21st Century Teaching Must Better Embrace New Technologies
Bipartisan innovation legislation “will probably come through by the end of this Congress,” Digital Promise Project Exec. Dir. Anne Murphy said at a Capitol Hill briefing Tues. Enhanced R&D for high-tech teaching and training tools are an essential investment in maintaining America’s innovative potential and competitive edge, officials said. Sen. Dodd (D-Conn.) sponsored his chamber’s bill to establish a Digital Opportunity Investment Trust (DOIT) (S-1023). Rep. Regula (R-O.) sponsored the House version (HR-2512). Both bills await committee action, Murphy said.
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A recent National Academies report concluded what many high-tech scholars feared: The country’s outdated education and workforce development systems are inadequately preparing American citizens for the jobs and global competition of the 21st century, said panel sponsor New America Foundation (NAF). Investing in cutting-edge research to develop educational games and virtual reality simulations is one of the most promising remedies, speakers said. The briefing, held during House Innovation Week, followed a similar event held for Senate staffers in May.
NAF Vp Michael Calabrese pointed to deficiencies in K-12 education and said educators must embrace media that hit home with tech-savvy youths. Studies show that kids spend up to 6 hours a day immersed in electronics like video game systems and the Internet, and the “19th century school system isn’t reaching them where they live,” he said. Educators also aren’t “giving them things they can take home and plug in to the places they plug in,” Calabrese said. Teaching and learning technologies that can harness the power of virtual reality scenarios and high-tech gaming platforms, which are increasingly prevalent among homes at all income levels, must be developed, he said.
New high-tech tools can revolutionize teaching and learning just as they have transformed military training, the communications and financial services industries and the entertainment sector, said former NBC News Pres. Lawrence Grossman. Co-chmn. of Digital Promise, Grossman said the nation’s schools, libraries and museums mustn’t fall behind in the new digital economy. “Congress must show leadership in making these new tools available nationwide,” he said. Lawmakers boldly promoted education in previous efforts like the Land Grant Colleges Act and the GI Bill. Once a century, Congress has made the “far-sighted investment” in the future workforce, and DOIT could be this era’s contribution, Grossman said. S-1023 and HR-2512 do for 21st century education what DARPA does for the military and the National Science Foundation does for science, he said.
The technology needed is personalized and provides compelling simulations of real-world environments, said Federation of American Scientists Pres. Henry Kelly. The technology would be available any time, anywhere and include use of PDAs and other mobile devices, he said. “We know these kinds of tools are effective. We've seen how they are working in the service sectors,” Kelly said, citing “gigantic productivity gains” in finance, where technologies are tailoring services to consumers’ needs.
Federal research partnerships with the private sector are key to DOIT’s success, said Kelly, former White House Office of Science & Technology Policy asst. dir. From the Morse telegraph in 1842 to modern jet engines to the Internet, the govt. has played a major role in U.S.-led innovation, he said. Approving DOIT legislation could be one of this Congress’s legacies, he said.