P

P

REPORT OF THE WEB-BASED EDUCATION COMMISSION T

THE PRESIDENT AND THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STAT
Honorable Bob Kerrey

United States Senator, Nebraska

(Chair)

Patricia S. Abraham

Professor

Department of Technology and Education

Mississippi State University

Starkville, Mississippi 

George Bailey

Assistant to the Vice President for Research

The University of Montana, Missoula, Montana

Richard W. Brown

Director of Instructional Services

Walden University

Minneapolis, Minnesota 

Honorable Michael B. Enzi

United States Senator

Wyoming

John Gage

Director of Science

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Palo Alto, California

Douglas R. King

President and CEO

St. Louis Science Center

St. Louis, Missouri

Nancy Pfund

Managing Director

Chase H&Q

San Francisco, California

Honorable Johnny Isakson

United States Representative, 6th District, Georgia

(Vice Chair)

Alan Arkatov

Chair and Founder

OnlineLearning.net

Chair, California Postsecondary Education

Commission, Los Angeles, California

Honorable Jeff Bingaman

United States Senator

New Mexico

Susan R. Collins

Senior Vice President and General Manager

bigchalk.com

Berwyn, Pennsylvania

Honorable Chaka Fattah

United States Representative, 2nd District

Pennsylvania

Richard J. Gowen

President

South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Rapid City, South Dakota 

Florence McGinn

Teacher

Hunterdon Central Regional High School

Flemington, New Jersey

David Winston

Senior Vice President

Fabrizio, McLaughlin, and Associates 

Alexandria, Virginia

THE WEB-BASED EDUCATION COMMISSION
THE POWER OF THE INTERNET FOR LEARNING:

MOVING FROM PROMISE TO PRACTICE

REPORT OF THE

WEB-BASED EDUCATION COMMISSION

Senator Bob Kerrey

Chair

Representative Johnny Isakson

Vice Chair

Washington, DC

DECEMBER 2000
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

An effort as far-reaching as that taken on by the Web-based Education Commission could not have

been possible without the invaluable assistance of many talented individuals. Ericka Miller, legislative assistant to Sen. Bob Kerrey and Glee Smith, legislative director to Rep. Johnny Isakson, provided continuous advice, support, and thoughtful review throughout our work. Claudia PharisWeiss, chief of staff to Rep. Chaka Fattah; Carmel Martin, senior policy advisor to Sen. Jeff

Bingaman; and Raissa Geary, legislative assistant to Sen. Michael B. Enzi, also made significant contributions.

In addition, we wish to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of several others: Web site experts

Vickie Bender and Paulette Palladino, as well as Julie Smoragiewicz of the South Dakota School of

Mines and Technology; A. Lee Fritschler, Maureen McLaughlin, Linda Roberts, and Jay Noell of the

U.S. Department of Education; Tricia Fitzgerald of Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Claudia Huff, Tom

Horton, and Patricia Bartlett of the Georgia Institute of Technology; Cheryl Lemke of the Metiri

Group; Michele Blair of Compaq Computer Corporation; and the students in the Technology and

Education Department classes taught by professors Anna Hillman and Patti Abraham at Mississippi

State University.

Finally, the Commission is deeply grateful to the hundreds of individuals and organizations that participated in our yearlong hearings, meetings, and proceedings; provided us with live and online testimony; and assisted us in developing a comprehensive report.
THE POWER OF THE INTERNET FOR LEARNING:

MOVING FROM PROMISE TO PRACTICE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .i

Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .iii

The Power of the Internet for Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Age-Old Dreams, Down-to-Earth Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Blazing Trails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

A Call to Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

What Are We Waiting For? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

No Turning Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Illustrative Stories:

Arming Soldiers with Laptops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

West Virginia: Turning the Campus into a Computer Lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Seizing the Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Access to Broadband Technologies: Bridges Across the Digital Divide . . . . . . . . . .21

Technology Trends: Delivering on the Promise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Digital Inclusion: Are We Doing Enough? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Household Internet Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Wiring Schools and Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

K-12 Educational Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Postsecondary Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Internet Ramps for the Disabled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Illustrative Stories:

Digitizing Dakota! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Breaching Canyon Walls: Bringing the World to Isolated Reservations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Professional Development: How Technology Can Enhance Teaching . . . . . . . . . .39

Getting Beyond the Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Professional Development and Technology: Too Little, Too Basic, Too Generic .41

Comparisons With the Private Sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Bringing Teachers Out of Isolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

The Internet as a Tool for Teacher Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

Wanted: Two Million New Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

Making Professional Development in Technology a High Priority . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Illustrative Stories:

Helping Isolated Teachers Make New Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

Co-Authors in Cyberspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
Correcting a Paucity of Research and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

Not Enough is Spent on Educational Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Educational Research Should Lead to Enhanced Learning Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Building the Foundation for 21st Century Learning Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Educational Research That Teachers Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Illustrative Stories:

Making the Web Accessible for Students with Disabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

e-Learning: The Medical Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

Compelling Online Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

State of the Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

PreK-12: Moving From Online Materials, to Courses, to Full Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74

Online Content and Courses at the Postsecondary Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

Assuring High Quality at the Postsecondary Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78

The Bottom Line Test: Does it Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

Illustrative Stories:

Telecom Workers: Overcoming Educational “Busy Signals” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80

Turning Students into Virtual Explorers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82

Removing Regulatory Restrictions to E-Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87

