-
Aneesh Chopra: Good morning, everybody.
-
Audience: Good morning.
-
Aneesh Chopra: Good morning!
-
Audience: Good morning.
-
Aneesh Chopra: My name is Aneesh Chopra.
-
I have the honor and privilege of serving as the President's
-
Chief Technology Officer.
-
And it is extraordinarily exciting for me to be here today
-
because we'll be talking about a subject that's been near and
-
dear to the President's heart and a big priority for our
-
office as we look to improve our learning and educational
-
outcomes powered by the potential of technology
-
and innovation.
-
In the President's joint session to Congress,
-
when he laid out the vision for the American Jobs Act,
-
the President spoke broadly about the need to out-innovate,
-
out-educate, and out-build the world with specific emphasis
-
on opportunities for job creation in the near term.
-
He emphasized the new initiative to modernize 35,000 schools,
-
but made particular emphasis that when we put people back
-
to work fixing roofs and windows on those schools,
-
we should also install science labs and high-speed Internet in
-
classrooms all across the country,
-
acknowledging the importance of modernizing our educational
-
infrastructure for 21st century.
-
Today, we make the first down payment on the President's
-
vision with the rollout of the Digital Promise Board of
-
Directors and Initiative.
-
And I must tell you on a personal level,
-
the Board had a chance to meet with President Obama just a
-
few moments ago.
-
And Board, tell me if I'm wrong, did he fire you all up?
-
Did he fire you up?
-
He certainly did.
-
He gave them some direct instructions to move this
-
program forward.
-
And I am so excited to get this particular event off and running
-
in the spirit of the President's charge to that Board.
-
To kick us off, I want to invite the godfather of the legislation
-
that brought us Digital Promise, Kentucky's own
-
Congressman Yarmuth.
-
Please, give him a big round of applause.
-
(applause)
-
Thank you.
-
Congressman Yarmuth: Well, thank you, Aneesh.
-
Good morning, everyone.
-
It is an incredible honor for me to be here today to help launch
-
Digital Promise.
-
This is a great day for our country and a great
-
day for our future.
-
I'm here as a member of Congress.
-
And since we have a 13% approval rating,
-
I really appreciate that applause.
-
(laughter)
-
We take it wherever we can get it.
-
I'm also here because four and a half years ago as a freshman
-
member of Congress and a new member of the House Education
-
and Labor Committee, I met with Ann Murphy,
-
a person who was part of an amazing group of education,
-
innovation and business leaders, committed to doing nothing short
-
of completely revolutionizing education and learning through
-
advanced technologies, a project called Digital Promise.
-
The goal was to do for education what the National Science
-
Foundation does for science, what the National Institutes of
-
Health does for medicine.
-
I was sold.
-
And I introduced a bill to create something called then the
-
National Center for Learning Science and Technology.
-
Now we have another name, which I will guarantee you will not
-
replace Digital Promise.
-
This will also be known as Digital Promise,
-
the nonprofit entity that we are here today to launch.
-
It was approved with a lot of help and a lot of bipartisan
-
support and signed into law as part of the Higher
-
Education Act.
-
My role, while I am exceedingly proud of it,
-
was a small part in an extraordinary initiative that
-
has been more than a decade in the making.
-
And it is pretty clear that with the leadership of Secretary
-
Duncan and all of you here today,
-
the decade of work that got us to this point will surely pale
-
in comparison to what lays ahead.
-
I firmly believe that today is one of those days that we will
-
look back upon years from now and think,
-
I knew it was going to be big, we're at the White House,
-
after all, but I had no idea it would be that big;
-
that we would completely change the way children learn,
-
revolutionize education, and strengthen our nation.
-
So no pressure at all.
-
But what we all know is that with dedication,
-
collaboration and sometimes most critical federal investment,
-
technology can be transformative.
-
In the 20th century, there was a direct correlation between
-
America leading the world in education and also in
-
innovation, technology and economically.
-
That an increasingly globalized marketplace with other countries
-
competing more successfully across the board,
-
Digital Promise can ensure that this generation of American
-
children is the most educated the world has ever known,
-
and by extension, the next generation of American adults
-
will be the best trained, most capable citizens to lead the
-
world in the 21st century and beyond.
-
That is what this center is all about.
-
That is why I'm so proud to be here.
-
And that is why I'm so proud to introduce a very
-
special young man.
-
Josniel Martinez is an 11-year-old 7th grader who
-
attends Global Technology Preparatory School in East Harlem.
-
He's already seen how digital learning can make a difference.
-
When he was in the 6th grade, his school partnered with the
-
city of New York to implement the New York City connected
-
learning program funded by the American Recovery and
-
Reinvestment Act.
-
That program is a citywide initiative managed by the New
-
York City Department of Information Technology and
-
Telecommunications and the New York City Department of
-
Education, in which CFY, a national nonprofit organization,
-
is a lead partner.
-
It's a perfect example of a program where a partnership
-
worked together to bring digital learning into schools and
-
Josniel is here to tell us how it changed his life.
-
Now, just by a quirk of fate, Josniel was born at the same
-
time that Digital Promise, the idea, came into being.
-
So there's a little karma there, Josniel.
-
Please join me in welcoming with a warm round of applause,
-
Josniel Martinez.
-
(applause)
-
Josniel Martinez: Well, hi.
-
My name is Josniel Martinez.
-
And I am proud to be here today to introduce Secretary
-
Arne Duncan.
-
But before I do, I want to tell you a little bit about myself
-
and how digital learning has changed my life forever.
-
Back in 1999, my parents moved from Dominican Republic all the
-
way to East Harlem.
-
(laughter)
-
I did pretty well in elementary school.
-
It was okay.
-
But it was still hard for me to accept now that I'm a 6th grader
-
and have more responsibility, more homework,
-
and moving to a new school called Global Tech Prep, a.k.a.
-
Global Technology Preparatory in East Harlem.
-
And if you didn't hear me, East Harlem.
-
(laughter)
-
I ended up getting a promotion in doubt letter saying that if I
-
don't work hard enough, I might get left back.
-
Well, just imagine this.
-
Your boss sends you a letter, says,
-
if you don't work hard enough, you're going to get fired.
