This week, a report on teachers’ media usage, sponsored in part by PBS, offers new evidence to support the National Broadband Plan's finding that broadband has greater potential to transform education than any other technological innovation in our lifetime. The report talks about the incredible increases in teachers' use of digital content in their teaching—not just layering technology on top of lessons, but digitally transforming their classrooms. The survey found, for example:
- Three in four teachers (76%) stream or download TV and video content, up from 55% in 2007. These teachers are also accessing content in completely new ways, with 24% reporting that they access content stored on a local server, up from 11% in 2007.
- Teachers view TV and video content as more effective for student learning when integrated with other instructional resources or content. More than two-thirds (67%) believe that digital resources help them differentiate learning for individual students, and a similar number (68%) believe TV and video content stimulates discussion.
In the same survey, however, is some sobering news: Teachers spend 60 percent of their time in the classroom using educational resources that are either free or paid for by teachers themselves. And most teachers cite cost as the number one barrier to using digital resources in the classroom.
I thought this might be a good time to draw attention to a bright spot on the horizon. The National Broadband Plan proposed that the Department of Education take the lead in setting standards to make the federal government’s extensive cultural and educational resources easily available in one place, in an interoperable format. In response to this recommendation, last summer, Secretary of Education Duncan, the head of the Smithsonian, G. Wayne Clough, and Chairman Genachowski announced an initiative called the Learning Registry. The goal of the Learning Registry is to put a library of free, world-class educational content at the fingertips of every American student and teacher.
We hope to see more innovation like smarthistory.org, a free and open, conversation-based multimedia art history web-book. Smarthistory.org aggregates our cultural treasures—digitally—but also encourages the learner to engage and analyze in real time, engaging students in a whole new way.
I’m happy to report that the Learning Registry’s project website is now live so that more Americans can get involved with making this vision a reality. The Learning Registry is not just a content portal or a search engine – the project envisions a new way of exchanging and describing learning content. It's an initiative designed to build a community to benefit learning AND learners. The process is open and transparent – I encourage you to check out what the team is doing, share the news about the Learning Registry, and to get involved with this important initiative.
A wonderful Plan! It makes the online education very effective and widely spread!
The Plan in any case looks very realistic because it does not contain any critical mass to be achieved. Therefore, even 50 Mb/s instead of 100 Mb/s may be considered as a great victory!