Regulation in a Nation of States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88

The PreK-12 Education Regulatory Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88

The Postsecondary Education Regulatory Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89

Federal Statutory and Regulatory Barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90

The 12-hour Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

The 50 Percent Rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

Ban on Incentive Compensation Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

Copyright Protection: Horse and Buggies on the Information Superhighway . . . . . . . . . .94

Rethinking Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97

Illustrative Story:

Learning at 'Virtual U' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98

Privacy, Protection, and "Safe Streets" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103

Online Advertising and Marketing in Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103

Online Profiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104

Young People and the "Dark Streets" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

Potential Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106

Illustrative Story:

“Yo, It's Time for Braces” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111

ection one
Funding for e-Learning: A Continuing Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115

Total Cost of Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115

Local Budgets Vary, but Patterns are Consistent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116

Patterns of Education Funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .116

Federal Funding for Technology—Targeted and General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118

Telecommunications Funding: Intersecting State and Federal Responsibility . . . . . . . . . .119

Technology Investments Can Lead to Economies of Scale and Real Productivity Gains 120

Good Education is Good Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121

Aggregating the e-Learning Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121

Meeting the Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122

Illustrative Story:

A Classroom that Keeps Up With Migrant Kids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123

Moving From Promise to Practice: A Call to Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

A National Call to Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Appendices

A. Commission Legislative Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .139

B. Commission Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143

C. Commission Hearings and Witnesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145

D. e-Testimony Submissions to the Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151

E. Commission, Speeches and Presentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155

F. Stakeholder Meetings with Commissioners and Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159

G. Individuals and Groups Providing Services to the Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163

H. Commission Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .167

Section one

FOREWORD

The Internet is a powerful new means of communication. It is global, it is fast, and it is growing rapidly.

Reaching to the far corners of the earth, the Internet is making the world at once smaller and more

connected, transmitting information at nearly real-time speed. An estimated 377 million people are

currently using the Internet, only half of whom are in the United States. The World Wide Web is bringing

rapid and radical change into our lives—from the wonderfully beneficial to the terrifyingly difficult.

For education, the Internet is making it possible for more individuals than ever to access knowledge

and to learn in new and different ways. At the dawn of the 21st Century, the education landscape is

changing. Elementary and secondary schools are experiencing growing enrollments, coping with critical

shortages of teachers, facing overcrowded and decaying buildings, and responding to demands for

higher standards. On college campuses, there is an influx of older, part-time students seeking the

skills vital to success in an Information Age. Corporations are dealing with the shortage of skilled

workers and the necessity of providing continuous training to their employees.

The Internet is enabling us to address these educational challenges, bringing learning to students

instead of bringing students to learning. It is allowing for the creation of learning communities that

defy the constraints of time and distance as it provides access to knowledge that was once difficult

to obtain. This is true in the schoolhouse, on the college campus, and in corporate training rooms.

The power of the Internet to transform the educational experience is awe-inspiring, but it is also

fraught with risk. As legislators and community leaders, we have the responsibility to develop policies

and make informed decisions to ensure that new technologies will enhance, and not frustrate, learning. That is why Congress established the Web-based Education Commission.

For the past year we have been chairing an effort that has explored the ways in which the Internet is

changing the delivery of education. Along with Senators Jeff Bingaman and Michael Enzi,

Representative Chaka Fattah, and a distinguished group of education and business leaders, the

Commission has heard about the tremendous power of the Internet to empower individual learners

and teachers. We have also heard about the barriers that frustrate learning in this new environment.

Our witnesses urged us to "think big" as we addressed the challenges of a rapidly changing educational

landscape.

The report we are now submitting to the President, to Congress, and to the nation reflects the cumulative

work of our Commission and a consensus of our findings. It is a call to action to all of those who

must be involved if we are to implement real and positive change—policymakers at the federal, state,

and local levels; students and educators; parents; communities; and the private sector. No one group

can bring about this change alone.

The Internet is a promising tool. Working together, we can realize the full potential of this tool for

learning. With the will and the means, we have the power to expand the learning horizons of students of all ages.

i

SENATOR 

BOB KERREY

Chair

REPRESENTATIVE 

JOHNNY ISAKSON

Vice Chair
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Although web-based education is in its earliest phase, it holds extraordinary promise.

The bipartisan, congressional Web-based Education Commission set out to discover how the

Internet is being used to enhance learning opportunity for all learners from pre-kindergarten through

high school, at postsecondary colleges and universities, and in corporate training.

In the course of our work, we heard from hundreds of educators, policymakers, Internet pioneers,

education researchers, and ordinary citizens who shared their powerful visions and showed us the

promise of the Internet—

To center learning around the student instead of the classroom

To focus on the strengths and needs of individual learners

To make lifelong learning a practical reality

We heard that the Internet enables education to occur in places where there is none, extends

resources where there are few, expands the learning day, and opens the learning place. We experienced how it connects people, communities, and resources to support learning. We witnessed how

it adds graphics, sound, video, and interaction to give teachers and students multiple paths for understanding. We learned that the Web is a medium today's kids expect to use for expression and communication—the world into which they were born.

And we were told first-hand that the Internet could result in greater divisions between those with

access to the opportunities of web-based learning, and those without access.

We also understood that the Internet is not a panacea for every problem in education.

By the end of our work, we were able to identify the key barriers that are preventing the Internet

from realizing its full potential for enhancing learning. The Commission was urged to help the nation

better understand these barriers and offer its recommendations for addressing them.