-
Now, think, wouldn't you want to roll down on the floor,
-
start crying, saying, noooooo!
-
(laughter)
-
I did.
-
(laughter)
-
So I tried to do my best.
-
I was determined to go to 7th grade.
-
But so was my mom.
-
She wasn't letting me go down.
-
And I knew that some of the challenges that were going to be
-
in front of me were concentrating.
-
That was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.
-
I thought technology could help me.
-
I even picked Global Tech Prep because I knew it can help me.
-
I knew that they make blogs, make videos, use PowerPoints,
-
Microsoft Word, everything that we need to educate ourselves.
-
But still wasn't passing, unfortunately.
-
Until a nonprofit called CFY -- Google them -- came to our
-
school and told us that we were going to give all the 6th
-
graders a login to a site called power my learning.
-
It's a site with millions, hundreds -- let's say millions
-
of games, and each of those games teaches us anything we
-
want, math, science, ELA, music, it doesn't matter what subject.
-
It's there.
-
And the good thing is we get to keep the computer they gave us.
-
It was a learning device.
-
Now, here's where my mom comes into this play.
-
She put on a schedule for me, Josniel Martinez,
-
to get on the computer three times a week and use it.
-
So at least three times a week I'm prepared, I know,
-
my brain is working, says I want to learn now.
-
Sometimes I can wake up in the morning.
-
My head is like school, school, school, watch, watch, school,
-
school, school, school.
-
And then my mom did something else.
-
I used to watch TV all the time.
-
I used to stay up late, watch Friends, That '70s Show,
-
anything that was on, I used to watch all of that.
-
Then my mom, she cut that in half.
-
She put it on a plate and everything.
-
She told me, huh-uh.
-
She cut that.
-
So now I'm watching maybe one hour, maybe two hours of TV.
-
By most of the time, I'm either studying, reading a book,
-
or doing something that can help me benefit in school.
-
Now, my school helped, too.
-
They cost -- they put a whole team together.
-
I'm talking about my principal, my teachers, everything,
-
just to help me, one student.
-
And the CFY software helped a lot.
-
Without them, I think I couldn't pass.
-
Now, what do you think digital learning do for me,
-
Josniel Martinez, the same Dominican boy from East Harlem,
-
still the same person.
-
Well, it brought everyone who was important to me.
-
Miss Russell, who is in the crowd right now,
-
some of the CFY people, they actually put some software on my
-
computer to help me, they did everything for me.
-
And there was no joke.
-
I got a 3 on my math exam, and I have a 3 on my ELA exam,
-
just perfect.
-
(applause)
-
And while I needed a lot of support,
-
now I feel that I can do this all by myself.
-
And when I mean a lot of support,
-
I mean double the White House's, plus a different universe.
-
That's how much.
-
Now, look at me in ten years, Secretary Arne Duncan,
-
because I'm going to college, maybe even work for a President,
-
and maybe one day you'll be working for me.
-
(laughter and applause)
-
And I know now I'm supposed to introduce Secretary Arne Duncan.
-
But before I do, I want to thank Miss Russell, my mom,
-
my friends, my family, everybody from Global Tech Prep,
-
for helping me to get up here.
-
And now it's my pleasure to introduce the Secretary of
-
Education, Arne Duncan.
-
(applause)
-
Secretary Duncan: Let's give Josniel another round of applause.
-
(applause)
-
I could no more have done that here in 7th grade than fly to
-
the moon.
-
And I will absolutely get my resume ready.
-
(laughter)
-
In all seriousness, though, it's a really inspiring story.
-
And what it tells me is what I've -- reinforces what I've
-
known all my life, is that we have great young people.
-
Surround them with the right adults,
-
caring adults who go beyond the call of duty,
-
give them technology, give them the opportunity,
-
give them the support, the world's the limit.
-
And you have to not just graduate from high school.
-
You have to go to college.
-
You have to graduate from college.
-
And you can be in this White House someday.
-
You've got to really aspire to those things.
-
But we all have to come together to provide those opportunities
-
to every single child.
-
Before I begin, I just want to thank a couple of people,
-
Newt Minow, Larry Grossman and Ann Murphy.
-
If you guys could please stand.
-
You're the godfathers of this effort.
-
(applause)
-
They started this work over 12 years ago,
-
a long time to get here.
-
But I can't tell you how thrilled me and Karen Cade and
-
Jim Shelton, my staff, are to be a part of this.
-
And the opportunity you guys are providing through your
-
vision is huge.
-
And I feel both the pressure and the opportunity.
-
We need to deliver for you.
-
But appreciate so much the leadership that you
-
guys have provided.
-
Josniel's story is extraordinary and we have many stories like
-
that around the country.
-
But the honest reality, the unfortunate reality,
-
is we don't have enough of that.
-
And far too often, America's classrooms have failed to
-
harness technology's potential to transform students' lives and
-
create a new world of opportunity for them.
-
With technology, teachers and parents can deeply engage
-
students in learning.
-
They can personalize instruction in ways that folks previously
-
thought were impossible, and they can solve the inequities,
-
both in our communities and in our schools,
-
by providing all children, not some,
-
but all children with access to world-class resources anytime
-
and anywhere.
-
And that's obviously why all of us are here today and obviously
-
this is the choir here today.
-
We understand that technology provides the opportunity to make
-
rapid progress in advancing equity and excellence in our
-
education system so that these kinds of stories become the
-
norm, rather than the exception.
-
And my simple message to all of you today is that we need to act
-
and we need to act now to lead the digital transformation of
-
education and training both for our children and for adults
-
looking to retrain and retool.
-
We have yet to unleash technology's full potential to
-
transform both teaching and learning.
-
Technology can help provide all students with access to a
-
world-class curriculum.
-
It's a tool that can provide equitable access to high quality
-
learning opportunities for low-income students and
-
struggling schools, be they inner city urban,
-
rural or remote.
-
This work is especially important today because the
-
truth is, other countries are ahead of us here in
-
the United States.
-
And in tough economic times like these, we can't just do more.
-
We have to be smart enough to do more with less.
-
A couple of examples of what the competition looks like as you
-
look across the globe.
