FAS works toward the creation of the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust

By Michelle Roper

The productive working relationship among FAS’s Learning Technologies project, the Learning Federation and the Digital Promise Project continues, and has enabled the projects to reach several significant milestones. Sharing a common vision for enhancing education, research and training through the use of information technologies, the projects have completed several major reports, disseminated a key report to each Member of Congress (accompanied by a "Dear Colleague" Letter from Senator Christopher Dodd [D-CT]), held a Congressional luncheon and testified before Congress during the last quarter.

Months of work in the making, Digital Promise’s Report to Congress entitled: Creating the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust: A proposal to transform learning and training in the 21st century was formally presented at a Congressional luncheon on Thursday, October 23, held in the Mansfield room of the Capitol. The report had been authorized last spring in Public Law 108-7, which included an appropriation to the Federation of American Scientists for the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust, sponsored by Rep. Ralph Regula (R-OH). Senator Christopher Dodd accepted the Report on behalf of the Congress. The luncheon was also attended by Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI), key congressional staff, executives from many of the non profit organizations that are part of the Digital Promise coalition and members of the press.

Two students, Kory Ann Haymore, of the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, and Haydee M. Cuevas, of the University of Central Florida, ceremonially presented the report to Congress. They were chosen as winners of a student essay contest conducted jointly by the Federation of American Scientists and the Learning Federation which asked students to describe their vision of how technology can revolutionize learning. Ms. Haymore’s essay, "Math Animations: Math Lectures Taught by Animated Characters," detailed an innovative way to reverse the traditional use of classroom teaching and homework to teach math with animated lessons. Ms. Cuevas’s essay, "Bringing a World of Dynamic Learning Experiences to Students via Virtual Field Trips," described how innovative use of virtual environments could augment teaching curriculum across a variety of domains, including K-12 education and workforce development. Their essays, along with three runner-up essays, can be found on The Learning Federation’s website: www.learningfederation.org.

During the luncheon, Senator Dodd recited the legacy of leadership in education that Congress has historically provided to ensure the progress of the society– the Northwest Ordinance, the Land Grant Colleges Act and the G.I. Bill. He stated that the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust (DO IT) is the heir to this legacy. Senator Durbin spoke about the important mandate that DO IT will fulfill by using the public resource of the electromagnetic spectrum for the broad public imperative of improving education and training. "Twenty years from now, people will look at this Report as the cornerstone of a 21st century effort to improve teaching and learning," Sen. Durbin said.

Federation of American Scientists’ president, Henry Kelly, advised that, "Developing systems that work for teachers and students is probably the most important and difficult research problem the nation faces today." He noted that the learning science and technology roadmap outlined by the Learning Federation offered a real opportunity for innovation in this area.

Based on the Report’s recommendations, Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) have recently introduced legislation, The Digital Opportunity Investment Trust Act (S. 1854). They will be seeking additional Senate sponsors from both sides of the aisle.

The Trust also received attention on the House side as the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held a hearing entitled "Digital Dividends and Other Proposals to Leverage Investment in Technology" on Wednesday November 19th. Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) introduced legislation for a range of projects to ensure that the public would benefit from the funds that will be generated from the auction of the spectrum. This was the second hearing the Trust has received on this bill. On this occasion Mr. Newton Minow, co-chair of Digital Promise and former head of the FCC, Mr. James Welbourne, Director of the New Haven Free Public Library System, and Dr. Eamon Kelly, former director of the National Science Board and a newly elected FAS Board member, testified on behalf of DO IT. The hearing was well attended by members from both sides of the aisle and the DO IT proposal that could improve education and training "from k to gray", and access to the nation’s cultural treasures, attracted considerable interest.

The report, the Congressional testimonies, a summary of the hearing and the legislation can be accessed online at www.digitalpromise.org. Hardcopies of the report can be obtained by contacting Michelle Roper at 202.546.3300 or by sending an email request to digitalpromise@fas.org.

Coinciding with the presentation of the Digital Promise report, the Learning Federation has released five technical roadmaps, an executive summary of its research findings, and a management model for implementing the R & D roadmap. The roadmaps were produced with the help of nearly a hundred leading researchers in learning science and information technology and describe a pre-competitive, platform-neutral research plan to stimulate development and dissemination of next generation learning tools.

Each component roadmap addresses a critical learning science and technology R&D focus area, specifically: instructional design, question generation and answering systems, learner modeling and assessment, simulations and exploration environments and tools for building and maintaining advanced learning systems. Each roadmap provides an assessment of the R&D needs, identifies key research questions and technical requirements, details the chronology of the R&D activities over the next 3 - 10 years and specifies long-term goals and shorter-term benchmarks for the efforts. Collectively the roadmaps describe a research plan to develop and disseminate a range of interoperable, reliable software tools that can lower the cost of entry for educational materials and systems. The complete series of roadmaps is available at www.learningfederation.org.

Author’s note: Michelle Roper is the manager of the Digital Promise Project and coordinator of special projects at FAS.