Based on the findings of our work, the Commission believes a national mobilization is necessary, one

that evokes a response similar in scope to other great American opportunities—or crises: Sputnik and

the race to the moon; bringing electricity and phone service to all corners of the nation; finding a

cure for polio.

Therefore, the Commission is issuing a call to action to:

• Make powerful new Internet resources, especially broadband access, widely and equitably available and affordable for all learners. The promise of high quality web-based education is made possible by technological and communications trends that could lead to important

educational applications over the next two to three years. These include greater bandwidth,

expansion of broadband and wireless computing, opportunities provided by digital convergence,

and lowering costs of connectivity. In addition, the emergence of agreement on technical standards for content development and sharing will also advance the development of web-based

learning environments.
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• Provide continuous and relevant training and support for educators and administrators

at all levels. We heard that professional development—for preK-12 teachers, higher education

faculty, and school administrators—is the critical ingredient for effective use of technology in the

classroom. However, not enough is being done to assure that today's educators have the skills and

knowledge needed for effective web-based teaching. And if teacher education programs do not

address this issue at once, we will soon have lost the opportunity to enhance the performance of

a whole generation of new teachers, and the students they teach.

• Build a new research framework of how people learn in the Internet age. A vastly expanded, revitalized, and reconfigured educational research, development, and innovation program is

imperative. This program should be built on a deeper understanding of how people learn, how

new tools support and assess learning gains, what kinds of organizational structures support

these gains, and what is needed to keep the field of learning moving forward.

• Develop high quality online educational content that meets the highest standards of

educational excellence. Content available for learning on the Web is variable: some of it is

excellent, much is mediocre. Both content developers and educators will have to address gaps in

this market, find ways to build fragmented lesson plans into full courses and assure the quality of

learning in this new environment. Dazzling technology has no value unless it supports content

that meets the needs of learners.

• Revise outdated regulations that impede innovation and replace them with approaches

that embrace anytime, anywhere, any pace learning. The regulations that govern much of

education today were written for an earlier model in which the teacher is the center of all instruction and all learners are expected to advance at the same rate, despite varying needs or abilities.

Granting of credits, degrees, availability of funding, staffing, and educational services are governed by time-fixed and place-based models of yesteryear. The Internet allows for a learner-centered environment, but our legal and regulatory framework has not adjusted to these changes.

• Protect online learners and ensure their privacy. The Internet carries with it danger as well

as promise. Advertising can interfere with the learning process and take advantage of a captive

audience of students. Privacy can be endangered when data is collected from users of online

materials. Students, especially young children, need protections from harmful or inappropriate

intrusions in their learning environments.

• Sustain funding—via traditional and new sources—that is adequate to the challenge at

hand. Technology is expensive, and web-based learning is no exception. Technology

expenditures do not end with the wiring of a school or campus, the purchase of computers, or

the establishment of a local area network. These costs represent just the beginning.

The issue before us now is how to make good on the Internet's power for learning and how to move

from promise to practice.

The Web-based Education Commission calls upon the new Congress and Administration to embrace

an "e-learning" agenda as a centerpiece of our nation's federal education policy.

This e-learning agenda should be aimed at assisting local communities, state education agencies, institutions of higher education, and the private sector in their efforts.
The moment is at hand.

We urge the new President and the 107th Congress to seize this opportunity and to focus on ways

in which public law can be modified and changed to support, rather than undermine, the technology that is so dramatically changing education.

• We call on federal and state governments to make the extension of broadband access for

all learners a central goal of telecommunications policy.

We urge federal and state officials to adopt a policy framework that will help accelerate broadband

deployment in education quickly and effectively. The E-rate program, which has brought 21st

Century telecommunications into the nation's schools and libraries, has provided a dramatic boost.

Individual state efforts have shown promise and success. Local and state policymakers should

consider complementary efforts focused on educational applications of broadband access.

• We call upon policymakers at all levels to work with educational institutions and the 

private sector to support the continuous growth of educators through the use of

technology.

We encourage continuing federal and state support for initiatives and models that make just-intime, just-what's-needed training and support available to educators. The reauthorization of the

Elementary and Secondary Education Act and subsequent Higher Education Act reauthorization offer the opportunity to make this happen and to incorporate the best thinking and practices identified by this Commission. Partnerships that bring together the federal government,

state and local agencies, the private sector, and educational institutions offer the best promise of

assuring continuing teacher empowerment and growth with technology.

• We call upon the federal government to create a comprehensive research, development,

and innovation framework for learning technology.

We recommend establishing a benchmark goal for federal research and development investment

in web-based learning, consistent with similar benchmarks in other industry segments. This

framework would focus on high payback targets of educational opportunity and support the

creation of learning communities and tools for collaborative knowledge building and dissemination

among researchers, teachers, and developers.

• We call upon the public and private sectors to join forces in developing high quality content and applications for online learning.

At the federal level, the Commission recommends that Congress articulate content development

priorities, provide seed funding for high need areas, and encourage collaboration and partnerships

between the public and private sectors in the development and distribution of high quality online

materials. The federal government should work with all agencies and programs to adopt technical

standards for the design of online courses, meta tagging of digital content, and universal design

standards for access for those with disabilities.