-
South Korea has committed to phasing out all textbooks and
-
replacing them with digital products by 2015.
-
And they're going to make that happen.
-
Uruguay, maybe not a country we all think about every single
-
day, Uruguay now, today, has given every single student a
-
computer, every single one.
-
And we're faced with one fundamental basic question: Will
-
the United States lead in this effort or will we be a laggard,
-
will we follow?
-
And despite the real challenges, I am absolutely optimistic that
-
the United States can and will lead the digital transformation.
-
And today marks, I think, a critically important
-
turning point.
-
Through the unique public/private partnership of
-
Digital Promise, we are rallying the full forces of the federal
-
government, academia, entrepreneurs,
-
the technology sector and researchers.
-
And the level of talent in this room today is
-
pretty extraordinary.
-
You represent creative entrepreneurs,
-
generous philanthropists, smart investors.
-
You are innovative leaders who are committed to this work and
-
committed to making difference.
-
We have a tremendous, tremendous opportunity to pull together and
-
solve the complex problems of educating every child and every
-
adult in this country.
-
I especially want to thank Congressman Yarmuth for his
-
tremendous leadership.
-
Along with Senator Dodd, Representative Yarmuth worked
-
to authorize Digital Promise and the Higher
-
Education Opportunity Act.
-
And that's the reason we're all here today.
-
Please give him another round of applause.
-
Thank you so much.
-
(applause)
-
President Obama has repeatedly said that winning the future
-
will require investments in education,
-
innovation and infrastructure.
-
He fundamentally understands that transforming the use of
-
educational technology will require significant research
-
and development.
-
And he also understands that our nation's schools and classrooms
-
are in serious need of modernization.
-
In far too many places, today's school buildings simply aren't
-
ready to support digital learning.
-
And last week, I went on a whirlwind six-state,
-
three-day bus tour across the Great Lakes region.
-
And I never, ever asked or want the red carpet treatment.
-
But when I visit schools, it's not uncommon for them to clean
-
up, tidy up a little bit.
-
But it was really clear that no amount of fresh paint was going
-
to cover up the fact that many of these schools simply aren't
-
prepared to lead the digital revolution in education.
-
And the American Jobs Act, President Obama is proposing
-
a $25 billion investment to modernize at least 35,000 of
-
our nation's schools, especially schools that
-
serve the neediest students, with facilities in the most
-
need of repair.
-
The President has committed to passing the jobs bill that
-
includes money to create school buildings that can give students
-
a 21st century education.
-
The Administration's commitment goes far beyond renovating and
-
modernizing schools.
-
Our goal is to become an engine of innovation that provides
-
leadership and support for reform.
-
The National Education Technology Plan we released last
-
year lays out an ambitious vision to leverage the full
-
power of technology to support compelling and personalized
-
learning environments for all children, regardless of race,
-
ethnicity, ability or disability or zip code.
-
We understand that technology is a critical,
-
critical ingredient in our work to make education the great
-
equalizer it must be.
-
But this is clearly not a task for government alone.
-
We can work to create an environment for innovation.
-
But experts in school, schools, research labs, entrepreneurs,
-
whether big or small, they will do the difficult work of
-
developing new technologies and getting them into homes and
-
schools and districts across the country.
-
Digital Promise will aid that work by bringing together people
-
from business, education, the research community,
-
to advance the education technology field.
-
Even as we're launching this new effort,
-
a group of school districts has already stepped forward to lead
-
this transformation and we're calling them the League of
-
Innovative Schools.
-
Researchers at the University of Chicago will also organize a new
-
alliance of more than 35 of America's top education
-
researchers dedicated to identifying policies and
-
practices that improve education outcomes for America's most
-
disadvantaged children.
-
A leading gaming company is committed to bringing their
-
creativity and expertise to this important effort.
-
Digital Promise will be a truly collaborative effort
-
across all sectors.
-
Working together, the collaboration can help
-
lead America in providing a world-class education for
-
millions of students using technology.
-
We all know, we all recognize that there are no silver bullets
-
in education.
-
But I absolutely do believe that we must use every tool at our
-
disposal, including the extraordinary creativity of
-
entrepreneurs, who are committed to producing the game changing
-
technologies we need.
-
The goal of all this work is admittedly ambitious.
-
We want to fundamentally reimagine learning.
-
And fortunately, we have examples of schools and
-
inspiring stories to tell like we already heard this morning.
-
Take another story, that of Daniel Mendez,
-
when he enrolled in San Diego's High Tech High,
-
he was repeating 10th grade.
-
Not too dissimilar to the challenges you were facing.
-
Like most disadvantaged children,
-
he faced some real significant obstacles.
-
With a long commute, family responsibilities,
-
and few educational resources at home,
-
he struggled to complete homework.
-
Unfortunately, that's the type of child that far too often is
-
simply written off.
-
Folks think they can't make it.
-
But things turned around for him when High Tech High issued him a
-
netbook with high speed Internet access.
-
His grades improved immediately.
-
Teachers noticed that he was doing extra reading
-
to dive deeper.
-
He passed all of his courses.
-
And today he's a senior, thriving academically and
-
planning to go to college this fall.
-
Across the country, in rural South Carolina,
-
technology helped Nicholas Huther be a full participant
-
in school, even when he was homebound because of
-
cancer treatment.
-
As a fourth grader, Nicholas used a laptop and a webcam to
-
participate in his class at Plainview Elementary School.
-
With the help of technology, he engaged in class discussions and
-
asked questions, almost as if he was actually in the room.
-
With the creative use of technology,
-
he had access to his teachers, and to his classmates and to so
-
many learning opportunities that would have been unavailable to
-
him otherwise.
-
And today, Nicholas attends middle school.
-
In rural Tennessee, the Niswonger foundation,
-
one of our I3 winners, is using technology to give high-need
-
students access to AB classes and language classes that
-
otherwise they would not have the opportunity to take
-
advantage of.
-
And there are so many stories, so many stories like these,
-
that demonstrate what technology can do and the potential for
-
technology to help engage students and
-
to make learning fun.
-
No matter where students are or what obstacles they face,
-
a digital education can offer them a personalized plan to
-
engage them and support their ongoing learning and success.
