Digital Discourse / Ed Tech Government Forum

SIIA Education Division Calls for Participants in 2012 Vision K-20 Survey

February 9, 2012 By

The fifth annual Vision K-20 Survey is open today! The survey, sponsored by the SIIA Education Division, gives educators, administrators, and faculty members from K-12 and postsecondary educational institutions the opportunity to evaluate their current technology use. This year, a new addition to the survey asks respondents to identify what they judge to be the “ideal” scenario for technology use.

Focusing on goals outlined in our K-20 Vision roadmap—21st Century tools, accessibility, differentiated learning, assessment tools, and enterprise support—schools, districts, two-year colleges, four-year colleges, and universities will be able to use the Vision’s benchmarks to document their progress. Survey takers can return to the survey periodically to evaluate their progress toward the Vision for K-20 education.

Our member organizations worked together to develop the Vision K-20 initiative as a guide for educational institutions to implement technology district-wide and campus-wide. This survey aims to collect additional data that will broadly assist educators in taking this important project to the next level of knowledge and success.

We’ve developed a vision for K-20 education to ensure all students have access to a learning environment that prepares them to compete globally and lead the world in innovation. This year, in addition to reporting progress over the last 5 years, for the first time we will add the dimension of what educators across the country think of as the ‘ideal’ scenario.

The survey closes May 24, 2012. Initial aggregated results will be released at ISTE 2012 in San Diego, with a final report available late summer 2012.

We value the support of our partners and their commitment to improving students’ preparedness for an innovative and global economy. Partners committed to supporting the Vision K-20 initiative and survey include: 1105 Media, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), edWeb.net, and eSchool Media. The project’s lead partner was MMS Education. MMS Education provides market research, marketing, sales, and technology solutions for a wide range of education technology companies.

Karen BillingsKaren Billings is Vice President for the Education Division at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Business Forum, Ed Tech Government Forum, Ed Tech Industry Summit, Education Tagged With: , ,

Vision K20: Achieving Personalized Learning through Public-Private Partnership

January 26, 2012 By

[This blog was also published January 26, 2012 by the Alliance for Excellent Education, sponsor of Digital Learning Day.]

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is pleased to be among dozens of education and technology organizations partnering to promote Digital Learning Day (DLD), 2/1/12, sponsored by the Alliance for Excellent Education. SIIA is promoting DLD to its high-tech member software, digital content and online services companies, and asking them to promote DLD through their networks. 

For those with the vision and successful use of digital learning, the idea of a DLD awareness campaign — showcasing how technology supports students learning and teacher instruction – may seem unnecessary.  But the reality is that too many of our educators and education leaders have not been provided the support they need to understand what is possible, nor the resources to make it happen.  This shift is not simply about replacing print with digital or giving every student a computer.  This shift is about reimagining how we teach and learn, and creating more customized, engaging, and productive learning made possible through technology and through public-private partnership with high-tech innovators.

SIIA has developed a series of resources to assist education stakeholders in this process, including:

For SIIA member and other high-tech companies, we encourage you to support Digital Learning Day:

  • Sign up and be counted in this effort
  • Add the DLD button to your website, and promote DLD to your customers and partners
  • Provide access to your online teaching and learning resources for the day
  • Showcase success stories of how teachers and students are using technology
  • Visit the DLD toolkits for more ideas and resources. 
  • Promote SIIA resources for educators, including Vision K20 and Software Implementation Toolkit
  • Use your imagination and creativity to promote education technology and Digital Learning Day

Thank you to the Alliance and all DLD partners for this important effort and for including SIIA and the high-tech industry. We look forward not only to A successful day on February 1st, but more importantly to THE day soon when all students will have access to the most relevant, engaging and effective learning opportunities that meet their personalized needs anytime and everywhere.

Learn more about Digital Learning Day at http://www.digitallearningday.org.

