Digital Discourse / Education Policy

Digital Learning Now!

December 1, 2010 By

SIIA is pleased to be a part of today’s announcement of the Digital Learning Now! campaign led by former Governors Jeb Bush (R-FL) and Bob Wise (D-WV) to advocate for state policies aligned with 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning. The 10 elements were identified by a Digital Learning Council of education leaders, including SIIA’s Mark Schneiderman and senior executives of several SIIA member high-tech companies.

Announced Bush and Wise: “We are grateful to the council members for forging a path for education’s historic shift from print to digital, from age groups to individuals and from seat time to competency. . . . Digital learning can transform education. Technology has the power and scalability to customize education so each and every student learns in their own style at their own pace, which maximizes their chances for success in school. It offers teachers an effective way to overcome challenges and better educate students of all learning needs. Digital learning is the great equalizer. It holds the promise of extending access to rigorous high quality instruction to every student across America, regardless of language, zip code, income levels, or special needs.”

The 10 policy recommendations include both access to technology infrastructure, digital content and online courses as well regulatory reforms to shift from seat-time to competency-based learning and remove many policy barriers to online learning. They focus on the opportunity to personalize learning through technology and include among key resources the SIIA-ASCD-CCSSO report on Education System Redesign for Personalized Learning. And they call for enhanced support for digital-age teaching through data systems, online assessment and professional development. As such, Digital Learning Now is perhaps the most comprehensive set of such policy recommendations in recent times, and represents a growing recognition among education leaders and stakeholders that transformational systemic change through technology is needed, including in light of the nation’s educational funding, teacher and performance shortages.

SIIA appreciates the leadership of Governors Bush and Wise, and the opportunity to be part of this important effort. We look forward to supporting the campaign’s next steps of helping states benchmark against these 10 elements and make changes to state policies and practices needed to advance this comprehensive vision for digital learning.

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

Education Leaders Identify Top 10 Components of Systemic Redesign to Personalize Learning

November 15, 2010 By

The nation’s education stakeholders increasingly recognize that the fundamental redesign of our preK-12 system around the student is required for our future success. Calls for (e.g., Secretary Duncan) and examples of (e.g., Kansas City) innovative, personalized learning models are growing.

To help give voice and support to this movement, SIIA – in collaboration with ASCD and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) – released “Innovate to Educate: System [Re]Design for Personalized Learning,” based upon the insights and recommendations of some 150 education leaders convened at an August Symposium in Boston, MA (See archive of presentations, summaries and videos). The report provides a primer on personalized learning with definitions and examples and identifies the following essential practices and policies as voted on by Symposium attendees: [Read more...]

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

Design Fix

July 15, 2010 By

[From a Symposium on Personalized Learning interview series by New Media Partner edReformer.com]

Joel Rose, CEO of School of One in New York City, addresses how personalized learning provides equity of student outcomes, and the need to address the design flaw of the traditional classroom model with with personalized systems and technologies.

Where does technology fit into [personalized learning]?
I think we need school designs that accomplish that personalized vision by integrating, instruction, professional development, leadership, options and technology. It’s one of the necessary components of an integrated design that serves that need. It doesn’t end or begin with technology, but technology is a piece of it.

What are some of the challenges being faced by the effort to bring personalization into the education system?
There is one big challenge, and that’s how nearly impossible it is for an individual teacher to personalize learning for 28 kids, during five periods a day. Even if we do that, it’s not enough. We have to complement the work of great teachers with systems and technologies that can enable personalized learning. It’s a design challenge. [Challenge is] the way we designed our schools, by putting 28 kids in a room, calling that sixth grade and putting one teacher in that room. And making that assumption that a kid can make that one year of growth . . . that’s a design assumption that is incredibly flawed. We are so accustomed to think of school in this way, the idea that there’s a different way of doing it doesn’t really enter into our minds. How we narrowly redesigned roles in school that have kind of calcified how we think about school. A lot of things we have done have just cascaded on top of this system. Until we fundamentally get to this design question . . . “This is where we want kids to be at the end of the year,” “This is the best way of doing that,” until we start asking these fundamental questions, we are going to stay where we are.

Read More from Joel Rose on how personalized learning and technology can address the design challenge of our school model, a roadmap for redesign, and how personalization flips the pursuit of equity from inputs to outcomes.

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Filed Under: Education, Education Events, Education Policy, Events, Personalized Learning, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Race to Redesign Education for Personalized Learning

June 9, 2010 By

While much of the national education attention has been focused on Race to the Top (RttT), a growing movement is focused on the race to redesign our education system before it becomes too outdated to meet our students’ and nation’s needs in today’s digital society and knowledge economy. The reforms in RttT are necessary, but most would agree are not sufficient. We must educate to innovate, but just as importantly, we must innovate to educate. In response, SIIA, in collaboration with ASCD and the Council of Chief State School Officers, is convening 150 education leaders for the invitation-only “Innovate to Educate: A Symposium on [Re]Design for Personalized Learning.”