-
We have a long, long way to go before America becomes a leader
-
in digital learning.
-
But we know what's possible and we know what's at stake both for
-
our children and for our nation.
-
America has always, always been a technological leader.
-
Our country pioneered manned space travel and the creation
-
of the Internet.
-
And yet today, our country is lagging behind other countries
-
in leveraging the power of technology in our classrooms.
-
It's time for us collectively to keep the digital promise to
-
America's children and provide all of them with a personalized
-
instruction that both raises the bar and levels
-
the playing field.
-
Thank you so much for your collective leadership,
-
commitment and collaboration in helping us keep that promise.
-
Thank you.
-
(applause)
-
Tom Kalil: Good morning. My name's Tom Kalil.
-
I'm the deputy director of the White House Office of Science
-
and Technology Policy.
-
I'm going to be moderating the next panel.
-
But before I do that, I want to welcome two leaders from the
-
National Science Foundation who are going to be making an
-
important announcement about cyber learning.
-
NSF, as you know, has played a critical role in the development
-
of technology.
-
They funded the NSF net, which played a very important role in
-
the emergence of the Internet.
-
They funded the development of the first graphical web browser,
-
which really helped the Internet take off.
-
They funded a project of two Stanford kids that turned out to
-
be Google, which was a pretty good investment.
-
And they're going to be making some exciting announcements
-
about the investments that NSF is going to be making in the
-
area of cyber learning.
-
So today we're fortunate to have Joan Ferrini-Mundy,
-
who leads NSF's efforts in education and human resources,
-
and Farnam Jahanian, who leads NSF efforts in computer science.
-
So come on up.
-
(applause)
-
At this time, I'm also going to ask our fantastic panel to
-
please come up and be seated.
-
This morning we've got Mark Edwards,
-
who is the superintendent of Morrisville Graded School District.
-
Dave Weiner, who is the Deputy Chancellor of New York City.
-
Gabe Newell, who is President and Founder of Valve,
-
a leading video game company.
-
And Shirley Malcolm, who is on the Board of the Digital Promise
-
and also leads the efforts in Education and Human Resources at
-
the AAAS.
-
So come on up.
-
(applause)
-
Joan Ferrini-Mundy: Good morning, everyone.
-
It's a great pleasure for us today to join Secretary Duncan,
-
Chief Technology Officer Chopra, the Digital Promise Board of
-
Directors, Congressman Yarmuth, and all of you,
-
to discuss the potential and the promise of learning
-
technologies, especially cyber enabled learning technologies.
-
For several decades, the National Science Foundation has
-
invested in the development of innovative learning tools for
-
science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.
-
From cognitive tutors to Lego mind storms to scratch,
-
NSF has been a long-time supporter of learning
-
technologies that can be used at all education levels in all
-
settings across a wide range of disciplines
-
and for all learners.
-
As technology advances at a rapid pace,
-
realizing the potential of the new learning technologies
-
depends on more than inventing exciting tools and resources.
-
Success also depends on designing ways that innovative
-
tools can be effectively integrated into learning,
-
on understanding their impact on learning,
-
and on supporting and engaging teachers with the resources to
-
use them well.
-
So we are very excited about the potential of Digital Promise to
-
help bring innovative learning technologies from labs into
-
schools and to other educational venues.
-
We look forward to ongoing collaboration with the U.S.
-
Department of Education, the Digital Promise endeavor,
-
federal agencies, and all who are committed to improving
-
learning opportunities for the nation's students,
-
teachers and public.
-
Today, we announce a portfolio of new awards in our NSF-wide
-
program, Cyber Learning Transforming Education.
-
The program aims to improve learning by integrating emerging
-
technologies with knowledge from research about how people learn.
-
We are confident that the learning technologies that are
-
being developed through this program will enhance our ability
-
to collect and manage data, to give personalized realtime
-
feedback, and to promote better learning overall.
-
This group of funded projects has the potential to transform
-
learning, anytime, anywhere, and for anybody.
-
I now invite my colleague, Farnam Jahanian to talk more
-
about this exciting portfolio.
-
Farnam Jahanian: Good morning.
-
Josniel, I think in about 15 years,
-
we're all going to be working for you.
-
(laughter)
-
I am pleased to announce that NSF's cyber learning program
-
has just awarded approximately $15 million
-
to more than 30 institutions.
-
These projects cover a wide range of areas and show deep
-
creativity from the research community.
-
This investment is part of a commitment of more than
-
$40 million across NSF in merit-reviewed cyber
-
learning projects.
-
Awardee institutions include community colleges,
-
universities, and nonprofit organizations and companies.
-
These projects address learning across a broad variety of
-
context, elementary schools through high schools,
-
post secondary education institutions,
-
and informal learning environments such as museums,
-
libraries, and of course cyber space.
-
Several of the projects explore the use of large-scale data to
-
solve complex problems.
-
For example, researchers at the Ohio State University are
-
developing a virtual simulation workbench which uses geospatial
-
technologies and social networks to create online
-
interactive maps.
-
High school and college students can navigate the globe and use
-
graphical, cultural and economic data to solve real world
-
problems related to transportation, agriculture,
-
urban planning and emergency response.
-
In another large-scale data project,
-
researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell,
-
have joined forces with Machine Sciences Incorporated to build
-
software that will allow middle and high school students in
-
different parts of the country to share,
-
analyze and dynamically visualize data.
-
The cyber learning research portfolio also include projects
-
that focus on learners with special needs.
-
Researchers from Brigham Young University will investigate the
-
use of augmented reality to improve learning by deaf and
-
hearing-impaired children in planetariums and other venues
-
where learners are challenged to continuously move their
-
attention between a signing interpreter and a demonstration.
-
There are also projects that will develop learning
-
technologies for learning language skills,
-
such as one awarded to researchers at Harvard,
-
MIT and Northeastern University, to investigate the use of
-
interactive robots to help preschoolers develop vocabulary.
-
This project leverages emerging technologies in robotics with
-
recent findings from social, developmental
-
and cognitive psychology.
-
And along with supporting the design of new technologies,
-
the cyber learning program funded projects from Arizona
-
State University, Carnegie Mellon University,
-
and the University of Pittsburgh that focus on developing a new
-
generation of intelligent tutoring system.
