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Education, Technology, and Funding |
| July 1 |
| Department Seeks Broad Input for New National Education Technology Plan | By July 1st, please send any input by email to feedback@nationaledtechplan.org or by fax to 202-401-3941. |
| FOR RELEASE: May 23, 2003 Contact: David Thomas, (202) 401-1576 The U.S. Department of Education today announced that it is calling for broad participation and input from a wide array of education stakeholders in crafting a new National Education Technology Plan, as required by the recently enacted No Child Left Behind law. The department is actively seeking advice from a variety of constituencies in education, especially students, parents, K-12 educators, colleges and university leaders, and business and industry. Individuals and organizations are being asked to identify and communicate to the Department of Education their top issues, priorities, concerns, and barriers that need to be addressed for technology to improve teaching and learning in the 21st century. Interested parties can give their input by visiting the National Education Technology Plan's Web site at www.NationalEdTechPlan.org, and clicking on the "Participate in the Plan" link. U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige said the long-range plan has a sharp focus on students. "The plan will center on how to help students as they grow up being exposed to various technologies," he said. "As technology continues to be an important part of children's lives outside of school, it is shaping their expectations of what school will be like. The National Education Technology Plan intends to explore this trend and the implications for creating digital age educational opportunities to match the expectations of digital age students." The department's plan will serve as a valuable tool for education leaders to set a strategic direction to meet the demands of life and work in a future that will continue to change as a result of technology. "This effort will set new priorities and actions that all stakeholders can rally behind to ensure technology is being used effectively to prepare students for their future, not our past," Paige added. "Technology provides new ways of explaining and enhancing educational opportunities for students. When used effectively, technology can help prepare our nation's children succeed in the 21st century." "But first we want input from a variety of sources," said John Bailey, director of educational technology at the department. "More opportunities to provide comments and recommendations will occur once the priorities have been identified. Ultimately, this feedback will ensure that policymakers at all levels of government can understand how to use technology effectively and how states can employ technology to help meet the goals of No Child Left Behind." The No Child Left Behind Act charges the secretary of education with developing the nation's third National Education Technology Plan. The plan will establish a national strategy supporting the effective use of technology to improve student academic achievement and prepare them for the 21st century. It provides an opportunity to reflect on the progress our nation has made as a result of a decade of increased federal, state, local and private investments in connecting classrooms to the Internet, providing students with computers, and equipping teachers with the skills they need to use technology as an instructional tool. No Child Left Behind is the landmark education reform law designed to change the culture of America's schools by closing the achievement gap, offering more flexibility, giving parents more options and teaching students based on proven education practices. For more information on No Child Left Behind, visit www.nclb.gov. ### |
By July 1st, please send any input by email to feedback@nationaledtechplan.org or by fax to 202-401-3941. www.NationalEdTechPlan.org www.nclb.gov |
The Distance Education Demonstration Program. Dept of Ed
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"Over the past several years, there has been rapid growth in the number of institutions providing courses and degree programs in various modes of distance education. Hundreds of thousands of students are currently taking distance education courses that utilize a variety of methods of delivering instructions from the most basic (print) to the most technologically sophisticated (Internet).
"Currently, the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, and the implementing regulations contain provisions that restrict or limit the provision of Title IV Student Financial Assistance in distance education programs. These include limitations on the amount of distance education (telecommunications and correspondence courses) an institution may offer and retain its eligibility to participate in Title IV Programs. Also, requirements relating to program length are very difficult to apply in programs that are self-paced or offered in time frames that deviate from standard semesters or quarters.
"The Distance Education Demonstration Program is not a grant program. It was authorized in the 1998 Higher Education Amendments to determine the statutory and regulatory requirements that should be altered to provide greater access to distance education programs. In authorizing the Program, the Congress recognized the importance of the growing trend toward distance education as an option to on-campus study and its potential for increasing access for some groups of students. At the same time, the Congress wished to proceed cautiously in amending the statute. Most of the restrictions on the growth of distance education were placed in the HEA in response to perceived abuses of Title IV Student Financial Assistance, particularly abuses relating to program quality. As a result, the legislation establishes that a primary purpose of the program is to test the quality and viability of expanded distance education.
"The program legislation authorized the Secretary to waive specified statutory and regulatory requirements for up to 15 participants selected in the first year of the program, which began on July 1, 1999. Additional participants were selected to join the program in its third year beginning July 1, 2001. Currently there are 24 participants, involving over 100 institutions from 20 states and the District of Columbia."
Report on Copyright and Digital Distance Education (version: pdf )
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"Upon passage of the DMCA in 1998, Congress directed the U.S. Copyright
Office to study and recommend the promotion of distance education through digital technologies while balancing the rights of copyright owners and the interests of those using copyrighted material.11 The Copyright Office issued its report in 1999.12 To
- elimination of a physical classroom requirement,
- clarification of the term “transmission” to cover digital transmissions,
- expansion of rights covered by the exemption to include those needed to accomplish network transmissions,
- expansion of categories of works exempted from the performance rights beyond current coverage of nondramatic literary and music works, and
- creation of new safeguards to counteract the risks imposed by digital transmissions." [CRS Report 2006 p. 3]
facilitate distance education using digital media, the Office suggested, among other things, the following:
"On October 28, 1998, H.R. 2281, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, was enacted into law. Section 403 requires that the Copyright Office consult with representatives of copyright owners, nonprofit educational institutions, and nonprofit libraries and archives, and thereafter submit to Congress recommendations on how to promote distance education through digital technologies, including interactive digital networks, while maintaining an appropriate balance between the rights of copyright owners and the interests of users. Such recommendations may include legislative changes. Section 403 requires the Copyright Office to submit its recommendations to Congress no later than April 28, 1999." LOC Copyright and Distance Education
Federal Activity
DNS .edu | ERate | Legislation | Funding | First Amendment
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Papers
- Broadband America - An Unrealized Vision, Educause 2004
Links
- American Library Association
- Broadband for Higher Education
- The Chronicle of Higher Education: Information Technology
- Educause
- Higher Education Information Technology Alliance established in about 1997 "to help define and promote the high education and library community's collective interests in Federal information technology policy."
- Internet2
- National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges
- Telecommunications Policy Research Conference
Cable in the Classrooms Online Website Department of Education ED Technology Digital Divide Edlink (Education and Library Networks Coalition) National Center for Education Statistics Codes (service control number)
- Community Connects "The America Connects Consortium is a collaboration of eight partners and allied organizations, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, who are working together to bring information, training, technical assistance, public attention, and new resources to community technology centers across the country. "
- Making the Grade
- NetDay
- PerScholas
- Smartschools PC Day
- Telecommunity Resource Center
News & Blogs
- Study: Internet Has No Impact On Student Performance, Internet 11/22/2005
- The Internet at School, Pew 8/2/2005
- Technology in schools: for fun, education, hacking & explusion, Register 8/12/2005
- More Teachers Use Tech For Administration Than Actually Teach With It, Information Week 8/30/2005
- No passing grade for tech ed reform, CNET 1/18/2005
- Measuring Literacy in a World Gone Digital, DDN 1/18/2005
- Summary: U.S. Schools Lag in Technology, Wash Post 1/7/2005
- CoSN Publishes Report on Emerging Technology and Schools, DDN 12/10/2004