The Commission recommends that the education community develop standards for high quality

online courses. The current voluntary system of accrediting higher education institutions and

programs should continue but with better clarity for the consumer regarding online options.

The Commission recommends the convening of state and regional education accreditors and

organizations to build common standards and requirements for online learning programs,

courses, and certifications comparable to the standards required for onsite programs.

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• We call upon Congress, the U.S. Department of Education, and state and regional education authorities to remove barriers that block full access to online learning resources,

courses, and programs while ensuring accountability of taxpayer dollars.

The Commission encourages the federal government to review and, if necessary, revise the “12-

hour rule,” the “50 percent rule,” and incentive compensation requirements that are creating barriers to students enrolling in online and distance education courses.

The Commission encourages national, state, and regional education policymakers to increase

cross-state regulatory and administrative cooperation in web-based education. We also call upon

states to develop common and appropriate policies regarding credits, faculty compensation,

accreditation, licensing, articulation, student services, and programs to reach underrepresented

student populations.

The Commission endorses the U.S. Copyright Office proposal to convene education representatives and publishers to build greater consensus and understanding of the "fair use" doctrine in its

application to online learning.

• We call upon parents, the education community, and the private sector to develop and

adopt privacy and protection safeguards to assure that learners of all ages are not exploited while participating in online learning activities.

The Commission believes that filtering and blocking software alone is of limited value. Instead,

we recommend encouraging developers and educators to collaborate in creating noncommercial,

high quality educational “safe zones” on the Web. We also recommend that schools, districts, and

states develop and promote programs for the safe, wise, and ethical use of the Internet.

The Commission also believes some adjustments to the Children's Online Privacy and Protection

Act may be necessary to allow educational exemptions for the collection of identifiable student

data online with appropriate parental consent.

• Finally, we call upon the federal government, states, localities, and the private sector to

expand funding initiatives and to develop new models to bring these policies to reality.

The Commission believes these initiatives could include tax incentives, additional public-private

partnerships, increased state and federal appropriations, and the creation of a learning technology trust fund. The Commission encourages states and localities to aggregate their market

strength as a way of bringing advanced technologies to education at a considerably lower cost.

The question is no longer if the Internet can be used to transform learning in new and powerful ways.

The Commission has found that it can. Nor is the question should we invest the time, the energy, and

the money necessary to fulfill its promise in defining and shaping new learning opportunity. The

Commission believes that we should. We all have a role to play.

It is time we collectively move the power of the Internet for learning from promise to practice.
vii

The Internet is perhaps the most transformative technology

in history, reshaping business, media, entertainment, and

society in astonishing ways. But for all its power, it is just

now being tapped to transform education.

The good news is that the Internet is bringing us closer than we ever thought possible to make learning—

of all kinds, at all levels, any time, any place, any pace—a practical reality for every man, woman, and child.

The bad news? Millions still cannot access the

Internet and do not understand how to use it to

harness the global web of knowledge.

They do not know how to deal in information,

the basic currency of the knowledge economy.

They do not know how to find information, how

to handle it, how to trade in it, how to invest it for

their futures.

These individuals, already at risk, will become

increasingly marginal in the emerging knowledge

economy—unless we change current law, current

regulations, and current practices.

The World Wide Web is a tool that empowers

society to school the illiterate, bring job training

to the unskilled, open a universe of wondrous

images and knowledge to all students, and enrich

the understanding of the lifelong learner.

The opportunity is at hand. The power and the

promise are here. It is now time to move from

promise to practice.

THE POWER OF THE INTERNET 

FOR LEARNING

There is no going

back. The traditional

classroom has been

transformed.

(e-Testimony to the Web-based

Education Commission)

1
Age-Old Dreams, 

Down-to-Earth Problems

Amidst all of the hype about the Internet is the reality of its inevitability.

Forged by the competitive struggles of the private sector, it will soon surpass

today’s expectations like a Ferrari overtaking the Model-T.

Web-based education is just beginning, with something of far greater

promise emerging in the middle distance. Yet technology, even in its current

stage of development, can already allow us to realistically dream of

achieving age-old goals in education—

To center learning around the student 

instead of the classroom

To focus on the strengths and 

needs of individual learners

To make lifelong learning a reality

Blazing Trails

The bipartisan, congressional Web-based Education

Commission set out to discover how the Internet is

being used to enhance learning opportunity, and to identify ways that Congress and the President can help local

schools, state education agencies, and postsecondary

institutions overcome barriers.

Our work began with face-to-face hearings across

America and in virtual hearings on the Web. The

Commission listened to hundreds of people eager to

show how the Internet and learning are coming together to meet the needs of their communities and schools.

From the Head Start teacher on an Indian reservation,

to the governor of South Dakota, to the superintendent

of a challenged inner-city school district, to the

Secretary of the U.S. Army, they gave us a vision of the

tremendous promise of the Internet, and they demonstrated its power.1

 Growing enrollments.

The baby boom echo, the 25% increase in

the nation's birthrate that began in the mid1970s and peaked in 1990, and rising

immigration have increased school

enrollment.5 Public elementary and

secondary school enrollment is projected

to reach over 47 million in 2000, and to

increase further in subsequent years.6 

 Critical need for teachers. 

Schools across the nation will need to hire

between 1.7 and 2.7 million additional

teachers over the next decade to meet the

demand of rising enrollments and replace a

large pool of retiring teachers.7

 Overcrowded schools and

outdated buildings.