-
To conclude, the projects within the NSF cyber learning portfolio
-
stand to demonstrate the promise of learning technologies to
-
transform our schools and to enhance our lives.
-
Thank you very much.
-
(applause)
-
Tom Kalil: Thank you.
-
So before we start with the panel,
-
I want to recognize a couple of the other individuals and
-
organizations that have made commitments to help launch the
-
Digital Promise initiative.
-
A number of organizations have come together to support the
-
2012 National Stem Video Game Competition,
-
including the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at the Sesame workshop,
-
Eli Media, and this is a video game competition to identify
-
new ways to use video games to support stem teaching
-
and learning.
-
It's being supported by the AMD Foundation,
-
the Entertainment Software Association, Microsoft Xbox,
-
CPB and PBS Ready to Learn Initiative.
-
So please join me in welcoming and supporting that.
-
(applause)
-
The Morgridge Family Foundation is providing a $2 million gift
-
to the Nature Conservancy to support the development of
-
digital content that is based on conservation science.
-
And John, so -- is in the audience,
-
so please join me in welcoming John and the
-
Morgridge Family Foundation.
-
(applause)
-
A number of organizations in the technology community,
-
the Tech America Foundation, the Information Technology Industry
-
Council, the Software and Information Industry Association
-
are all working together to build industry support for the
-
Digital Promise.
-
So if you are in the house, please stand up.
-
(applause)
-
And last, but not least, a number of foundations have
-
stepped forward to help launch the Digital Promise,
-
including the Carnegie Corporation and the
-
Hewlett Foundation.
-
So please join me in welcoming them and thanking them.
-
(applause)
-
So we have a terrific panel and let's get started.
-
Mark, you're the Superintendent of the Moorseville Graded School
-
District and you've recently been using technology to support
-
both challenge learning, real world problem-solving and
-
improving the graduation rate in your school district.
-
How have you been doing that?
-
Mark Edwards: Well, it's an honor to be here and thank you.
-
We've provided all students in Mooresville, North Carolina,
-
it's a small district north of Charlotte, 5,600 students,
-
we've provided all students 3rd through 12th grade with
-
a laptop computer.
-
We ranked 99th in the state in funding out of 115 districts and
-
we've been able to move forward using digital resources as our
-
primary curriculum model.
-
Our graduation rate has gone from 64% to 91% during the last
-
four years.
-
We've also increased our composite academic performance
-
from 68 to 88% and we're currently 3rd in the state.
-
We have also --
-
(applause)
-
Thank you.
-
During that same time our poverty ratio has gone up
-
by 25% so we have felt the effects of the economy.
-
But our performance in biology, in which every student has to
-
pass as a state exam, has gone from 68% to 93%.
-
Another area that we're particularly proud of is at the
-
3rd grade level our composite pass rate for reading is 94%;
-
92% for African-Americans, 91% for Hispanic students.
-
We've also been able, last year we made 100% of our AYP goals,
-
this year we dropped to 92%.
-
There's some more stringent requirements.
-
But I think the real key to that has been leveraging
-
digital resources.
-
Our motto was "Every Child Every Day" and we have used the
-
relevance and the engagement in using technology.
-
We've been able to leverage the use of digital data to
-
inform teachers and to expedite and to bring
-
precision with intervention.
-
And we've also been able to build collaboration and a
-
convergence of teachers, students,
-
family and community working together which students feel
-
every day.
-
I really do believe that the key to this has been a sense of
-
spirit of working together to make a difference and laptops
-
are huge; digital resources are huge.
-
But the community sense of obligation/responsibility for
-
Every Child Every Day has been a key to it.
-
We've had hundreds of visitors from 42 states
-
in the last three years.
-
And I don't think anybody walks away saying anything dramatic
-
other than the fact that we've provided resources,
-
we're using 24th century digital resources and I do believe that
-
there's great opportunity and "may the promise be with us!"
-
(laughter)
-
Thank you.
-
(applause)
-
Tom Kalil: The President's Council of Economic Advisors has developed
-
a report that is looking at the market for learning technology
-
and we're fortunate this morning to have both Katharine Abraham
-
and two of the folks, Ben Jones, and Ronnie Chatterji,
-
who helped out on the report.
-
And one of the things that they identified as a challenge to
-
using technology to transform learning was
-
the nature of the marketplace.
-
You have 15,000 different school districts.
-
You've got lengthy adoption cycles.
-
It's difficult for schools to make evidence-based decisions
-
about what to buy.
-
A lot of school districts don't spend a whole lot of money on
-
educational software.
-
So what do you think are some of the things that a large school
-
district look New York City could do to help drive more
-
innovation in learning technologies?
-
David Weiner: Sure, thank you very much.
-
My name is Dave Weiner, I am a Deputy Chancellor in New York
-
City and one of the areas that I oversee is called
-
our Innovation Zone.
-
The Innovation Zone was started about three years ago.
-
Chancellor Joel Klein was there and he basically brought
-
together private partners, federal funds and local funds
-
to actually build what we call the iZone now.
-
Within the iZone this past year we had about 40 schools in it
-
and we actually, this school year that just started a few
-
weeks ago, we now have 185 schools in the iZone.
-
These schools are basically using technology to personalize
-
learning for students so we have lots of examples of schools that
-
are basically, one example a school we called "School of One"
-
which basically uses technology to individualize instruction for
-
every single student in the class and actually every single
-
student in school in math.
-
Students come in, they are working literally on a computer,
-
there actually is a teacher facilitating as well,
-
and every single student could be at a different place.
-
But it's personalized to each child so that they're growing
-
and it's not, you know, teaching to the middle where some kids
-
are at the top, some kids at the bottom don't get taught,
-
but every single child has an individualized plan for them
-
which is regularly assessed to make sure it continues.
-
So we've have lots and lots of examples.
-
Josiah School is one of the schools that's in our iZone.
-
And we're kind of launching the next stage of it.
-
It directly relates to the question that was asked.
-
We've created what we call an education ecosystem.
-
We started this about a month or two ago.