Leading foundations (e.g., Nellie Mae), associations (e.g., CCSSO) and non-profits (e.g., RISC) are challenging our long-standing notions of education, while local (e.g., Adams 50 School District, CO) and state education leaders are accepting the challenge. Recognition that our assembly-line, agrarian-calendar based model (symbolized by a classrooom of students in rows of desks) is unchanged since the industrial age a century ago and calls for anytime, anywhere, anypace personalized learning are not new. What has changed? As the new U.S. Department of Education Report “Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology” recognizes, what has changed is our ability to respond with an ever more sophisticated arsenal of research, alternative models and technologies. A number of initiatives are leading the way, but as is often the case in education, they are too often isolated and not at scale.

The SIIA-ASCD-CCSSO Symposium will bring together SIIA members with national, state and local education leaders. They will develop a common vision, share models and practices, identify key policy and systems change enablers, and spec the technology, curriculum and human resources needed to power this student-centered customized learning system. Perhaps more importantly, they will continue building a community of practice needed to further develop the vision, models and tools and an action network to drive the change of policy and practice.

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Filed Under: Education, Education Events, Education Policies, Education Policy, Events, Personalized Learning Tagged With: , , , , ,

Education and Industry Groups Advocate for Technology in ESEA

March 31, 2010 By

Following the introduction of the Obama Administration’s ESEA Blueprint for Reform and with healthcare reform signed into law, the U.S. Congress  has once again turned to reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).  Among the many programmatic and regulatory issues needing to be addressed is the role of technology.  The Obama/Duncan plan is short on details, but raises concerns by ending the Enhancing Education through Technology (EETT) program without an alternative targeted program.

A coalition of 50 education and high-tech organizations supports the Administration’s proposal for infusing technology throughout the ESEA programs, but as part of a two-tiered approach that also includes the Achievement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) Act.  The coalition – including Apple, ASCD, Intel, NSBA and NCTM – affirmed: “Many of today’s educational goals and requirements – including both the central tenets of ESEA as well as those set forth in the Obama Administration ESEA Reauthorization Blueprint for Reform – can be most effectively achieved by modernizing our educational practices and system through technology.”

SIIA also recently submitted recommendations to Congress on ESEA addressing several areas: Systemic Transformation from Mass Production to Mass Customization;  Modernize Education Practice Through Technology; Innovation, Public-Private Partnership and Appropriate Federal R&D Role; School Improvement and Low-Performing Students; Teacher Effectiveness and Connectedness; Assessment, Data & Accountability; and High-Tech Workforce Readiness.

SIIA called for ESEA to “drive transformational innovation that reengineers education delivery models [and] Incentivize the shift from a seat-time, assembly-line education model to a more flexible, student-centered outcomes-based model built around individual learning needs and pace, and anytime-anywhere learning [i.e., personalization].”

ESEA was last reauthorized in 2002 through the No Child Left Behind Act.  Congress made a similar attempt in 2007, but policies and politics prevented the House and Senate Committee Chairs from ever formally introducing a bill.  While there appears to be much agreement in principle, including on fixes to the current accountability system, many hurdles exist, and many insiders are suggesting Congress will run out of time in this election year before completing work to update Title I and most other major federal K-12 programs.

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Industry Summit, Education, Education Policy, Policy Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

U.S. Education Secretary Duncan: “technology enables us to respond as never before”

March 24, 2010 By

Amid the flurry of recent federal policy activity around education and the role of technology, SIIA’s successful 2010 Ed Tech Government Forum seems a distant memory.  A record 100 SIIA members participated in two full days of discussion with national education leaders on topics critical to the education sector. 

2010 Conference Photo Album & Session Summaries 

Among the highlights were U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s first speech focused on technology. 

The Secretary challenged SIIA member publishers and developers of technology-based educational interventions:  “As providers of educational products and services, you have a huge impact on—and share a huge stake in—the success of America’s students. So, I ask you to join the great endeavor to not just reform education but to transform it. I challenge you to put your talent and ingenuity to work to equip 21st century students with 21st century skills.”

And the Secretary laid out the opportunity:  “As research gives us new insights into how today’s students learn, and technology enables us to respond as never before, you can help lead the way in providing a model for 21st century learning.”

The Secretary spoke at a joint forum before members of SIIA and the Association of American Publishers (AAP).  SIIA and AAP issued a joint statement to “support the voluntary Common Core State Standards Initiative for education and its implementation through our members’ development of instructional, curricular, professional development, assessment and other resources, both digital and print, that align to the standards and are necessary for the teaching and learning of those Standards.”            

The Forum also featured visits to 200 Congressional offices to advocate for federal school technology with partners CoSN, ISTE and SETDA representing state and local educators and administrators. 

SIIA members can review summaries of all the conference sessions, including on Race to the Top and i3, Title I and School Improvement, the Obama College Initiatives, ESEA reauthorization, Common Core implementation, and Government OER Initiatives.

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Industry Summit, Education, Education Policy, Policy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

“The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”

March 17, 2010 By

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.”  [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Industry Summit, Education, Education Policy, Policy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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