$127 billion in spending is needed to repair,

renovate, and modernize school buildings.

The average public school in America is 42

years old.8

THE CURRENT 

CONTEXT 

FOR K-12

EDUCATION* 

K-12

2
And we listened to those who are concerned about preserving the most valuable elements of

traditional education delivery as we move ahead in developing web-based courses and models.

What did they tell us? They told us that the Internet offers education in places where

there is none and extends resources where few exist. They told us that the

Internet connects people, communities, and resources to support

learning. They told us that it extends the learning day and the

learning place. They showed us how it adds graphics,

sound, video, and interaction to give teachers and

learners multiple paths for understanding. And

they told us the Web is a media today's kids

expect to use for expression and communication—the world into which they were born.

We also learned that the most important ingredient is not money. It is

the presence of a local hero or

heroes with the vision, courage,

and stamina to challenge the

status quo. Absent this ingredient, more money will be of

little benefit.

The Commission listened

to people facing problems

as varied as all of America.

The solutions they created

were no less diverse. Every

person who testified before

us had one thing in common: each was an Internet

trailblazer who heard the

cries of need in their communities, and responded—crafting solutions that best fit local

outlooks and expectations.

Each saw an opportunity and took

it. Each accepted risk. Each

embraced a challenge. For these reasons, we believe these Internet trailblazers are among the new heroes of education.

Increasingly diverse 

student population.

35% of U.S. children are members of minority

groups, a figure that is expected to climb more

than 50% by 2040. One in five comes from a household headed by an immigrant. And nearly one-fifth live

in poverty.9

Intense focus on higher standards and 

increased accountability.

 More alternatives to public education. 

As of fall 1999, 350,000 students were enrolled in more than

1,600 charter schools across the United States. Thirty-six states 

and the District of Columbia have passed charter schools legislation.11 Home schooling is growing. The number of home schooled

6-17 year olds in 1994 was 345,000, growing to 636,000 by

1996.12 This figure is now estimated to be between 700,000

and 1.5 million.13 

* Note to Readers: Throughout this report we use the term K-12 to

refer to the traditional U.S. elementary, middle, and secondary

school structure. Much of the data cited was collected at the

kindergarten through grade 12 level. However, we acknowledge that web-based technologies have value for young

children at the pre-kindergarten level as well (i.e., ages

3 and 4) and occasionally, we use the term preK-12.

K-12

In 1992, only 14 states had 

designed and adopted academic 

standards. Today, 49 states have 

developed content standards and 48 have 

assessments to measure student progress 

in core academic subjects, including 

high stakes testing.10 

3
A Call to

Action

These leaders identified distinct barriers to web-based education, and

urged us to remove them. They told

us the promise of the Internet could not

be fully realized unless there is:

 Greater access to broadband connectivity

Guidance in the best uses of the Web

for learning

Understanding of how people learn

differently with the Internet

 Content that leverages the powerful

capabilities of the Web

We also heard their frustrations. They informed us

that yesterday's regulations stymie innovation. They

warned us that the Internet is still uncharted

territory and urged us to assure that appropriate

protections are put in place. And they emphasized

that without new sources of funding the promise of

the Internet for learning may not be met.

Above all, they asked us to issue a national call to

action to remove these barriers.

What Are We 

Waiting For?

Against this backdrop of opportunity, there are

some that have called on us to hold back. In

essence, they seek a moratorium on the educational

use of digital technologies, including the Internet,

until clear evidence of their effectiveness and shortcomings are better understood.

We believe that this call, if heeded, would squander

a momentous opportunity in education. This

Commission believes that we have sufficient

evidence to know that the Internet—if used wisely

—enhances education.

POST

SECONDARY

CURRENT CONTEXT FOR POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION

 Growing enrollments.

Total college enrollment has been increasing

in recent years, projected to hit a record

15.1 million in fall 2000. Between 1998 and

2010, full-time enrollment is projected to

increase by 22% as large numbers of high

school graduates enter college. Part-time

enrollment is projected to increase by

16%.14 About 67% of all 1997 high

school graduates went

directly on to college.15

 Increased levels of education

are required for our knowledgebased economy. 

Higher levels of skills and knowledge are

required for an economy based on

information. 85% of current jobs require

education beyond high schools, up from

65% in 1991.16

 Changing demographics.

Large numbers of older persons, working adults, and part-time students attended college in 1999. The adult age cohort

is the fastest growing segment of students in postsecondary education: 77

million adults are estimated to be taking

postsecondary courses. Despite rising

enrollments noted above, just 16% of

college students fit the traditional 18-22

year old profile, attend full-time, and live

on campus.17

4
We know it works. It is an empirical success in

schools, and an empirical success in the private sector.

Imagine what would have happened if the nation's

corporate leaders had imposed a similar moratorium

in 1990, before they were able to measure objectively any positive impact of technology investment in

productivity. It took years for these technological

investments to bear fruit. Fortunately, business made

these investments in technology. As vast as those

investments were, they are dwarfed by their results—

a one-third increase in real U.S. economic growth.2

We live in a global market, one in which a strained

U.S. labor market has to import brainpower and

high-skilled workers, or rent it over the Internet from

people living in Dublin or Mumbai. In such a rapidly changing environment, standing still is not an option.