-
Actually, a little longer now, probably about three or four
-
months ago, and largely what we believe is that within the
-
district we cannot innovate fast enough and so we have to look to
-
outside partners to come in.
-
But in order to do that we've got to define exactly what needs
-
we have.
-
What areas we need support and help in.
-
And we need to be able to pilot some of these programs to be
-
able to see how well they can grow.
-
And then programs that don't work we're going
-
to shut down quickly.
-
And programs that do work, like School of One we're going to
-
expand pretty rapidly.
-
And we really see the school district as being the nexus of
-
that connection between outside entrepreneurs, developers,
-
funders that want to come together to try out these
-
different types of options.
-
One thing that, I've been to quite a few of our iZone schools
-
and the only one thing that, you know,
-
puts them together into one bucket is that they are all
-
completely different.
-
And that's kind of something that we
-
really feel is important.
-
That what might work for Josiah in East Harlem,
-
may not necessarily work for a kid in Statton Island and the
-
way the technology is being used in The Bronx may look different
-
than the way it's being used in Brooklyn.
-
But using technology to personalize instruction is
-
really the main theme that kind of goes throughout it.
-
Tom Kalil: And what are some of the ways in which you think you could
-
leverage the purchasing power of New York City potentially even
-
working with other school districts to help drive the
-
evolution of the market?
-
David Weiner: So we're hoping that through Digital Promise and through
-
Educational Ecosystem we're basically able to come together
-
with different urban districts, Newark, Baltimore,
-
D.C., Philadelphia, to be able to say there are some common
-
themes that we're having.
-
Supporting students getting through 9th grade with enough
-
credits, actually, to be 10th graders has been a struggle for
-
us and some of our other large urban districts.
-
And by being able to define these challenges and problems
-
that we're having we hope to go to the marketplace and be able
-
to say these are the challenges and we need your help in
-
creating technologies to actually be able to innovate
-
and improve that.
-
So almost a buyer's consortium of school districts and
-
organizations that can come together to outline the
-
challenges we have and look to the outside marketplace to help
-
us figure out how to improve on those challenges.
-
Tom Kalil: Great.
-
As I mentioned early, Gabe Newell is the President and
-
founder of Valve, which is an incredibly successful
-
video game company.
-
Clearly the video game industry knows a lot about how to grab
-
and maintain the very high levels of attentive time on
-
task, both young people and grownups.
-
What role do you think there could be for your company and
-
for the video game industry more broadly in terms of transforming
-
teaching and learning?
-
Gabe Newell: Well, we got here because of our customers.
-
We've been successful as a video game company,
-
as an entertainment company because we watch exactly what
-
our customers are doing.
-
And what started to happen was that teachers and students
-
started to bring our games into an educational setting and
-
we're, like, aren't we enemies; right?
-
(laughter)
-
I mean, aren't we entertainment?
-
And isn't that, you know, in opposition to education?
-
So we started talking to the teachers and we started talking
-
to researchers and the more we looked at it it seems like the
-
technology, the engineering, the design,
-
the science behind what we do is the same as the science and the
-
technology that shows so much opportunity in
-
the educational field.
-
So we decided, well, if that's true,
-
then teachers should be good video designers and,
-
video game designers, and we should be able to build
-
compelling, engaging curriculum.
-
So we decided to go ahead and try to do that,
-
so we're in the process of building some middle
-
school curriculum.
-
We're building new tools.
-
We're building new distribution technology to give teachers and
-
students the ability to have access to that.
-
And then we're going to give those tools themselves to the
-
teachers and students.
-
So we're going to learn a lot about that.
-
We're going to learn, you know, how these technologies
-
are converging.
-
And I also think that we're going to show other video
-
game developers what the opportunity is,
-
how they can be contributing, how everything that we've been
-
learning in our industry to engage and excite children,
-
is very applicable in an educational environment as well.
-
And we're very excited working with teachers to figure out how
-
what we do can be a tool to them rather than a distraction.
-
Tom Kalil: Right.
-
It seems one of the things that a great video game does
-
is continually keep you on the knife edge between a challenge
-
being just too hard in which case you give up in frustration,
-
and being too easy in which case you get bored.
-
What are some other things that the video game industry has
-
figured out how to do that you think are broadly applicable to
-
great teaching and learning.
-
Gabe Newell: You know, we have to think about progression,
-
we have to think about pacing, we have to think about
-
appropriate levels of frustration.
-
Our best -- well, you have to be challenged; right?
-
Tom Kalil: Right.
-
Gabe Newell: And you can't be too challenged or you walk away from the task.
-
Tom Kalil: It has to be hard fun.
-
Gabe Newell: It has to be, yeah, it has to be hard fun is a good way to do it.
-
I think one of the biggest steps forward we came to recently is
-
when we started using biometric information to directly measure
-
sort of frustration and engagement levels among game
-
players and it taught us a lot about everybody has a different
-
optimal pathway through an experience,
-
and we think that those are the kinds of lessons that are going
-
to be very applicable, just as applicable in the classroom as
-
they are in people's dens.
-
Tom Kalil: Great.
-
Shirley, one of the points that Secretary Duncan made is that we
-
really have to harness these technologies in ways that are
-
not only going to promote excellence, but equity.
-
What do you think are some of both the challenges and
-
opportunities in using digital learning to promote equity and
-
to expand the circle of opportunity?
-
Shirley Malcolm: One of the things that really excited me about the first
-
presentation was that when called upon to talk about
-
performance of different groups, that there was the opportunity
-
to see that in fact that it had made a difference for all kids.
-
And I think that that is the real opportunity that is there.
-
Obviously the real challenge is to make sure that the tools that
-
are needed are going to be available.
-
I think that these, the stubborn performance gap,
-
and I will say it in all honesty,
-
that this is an unusual situation to be able to report
-
data such as Mooresville has reported.
-
In most cases, that's not what we're seeing.
-
We're seeing a gap that persists and that just does not move.
-
And so the question is why is that.
-
In part it is because we have thought about learning really as
-
only something that in fact happens in school all too often.
-
When in fact it happens or should happen everywhere.
-
Being able to have the technology allows you to do that
-
everywhere, you know, anywhere any time with the students.
-
And I think that that is a real promise and
-
it's a real opportunity.