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

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Government Forum, Ed Tech Industry Summit, Education, Education Events, Education Policy, Personalized Learning, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Pending Federal Budget Cuts Would Stall Technology-Based Education Innovation

March 18, 2011 By

The use of technology and digital learning in education has reached a tipping point — the conversation has shifted from “if” to “how,” and education leaders are touting digital learning’s power to improve productivity, personalize learning, and expand learning opportunities. Yet, just as the nation’s education system is poised to accelerate technology-based innovation and improvement, a critical U.S. Department of Education program is on the chopping block. House-passed and Senate-proposed bills would zero out funding for the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT; NCLB II-D) program for Fiscal Year 2011 (i.e., 2011-2012 school year).

Advocates are mobilizing to respond, contacting their Members of Congress by e-mail and phone and advocating in-person April 13 (at SIIA’s Ed Tech Government Forum, which will also include speakers on government programs and policies of interest to digital learning providers).

SIIA and several education groups (ISTE, CoSN and SETDA) expressed strong concern in a recent statement: “We are deeply disappointed that despite many Members’ understanding of the vital role technology plays in K-12 education in their states and districts, Congress is on the verge of eliminating funding for this critical program. Elimination of the program also is the surest way to devalue the billions of dollars invested over the last two years on improving broadband access to K‐12 schools and directly undercuts ongoing state and federal efforts to deploy education data systems, implement new college and areer‐ready standards and assessments, and address the well-documented STEM crisis. Our educators and students deserve better, and we urge Congress to reverse course and fully fund the EETT program.”

[3/22/11 Update: 14 U.S. Senators called on the Appropriations Committee to restore funding for the EETT program to the FY10 $100 million level. See their letter, along with a supporting statement from education groups including NEA and NSBA.]

EETT is the only federal education program designed to leverage innovation and technology to adequately prepare all of the nation’s children for the competitive 21st century global economy. Integrating technology among all programs is necessary, but not sufficient, while public R&D supoort is needed but not an alternative for directly supporting schools. This targeted investment is needed to provide leadership and professional development, and to increase the capacity of educators to redesign education to further personalize learning and engage students.

Spread the word to educators and colleagues! Contact your Member of Congress now!

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

Balancing Technology Standardization and Innovation in Race to the Top Assessments

January 31, 2011 By

The U.S. K-12 public education system continues to lag in both adoption of technology and related innovation as well as in leveraging technology and digital resources through interoperability standards. The two are closely connected: technology standards provide a base for cost-effective, value-added innovation; but if carried too far or adopted too early, such technical standardization can also inhibit desired innovation and competition. 

Their appropriate balance is therefore critical to advancing both important goals. The challenges in finding this delicate equilibrium point are being tested (pun intended) now as the U.S. Department of Education and its two Race to the Top Assessment (RTTA) grantee consortia — SBAC and PARCC – consider the scope and form of their deliverables and technology (interoperability) standards.

The $350 million RTTA initiative promises to bring important technology-enabled innovation to assessment — including many long available but not often implemented by states — through the online delivery of more robust (i.e., comprehensive, authentic, timely and adaptive) measurement of student knowledge and skills to inform teaching, learning and accountability. Leveraging this innovation will require changes to teaching and learning, technology investment, interoperability development and adoption, and limits on the scope of RTTA development.

In response to an important RFI by the Department regarding the technology standards to be employed by the RTTA consortia, SIIA supported the requirement that RTTA grantees “maximize the interoperability of assessments across technology platforms and the ability for States to switch their assessments from one technology platform to another.” RTTA could provide the tipping point to K-12 education’s adoption of data and content interoperability standards (see SIIA Primer) that would, for example, enable and maximize our ability to personalize learning.

But these benefits will only be realized if interoperability is properly implemented, and if standardization is balanced with innovation. SIIA’s recommendations to USED (and the RTTA consortia) elaborated on both points. [Read more...]

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

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: , , , , ,

Forum Highlights:

November 19, 2009 By
  • Look Who’s Coming: You’ll find an impressive roster of national ed tech stakeholders and industry executives already confirmed.
  • Networking Opportunities: We’ve got several opportunities for you to connect with education leaders and ed tech executives.
  • Register now: Take advantage of our online registration savings, good through March 2.

This Forum is available to SIIA members only. For more information, please contact Mark Schneiderman.

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Government Forum
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