Those in the educational sector who would have us

wait fail to grasp what has been obvious to the private sector for half-a-decade. The Internet is not a

fad. It is not just another in a long line of technologies that have promised a "quick fix" for education.

Its reach and impact on all aspects of society are

unprecedented. The interactivity of this new technology makes it different from anything that came

before. It elicits participation, not passive interest. It

gives learners a place for communication, not isolation.

It is not a new form of television. It is the beginning

of a new way of learning.

In one sense, however, those who urge

education to hold back have nothing

to worry about. A de facto moratorium already exists in most

American schools. On

average, U.S. firms spend

between $3,500 and

$5,500 per worker in

technology and technological support

each year,3 compared to per student

spending on technology that rarely

exceeds a couple hundred dollars in the best

of circumstances.4

POST

SECONDARY

$  Rising costs of

higher education. 

College costs have risen at both public and

private institutions. In the last decade,

average tuition and fees at public colleges

have risen 44%, and the average at private

colleges shows a 40% increase after

adjusting for inflation.18

 New technologies are transforming postsecondary institutions. 

Students enrolled in distance education as

a percentage of total postsecondary

enrollments are projected to triple to

almost 15% in 2002 from just 5% in

1998.19 The number of distance courses

offered by postsecondary institutions and

the number of enrollments nearly doubled between 1994-95 and 1997-98.20

 Privatization in higher

education. 

The profit-making sector sees education

as an investment opportunity. A growing

number of for-profit institutions are

emerging and providing students with

alternatives to public education. 

 Globalization. 

The demand for U.S. higher education by

students abroad is huge. Close to

500,000 foreign students currently study

in the U.S.. Global demand for higher

education is forecast to reach 160 million

students in 2025.21

5
At the beginning of the 21st Century, the most cutting edge tool to be found in many

American classrooms—including our institutions of higher education—is still an

overhead projector.

No Turning Back

The Commission has found:

The need for a new design in learning is there. Today's education is built on an

agrarian model that worked in the years when we were a nation of farmers, foresters, and

fishermen. Schooling changed to take on elements of the industrial revolution (factory-line

classes, assembly-line curriculum, and teacher-foremen) that worked for the needs of the

Industrial Age. New designs are needed to create the "knowledge workers" who will define the

Information Age.

The market is there. Business is poised to support education with powerful Internet solutions.

We know that education itself can be a strong market that drives the innovation of continuing

products, tools, and applications to benefit learners across the spectrum.

The global economy is there. If this era of globalization has proven anything, it is that a

growing world economy can create a strong and lasting demand for skilled knowledge workers and a technologically savvy workforce.

But we haven't made the connection to education. We must

seize the opportunities and complete these connections—

technological and human.

And we must advance with constant assessment and

reflection. There is still much about learning and

the impact of technology we do not know. We

must continue to research what is not known,

analyze what is proposed or underway, and

then examine the results. We also must combine our belief in the great value of these

advances with appreciation for the difficulties that we face: the inequality of access

and the lack of teacher preparedness for

web-based learning.

To make the most of learning with the

Internet, we will have to address serious

issues. Many of these issues are not new.

They have been facing education for decades,

and some are reaching a crisis point.

We cannot talk about effective use of the Internet

in education without understanding the parts of the

system that are already strained: teacher shortages and 

MEDIA AND

INFORMATION: 

THE WORLD OF

TODAY'S STUDENTS

 Data smog: explosion of information and

sources. Kids need information literacy.

 Media sensitization and expectations: kids

expect content to be as exciting as their latest

video game. How can schools compete?

 Information architecture: information can be

structured in new ways to support effective

searching, use, and understanding.22 How do

students learn this?

6
the need for better preparation and retraining; teacher compensation and the need to provide

a more professional work environment; inequalities in school funding; aging school buildings;

and poor student performance. We heard how these strains are slowing the full deployment

of the Web for learning. Addressing these issues is essential.

In short, the Internet is not a panacea for every problem in education. We need to be realistic. But we also must realize that the Internet is a tool that can help us empower every student and elevate each individual to new levels of intellectual capacity and skill. That is the

great opportunity of this new technology.

Such a promise is easily made. It will take a greater commitment to keep.

Moving to:

broadband

multimodal rich 

connectivity

untethered (wireless) access

the technology adapting 

to the user

Moving from:

 narrowband

 plain, single mode 

(e.g., text or speech) 

 tethered (wired) access 

 users adapting to 

the technology 

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS

7
8

 Education and training is the second

largest sector of the U.S. economy.

At approximately $815 billion, it represents the nation's second largest

expenditure, behind healthcare. The

education market currently represents approximately 9% of the gross

domestic product.37

 The K-12 e-learning market is estimated at $1.3 billion and is expected

to grow to $6.9 billion in 2003.38

E-EDUCATION IS BIG 

BUSINESS NOW—AND 

WILL BE BIGGER IN 

THE FUTURE: 

