Towards Transformation

Education Technology Department of Education

May 4, 2009Marshall S. Smith

Table of Contents

• U. S. Education Policy: The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act

• Implications for use of Technology in the Schools.

• A larger vision for technology and education• Some implications of that vision• Moving Ahead

American Reinvestment and Recovery Act

• One-Time Investment• Over $100 billion investment in Education• Almost all resources to be released by October 1, 2009• Historic opportunity to stimulate economy and

improve education

Guiding Principles

Advance Core Reforms/Assurances

Continuous ImprovementInnovation

Transparency Scale

Key Basic programs for reform• Stabilization: state basic formula

– roughly $34 billion for K-12: (2/3rds available now)– Effectively general support / use under Impact Aid rules– Available now – obligate by 10/011: use beyond

• Title I and IDEA: 10 and 13 billion: normal rules: (½ now)• Title I School Improvement: $3 billion: targeted to neediest

and awards potentially large. (Summer)• Education Technology: 0.65 billion. (Summer) • Teacher Incentive Funds (0.2 B), Statewide Data systems

(0.25 B) : – Competitions during summer

FormulaFormula CompetitiveCompetitive

SFSF Incentive Fund: “Race to Top” and “Invest in What Works and Innovation”

• “Race to Top” (RTT) : $4.35 billion competitive grants to states or clusters of states to drive significant improvement in student achievement and college-going through making progress toward the four assurances + possible other areas (e.g. early childhood): States and clusters of states eligible: 50% goes to Title I districts.

• “Investing in What Works and Innovation”: $650 million competitive grants to districts and to districts & non-profits that have made significant gains in closing achievement gaps to be models of best practices and innovate and scale reform.

• Plans not ready yet – opportunity for open comment before RFPs finalized.

• Awards for both competitions will be made during FY10.

Potential Uses of Basic ARRA Funds to Drive Long-Term Educational Reform and

Improvement

• Will the proposed use of ARRA funds:

– Support state, district and school reform plans– Drive results for students? – Increase capacity: human and social capital and

materials? – Be sustainable– Improve efficiency? – Foster continuous improvement?

Uses of Technology in ARRA

• Opportunities at all levels:• New Standards, Curriculum, Assessments.• Data systems: strategies for continuous

improvement.• Improving teaching and learning: professional

development, improving learning..• Supporting turn-around schools.• Efficiencies: Cloud Computing etc.

The Future of Cyberlearning: A vision of the year 2015…

School Home

Teachers Parents

Lifelong “Digital Portfolio”

Mobile technology access to school materials and assignments

Virtual interaction with classmates

Students

Supplemental content

Virtual LaboratorySimulations

Visualizations of real-time data from remote

sensors

What Is Cyberlearning?

• The use of networked computing and communications technologies to support learning

• Interactions among communities of learners across space and time

• Customized interaction with diverse materials, on any topic, at any age

Elementary

Middle School

High School

Undergrad

GraduateContinuing

A Brief History of Technological Advances Making Cyberlearning Possible

Global WarmingRecession

War

PovertyEpidemics

Why Is Cyberlearning Important?

• Leverages learning through– Communication technologies– Students’ technology skills

• Extends capacity of educational institutions into life-long learning opportunities – Increases public understanding of science– Prepares citizens for complex, evolving, global

challenges

Why Cyberlearning Now?

Powerful new technologiesPowerful new technologies

Understanding of how people learnUnderstanding of how people learn

Demand for solutions to educational problems

Demand for solutions to educational problems

New, more responsive methods of

development and testing

New, more responsive methods of

development and testing

ED, NSF and other funding for

interdisciplinary programs in cyberlearning

ED, NSF and other funding for

interdisciplinary programs in cyberlearning

CyberlearningCyberlearningCredit: John Sondek,University of North Carolina,Chapel Hill

Using data to teach geoscience thinkingCredit: Tracy Gregg

State University of New YorkBuffalo

What is OER?• High quality educational content and tools• Open on the Web• All languages• Usable and re-usable• Available on any device

Great strengths of OER• Open (Free) for all on the web • Open for downloading, using and reusing:

– Personalization, cooperation, cultural and linguistic appropriateness

• These strengths are particularly useful for enhancing collaboration and fostering creativity for teaching and learning.

• Value of content approaching zero: added value of services around content – e.g. Google/Red Hat

Universal Open World Library

• Books in millions: Google and other digitization projects

• Library collections worldwide: U.S., (Library of Congress, Smithsonian, Harvard collections) France, UK

• Journals: Public Library of Science, 4000 open journals

• Videos of documentaries and lectures: BBC, Public Broadcasting System

Content

Create, Maintain and Share High Quality MaterialsFast feedback loops that engage rapid cycles of improvement of

teaching materialsContent

Open, Dynamic Textbooks

• Online open textbooks available for printing parts or the whole. • Textbooks could include standard text and pictures + embedded

simulations, games, video, links to relevant sites. • Feedback about quality and effectiveness leads to fast

improvement cycles.

• Also include communication links for students and teacher to other students and teachers.

Teachers Learning

Learn by DoingTo become a scientist, architect, or computer

programmer…must learn to think and practice like one

Surgery SimulatorDiscover BabylonMIT iLabs

Accelerated Learning: Cognitively Informed Web- based Instruction

Open Materials for Supplemental & Lifelong Learning

Give choices and control over when, where, and how to learn

UN World Food Program: Food Force

Federation of American Scientists: Immune Attack

Carnegie Mellon: PeaceMaker

Immersive Teaching and GamesLearn through structured play

• Open access to a massive library of knowledge for all• Learn structured education material anytime,

anywhere, and on any device• User-centric improvement of education materials • Accelerate learning -- learn 2 – 3 times faster

• Motivate students by learning to be professionals • Promote creativity, problem solving, control of learning through

games, immersive environments

Learning = f(Content, Motivation, Time) x Technology

These ideas are just the beginning. What might we do?

1. Invest in development of cognitive tutors, games, simulations and better education materials

2. R&D on more complex immersive environments to support learning by doing

3. Change incentives in the system:– Reward creative uses of technology – Give course credit without seat time – Change tests to assess creativity

Moving Ahead

• Department – Federal Government• New Technology plan -- need it initially to be

device to mobilize people around vision – multiple visions.

• Living, collaborative, effort.