-
Making sure that we in fact have the access that is available and
-
not differential expectations for students is really going to
-
be a challenge.
-
I was happy to hear that in the cyber learning grants were
-
included some which addressed issues related
-
to students with disabilities.
-
And I think that that's another access issue of a different
-
kind, but it is in fact an access issue and very happy
-
to see that these kinds of things are being attended to.
-
Tom Kalil: What do you think are the opportunities around
-
professional development, particularly in STEM,
-
science technology, engineering and math?
-
As you know this is a major priority for the President to
-
move the United States from the middle to the top of the pack
-
over the next decade and certainly teacher quality
-
is a major challenge in the STEM area.
-
So what are some opportunities to harness technology in the
-
area of professional development?
-
Shirley Malcolm: I think that especially for teachers who are seeking
-
professional education and professional experiences,
-
while at the same time they're in the classroom,
-
they need a place to be able to go and grab and get and learn
-
and update their content.
-
They need to be able to have access to hybrid learning
-
opportunities, not just ones that depend on
-
face-to-face contact.
-
And they need to be able, I think just as many of the rest
-
of us, if they don't understand it the first time around to be
-
able to go and revisit it time and time again until
-
they do understand it.
-
And I think that's one of the things that the technology can
-
actually allow.
-
We did a small experiment basically driven by necessity
-
by the fact that some of the teachers in a program that we
-
were running this summer could not, in fact,
-
all of them couldn't be there at the same time,
-
that we were able to incorporate a digital component with that
-
face-to-face in-the-lab kind of aspect.
-
And I think that those kinds of opportunities that we really
-
have to explore how we're going to be able to move that and to
-
use that in ways that are thoughtful to help teachers
-
have the tools that they need to address their learning and
-
their improvement.
-
Tom Kalil: Great.
-
Gabe, one of the things that Valve is doing is making your
-
level editors available so that's going to really
-
democratize both teachers and students being able to develop
-
games for learning.
-
What are some of the other things that you think the video
-
game industry can and should do to support games as a powerful
-
tool for learning?
-
Gabe Newell: Well, one of the things that we're doing is providing support
-
materials for teachers.
-
So there is a website that we've put up called "learning with
-
portals.com" that will give teachers guides to how to use
-
in an educational situation the physics curricula and the tools
-
that we're creating.
-
You know, just recognizing that you're part of that community
-
and connecting with giving them the ability to create -- you
-
know, we're all used to social networking, well, but, you know,
-
and most of the social networking environments there's
-
not this notion of a class, there's not this notion of
-
a teacher.
-
And those are easy things for us to add, you know, whether it's,
-
you know, an origin for EA or it's a battle net at blizzard,
-
and it would be very helpful as we explore ways that
-
entertainment software is complementary to educational
-
experiences for other game developers to embed those
-
kinds of notions into their social networking systems.
-
Tom Kalil: And are there ways in which you think that the industry could be
-
incented to do these types of things from a commercial point
-
of view as opposed to just a, you know,
-
corporate social responsibility or
-
philanthropical point of view?
-
Gabe Newell: Well, absolutely.
-
I mean, I'd sit down with Bobby Kodak at Activision or John
-
Riccitiello at Electronic Arts and just walk them through our
-
experiences and what we've been learning, you know.
-
I think there are tremendous opportunities to, you know,
-
not just commercial opportunities,
-
but I think to better understand the businesses
-
that we're already in.
-
And, I mean, these are convergent problems.
-
Tom Kalil: Right.
-
Gabe Newell: If they learn how to help a student in a middle school
-
understand fractions, they're probably going to find that
-
they're better across the board at everything else that they're
-
trying to do.
-
I think, you know, being better at this will help their bottom
-
line in a very ongoing basis.
-
Tom Kalil: Great. That's terrific.
-
So, David, as you have worked on developing an innovation
-
ecosystem, what are some of the challenges that smaller
-
companies, which is where a lot of the innovation occurs,
-
have reported to you as challenges associated with
-
addressing the educational market and what are some of the
-
things that you think school districts could do to help
-
address those barriers?
-
David Weiner: One of the biggest barriers that we've heard people say
-
is simply access.
-
People don't know how to access the marketplace of schools.
-
It's very difficult to get in.
-
If you can make a connection you may be able to get into
-
one school or two schools.
-
But it's really hard to actually be able to get access.
-
The second thing is is this idea of piloting programs or having,
-
you know, some degree of research and design.
-
In education it's, you know, it's the "do no harm."
-
There's a nervousness that if we try something new it might
-
be worse than what we currently have.
-
And although what we currently have is not great,
-
we're a little nervous it's going to go down.
-
And we feel like that that actually is our responsibility
-
as the district to actually, first of all,
-
open up our environment to smaller developers,
-
new people that want to get in, but also to pilot.
-
One of the things I think we recognize most clearly is we
-
have about 185 schools that are now in our iZone and we're going
-
up to 400 in two years, that some of the models that we
-
create are not going to work.
-
Tom Kalil: Right.
-
David Weiner: They may be fine, and they may not, you know,
-
they may not harm students, but they're not going to be those
-
groundbreaking leaps forward that we actually need.
-
But our hope is that of the 400 schools that are trying out lots
-
of different technologies, and partnering with outside smaller
-
and larger entrepreneurs, that we will find enough in that to
-
dramatically be able to grow.
-
School of One is a great example again because it's something
-
that has worked well.
-
It's at a school in Brooklyn right now.
-
We're expanding to five new Schools of One sites in January
-
and actually seven additional ones in September.
-
So data that shows that some of these entrepreneurial,
-
these different types of ideas that are actually working,
-
we want to expand quickly and that ideas that aren't going to
-
work we're going to close down as fast as we can.
-
And allowing smaller businesses, smaller groups to actually
-
access and come into the schools,
-
be able to try things out and pilot things is really where we
-
feel like we can have a lot of support and influence.
-
Tom Kalil: So it seems like one of the ways in which large school districts
-
could help drive the market is to define, as you said,
-
some specific learning outcomes or specific problems that you're
-
facing and saying, you know, if you could develop
-
a technology-enabled solution that would deliver the following
-
results, and here is how we'd measure it,
-
then we would buy it.