 The postsecondary online market

is estimated at $1.2 billion and it

is expected to grow to $7 billion

by 2003.39

 The U.S. corporate e-learning market is estimated at $1.1 billion and it

is expected to grow to $11.4 billion

by 2003. The global market for elearning is estimated at $300 billion

and is expected to grow to $365 billion by 2003.40

 Venture capital funding in knowledge enterprises amounted to over

$3 billion since January 1999 or

about triple the total invested in the

previous nine years.41 

THE CURRENT CONTEXT FOR WORKFORCE 

TRAINING IN THE INFORMATION ECONOMY

 Increased demand for skilled workers. Skilled jobs now represent 85% of all

jobs,23 in contrast to 20% in 1950.24 Between 1998 and 2008 more than 2 million new

skilled information technology (IT ) workers will be needed to fill newly created jobs and

to replace workers leaving the field.25 By 2006 nearly half of all workers will be

employed in industries that produce or intensively use information technology products

and services.26

 Shortage of skilled workers. In 1999 nearly 720,000 IT positions went unfilled.27

The escalating demand for skilled workers in information technology has led to a lifting

of the number of visas for high tech workers from 115,000 to 195,000.28 The demand

for high tech labor in Silicon Valley alone is fully one third greater than the current high

tech workforce nationwide.29

 Need for continuous training. It is estimated that 50% of all employees' skills

become outdated within 3 to 5 years.30 To deal with this, corporate training budgets

have increased 23.5% between 1994 and 1999.31

 Shift to use of web-based training for workers. Classroom use in corporate

training is expected to drop from the current level of 78% to 64% by 2001.32 The market for web-based corporate learning is expected to reach $11.4 billion by 2003, up from

$550 million in 1998.33

 Growth in corporate universities. In the last thirteen years the number of companies that have opened corporate universities grew from 400 to 1,800.34 40% of

Fortune 500 companies have established corporate universities.35 At the current rate

the number of corporate universities will exceed the number of traditional universities

by the year 2010.36 
The 21st Century U.S. Army needs soldiers educated for high tech warfighting and other vital

missions. These are soldiers, says Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera, who are comfortable

with “a network-centric battlefield,” one “where command, control, communication, intelligence, and situational awareness are accomplished digitally and shared instantaneously across

the battlefield.”

The Army also needs help recruiting and retaining soldiers who are eager to learn new skills

and earn a degree. Until now, however, the Army has had difficulty delivering high levels of

quality education to soldiers stationed around the world.

Many soldiers take university-based courses while serving, but the costs tend to be high and

scheduling difficult. And soldiers rotate locations—a collection of courses from several different institutions may make for a well trained soldier, but may not add up to a full-fledged degree.

The Army is responding by launching a major initiative to educate soldiers through a program

called the Army University Access Online1

—a $600 million effort based on laptops and “anywhere, anytime” learning principles.

Secretary Caldera believes this new Army initiative will

address three vital issues. It will help recruiting. It will

improve learner retention. And it will help produce the

educated, Information Age soldiers America needs to

succeed in the missions and battlefields of tomorrow.

The Army expects to build the largest online educational portal in the world with the objective of enabling

any enlisted Army personnel to earn a postsecondary

degree or technical certification. To help in this effort,

soldier-students will receive tuition assistance, textbooks, laptops, help-desk support, Internet access, academic counseling, extensive course selection, and a

command climate that encourages life-long learning.

The Army anticipates that within the first three

months of the program 15,000 to 20,000 soldiers will

be enrolled and pursuing degrees or professional credentials. The vision for Army University

is that eventually every one of the Army’s one million soldiers will be able to take advantage

of the program.

The Army’s commitment to distance learning is expected to expand the market for online

content and courses, creating incentives for development. This should, in turn, create a much

richer set of offerings for online learners in the civilian sector as well.

Secretary Caldera says that giving adults a “learn while you serve” option will attract more

quality recruits. It is an incentive with high-payback potential. Once soldiers are finished

9

ARMING SOLDIERS WITH LAPTOPS

The Army’s 

commitment to 

distance learning 

is expected to

expand the market

for online content

and courses, 

creating incentives

for development.
with their service, they will return to civilian life with strong educational credentials and a

valuable set of marketable workforce skills.

The program is also expected to improve retention, as more soldiers achieve their personal

education goals without leaving the Army.

“It is difficult to articulate the enormous impact that this initiative will have on enlisted soldiers,” says Army Sergeant Major Jack L. Tilley. “I can tell you that Army University Access

Online is exactly what today’s soldiers are looking for—a chance to earn their degrees while

they serve. By helping soldiers achieve their personal, professional, and educational goals

Army University Access Online reinforces the Army’s commitment to investing in its people.”

1. See http://eARMYU.com

10
The "Digital Divide" takes many forms. Students in Wetzel County,1 West Virginia, are

geographically remote from big city life, and, until recently, school libraries—with out-ofdate collections—constituted the main information resource.

School Superintendent Martha Dean realized that web-based learning could transform the

academic opportunities and broaden horizons for her students. She wanted to build on the

technology program West Virginia had put into place in the elementary schools. But she

knew her high school students needed to go beyond the basic skills approach and transition

to the self-directed learning activities they would need later in life.

11

CAMPUS INTO A COMPUTER LAB

WEST VIRGINIA: TURNING THE 

CAMPUS INTO A COMPUTER LAB
Dean chose the learning approach offered by NETSchools, which gives every student and

teacher a laptop connected to a Local Area Network through infrared ports installed in each

room. Once every student has a laptop and the infrared ports are in place, the entire campus

becomes, in effect, a computer lab. Students can connect in hallways, the cafeteria, and the

library as well as in class.

"I never thought it would be possible that kids would give up their free lunchtime to learn,"

says teacher Darlene Mihalee. "It is not unusual to go down there and see kids with a sandwich

in one hand and a keyboard in the other."

