the resource, including commercially. An NC license – prohibiting others from using the work for commercial purposes – would be counter to the public policy goal of leveraging public funds to have the widest impact on innovation, cost-savings, access, and diversity of resources.

SIIA looks forward to working further with all stakeholders to consider the opportunities and challenges of OER and other ways to ensure the availability of ever more choice of innovative and effective resources to meet evolving educational needs. SIIA’s Ed Tech Industry Summit next week in San Francisco will inlcude a panel discussion about OER impact and opportunities for SIIA members that will include the SIIA Guide co-authors and Creative Commons CEO Cathy Casserly.

Mark SchneidermanMark Schneiderman is Senior Director of Education Policy at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Business Forum, Education, Education Policies, Education Policy, Policy, Postsecondary, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

SIIA Supports COPPA’s Extension of Schools as Consent Providers

April 26, 2013 By

The Federal Trade Commission yesterday released its updated FAQs clarifying the amended rule implementing the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) released in December, 2012. Included are several clarifications long championed by SIIA regarding the intersection of COPPA and children’s online activities in the school setting.

For those not familiar, in short, COPPA requires parental consent under certain conditions for the online collection of personal information from children under age 13. SIIA has long supported this important law for helping protect children’s privacy and safety, and has also worked with the FTC and other stakeholders to ensure COPPA implementation does not bring inappropriate or unintended consequences that limit technology innovation and the user experience.

According to the new COPPA FAQ:

  • “COPPA does not preclude schools from acting as intermediaries between operators and parents in the notice and consent process, or from serving as the parent’s agent in the process of collecting personal information online from students in the school context.”
  • “COPPA does not apply where a school has contracted with an operator to collect personal information from students for the use and benefit of the school, and for no other commercial purpose.”

These provisions are important to minimize the barriers to student access to instructional technologies and digital learning within the school context. Both extend on the role of schools as trusted agents of student learning, privacy and safety, including that governed by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) as well as by Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs) signed between parents and schools. They help provide for student’s seamless access to online teaching and learning opportunities in the timely manner needed to address their educational needs under the guidance of their teacher and school, and governing local school board policies. The alternative of requiring parental consent in each case would present a significant administrative barrier, potentially put certain students at an educational disadvantage when consent cannot be secured in a timely manner, and would often leave students and teachers unable to take advantage of a “teachable moment.”

While the continuation of these school provisions is welcome, the updated FAQs do include some new guidance that will require further analysis and consideration. For example, the FTC guidance now requires that: “. . . the operator must provide the school with full notice of its collection, use, and disclosure practices, so that the school may make an informed decision.” And the FTC separately describes what information a school “should” seek from an operator, including “What are the operator’s data retention and deletion policies for children’s personal information?”

SIIA members can review a more detailed summary and analysis on new COPPA regulations and guidance. [Updated May 9, 2013]

SIIA looks forward to working further with public officials, families, educators and digital learning providers to ensure that children have access to critical online learning opportunities and applications in an appropriately safe and secure manner. This includes SIIA’s ongoing work around FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), which governs educational institutions and agencies through the U.S. Department of Education and is referenced in the COPPA FAQ.

Mark SchneidermanMark Schneiderman is Senior Director of Education Policy at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Data-Driven Innovation, Ed Tech Government Forum, Education, Education Policies, Education Policy, Personalized Learning, Policy, Policy - Privacy Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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