-
So by being a more proactive voice of the customer,
-
you might be in a position of saying, you know,
-
we don't want to just go out and buy a lot of technology for the
-
sake of technology, but we want to use it to solve a
-
particular problem.
-
Are there things like that that come to mind that could serve as
-
the basis for a pilot for how procurement could drive
-
innovation to solve a particular learning challenge?
-
David Weiner: Yeah, I mean, one of the challenges I think school
-
districts, and New York City, I would say, is one of them,
-
has really been defining what those challenges are.
-
We've done a bad job of saying, hey,
-
this is the challenge we're facing,
-
whether it's the achievement gap or supporting students with
-
disabilities or allowing students to access more
-
curricula, we've done a poor job of doing that.
-
The innovation ecosystem, and again kind of coupled with
-
Digital Promise, we hope, will allow us to be able to say these
-
are some of the challenges we're facing.
-
What's really important also is that we looked at all of
-
our different schools and some of our schools have
-
different challenges.
-
One of the schools in the iZone right now is a school called
-
Brooklyn Tech, it's one of our, one of our exam schools that is
-
a really high functioning school,
-
it's a Steiverson-type school so it really has
-
a top-level student.
-
Well, one of the challenges that we heard from their community
-
and their parents were that -- it sounds crazy -- but juniors
-
and seniors in their schools, their schedules were so tight
-
they weren't able to access enough AP classes.
-
So I'm not sure any student wants to take seven or eight AP
-
classes as a high school student but if there is a child that
-
does it's going to be at Brooklyn Tech.
-
So what we actually did is we actually built a digital
-
platform to actually allow blended learning.
-
So students are now actually getting some of the learning
-
in the classroom about half the time.
-
And then half the time they're required to do it at home as
-
part of, you know, homework and extended day.
-
This almost reminds me when I was in college and I had to do
-
some online work but we're really allowing our high school
-
students to do it.
-
So whereas last year Brooklyn Tech seniors could only take
-
five AP classes, they can now take seven.
-
(laughter)
-
Not that again that I would encourage anyone to do that
-
if they didn't want to, but that's something they could do.
-
On the other end of the spectrum --
-
Tom Kalil: That's a high class problem.
-
David Weiner: Yes, yes, yes, but it is a problem that we're hoping to
-
solve and that marketplace does.
-
And on the other end of the spectrum we have schools that
-
are called transfer schools.
-
And these schools are for students who have actually
-
dropped out of a traditional high school and they're trying
-
to get reengaged.
-
What we find is these kids come to us at 16, 17,
-
18 years old with two credits, three credits, so, you know,
-
it's going to take them four, almost five more years to
-
actually get through high school.
-
Traditionally we have been unable to provide more than
-
about five or six classes a year.
-
With our online platform now we are actually able to double and
-
actually almost triple the number of classes a student
-
would be able to take in a year.
-
So if you're 17 years old and you have the credits of a 9th
-
grader you can actually get through high school in two years
-
as long as you're committed and able to do learning inside the
-
school day and outside of it.
-
It allows you to meet students who have
-
nontraditional schedules.
-
Students that have to work or raising a child,
-
that we can actually work around their schedule.
-
Tom Kalil: So you're trying to move towards competency-based assessment as
-
opposed to how many hours were you in class?
-
David Weiner: That's exactly right. That's exactly right.
-
And we see it basically for all of our students.
-
Students, some of our top students,
-
some of our students that are struggling the most,
-
and all over the board.
-
So we have defined these challenges and we have worked
-
with groups like SYSCO and Google and Apple to say these
-
are some of our challenges; we need to get credit accumulation
-
faster in a competency-based manner and we need your help in
-
figuring out how we can do that.
-
That's really where we've been able to innovate.
-
Tom Kalil: Right.
-
Now, Mark, you cited some really extraordinary figures in terms
-
of the improvements that you've been able to make in student
-
learning outcomes.
-
And obviously, you know, there were probably a lot of things
-
that went into that, you know, leadership, parental engagement,
-
you know, teacher professional development.
-
But what do you think were some of the key wins in terms of the
-
role that technology-enabled learning played in that?
-
Mark Edwards: Well, you know, one of the real exciting outcomes,
-
it was kind of an unintended, is the level of collaboration that
-
goes on after school, that goes on with teachers in the evening
-
and on the weekends and from state to state and
-
region to region.
-
And there is this sense of a collaborative hum that occurs.
-
And there's this same type of excitement that is occurring
-
with teachers that we see with students.
-
And I think the relevance, the fact that it's relevant to the
-
future rather than part of the past,
-
is driving our new teachers' energy and excitement.
-
And I also think that when parents see this opportunity
-
for children, that they're more inclined to be part of it.
-
We're seeing in the evenings our teachers will engage with
-
students on online discussion boards.
-
Last winter we were out for snow and we had semester
-
exams coming up.
-
And we were on a time -- we had to move ahead.
-
But our teachers sent e-mails and we had hundreds of students
-
online in the evening connecting with each other,
-
connecting with their teachers preparing for this opportunity.
-
So I think that there are huge dividends.
-
And I think with the Lead Innovative Schools, Terry Grier,
-
the Superintendent of Houston ISD,
-
a good friend and colleague, we talk regularly.
-
Now, he's a district of 200,000 plus students,
-
but the opportunity to connect locally across the nation,
-
across the world, I think brings a level of excitement to the
-
classroom that there's a new sense of opportunity for all.
-
For teachers and for students.
-
Tom Kalil: Well, please join me in thanking what has been
-
an absolutely terrific panel.
-
(applause)
-
So we're going to go to the next phase of the program.
-
There are going to be three breakout sessions.
-
Everyone should know which breakout session they're
-
supposed to go to and there will be people with signs telling you
-
where to go.
-
I also want to introduce Adam Frankel who is -- Adam,
-
stand up.
-
Please join me in thanking Adam.
-
(applause)
-
And this is really going to require an all-hands-on-deck
-
effort, so please talk to Adam if you're interested in talking
-
about how you can get involved, how your organization can get
-
involved in making the Digital Promise a reality.
-
Thank you!