Infrastructure was only the beginning.

The school's T-1 connection meant everyone could surf the Web and find information. For

Scott McGlumphy, a so-so student before the shift to connected laptops, Web access turned

him into a student with a keen interest in anthropology and top grades. "No knowledge is

now out of reach," Scott says. "Our imagination is our only limit. And there are billions of

sites out there, almost like billions of different worlds you can visit."

Special education students learned to navigate the Web to plan a vacation trip and make reservations. Agricultural students use their laptops to operate the school's commercial greenhouse, enter data in the field, and follow research on plant and animal diseases.

After only six months, 80 percent of Hundred High students were accessing the Internet

daily. Test scores went up. Over the course of that first year the 144 students at Hundred

High scored higher and ranked above the national mean in every subject, as well as total basic

skills, on the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT 9).

Dean is grateful to Congress for the funds her district received through the E-rate program,

but she says that a restriction on home use of E-rate funds creates problems for students.

She is seeking additional funds and modes of connection so that students can continue to

dial-in from home. She is also concerned about teacher training, as well as how to provide

both educational and technical support. Dean believes that higher education institutions

need to step in and change their teacher preparation programs, so all new teachers have

strong technological skills.

Dean also calls for a new teaching outlook.

"I believe that curricular revision must occur. Basic skills must be expanded to include the

use of the computer and the Internet to accomplish the goal of enhancing a student's capacity

to access, record, analyze, and report information," Dean says. "Students who lack access to

technology and the Web will become the second-class citizens of the future."

Thanks to the district's efforts, the students of Wetzel County have soared across the

Digital Divide.

1. http://www.netschools.net/whynetschools/cs_hundred.htm

12
ENDNOTES

1. See Appendix C for a list of hearing witnesses and Appendix D for a list of organizations submitting e-testimony.

2. United States. Department of Commerce. The Emerging Digital Economy II. Henry, David, Patricia Buckley, Gurmukh Gill,

Sandra Cooke, Jess Dumagan, Dennis Pastore, and Susan LaPorte. Washington, D.C.. 1999.

http://www.ecommerce.gov/ede/ede2.pdf

3. Consortium for School Networking. Taking TCO to the Classroom. 1999. http://www.cosn.org/tco/tco2class.pdf; RM

Consulting. Further Education: The Total Cost of Ownership. 1998. http://www.rm.com/further/tco/

4. Market Data Retrieval. Technology in Education 1999. Shelton, CN. 1999. According to this report, K-12 public school technology expenditures exceeded $5.5 billion in 1998-99, or $119.22 per child. Of that expenditure, 69% was spent on hardware,

17% on software, and 14% on staff development.

5. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (1997a). Projections of Education Statistics to

2007, NCES 97-382, Gerald, Debra and William Hussar. Washington, D.C. 1997. http://nces.ed.gov/NCES/pubs/pj/;

United States. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Population Projections of the United States by Age, Sex, Race, and

Hispanic Origin: 1995 to 2050, PPL-147, Campbell, Paul R.. Washington, D.C. 1996

http://www.census.gov/population/www/projections/ppl47.html

6. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2000a). Projections of Education Statistics to

2010, NCES 2000-071, Gerald, Debra and William Hussar. Washington, D.C. 2000. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/projections/

7. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (1999a). Predicting the Need for Newly Hired

Teachers in the United States 2008-2009, NCES 1999-026, Hussar, William J. Washington, D.C. 1999.

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs99/1999026.pdf

8. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (1997c). Condition of America's Public

School Facilities, 1999, NCES 2000-032. Washington, D.C. 1997.

9. Olsen, Lynn. "Minority Groups to Emerge as Majority in U.S. Schools." Education Week, Sept. 27, 2000.

10. United States. White House brief, Educational Progress 1992-2000. http://www.whitehouse.gov/media/pdf/edprogress.pdf

11. Center for Education Reform, Charter School Laws Across the States. 2000.

http://edreform.com/charter_schools/laws/index.html

12. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2000). Issues Related to Estimating the

Home-Schooled Population in the United States with National Household Survey Data, NCES 2000311, Henke, Robin, Phillip Kaufman,

Stephen Broughman, and Kathryn Chandler. Washington, D.C. 2000. http://nces.ed.gov/spider/webspider/2000311.shtml

13. Greenburg, Susan H. and Donna Foote. "The Boom in Home Schooling". Learning and the Internet, published by

Newsweek and Score!, 2000

14. National Center for Education Statistics (2000a). op. cit., endnote 6. 

15. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (1999b). The Condition of Education

1998, NCES 1999-006. Washington, D.C. 1999. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs98/condition98/

16. NationsBank Montgomery Securities. The Age of Knowing. San Francisco, CA. 1998.

17. Levine, Arthur. The Remaking of the American University. Presentation made at The Blackboard Summit. Washington, DC.

March 20, 2000.

18. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (1999). College Access and Affordability,

NCES 1999-108, Choy, Susan. 1999. http://nces.ed.gov/spider/webspider/1999108.shtml

19. Capelli, Gregory, Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission,

September 15, 2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory

20. United States. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education. Agenda Project. Report in press.

Washington, D.C. 2000. http://www.ed.gov/OPEAgenda/index.html

21. Moe, Michael and Henry Blodgett. The Knowledge Web. p. 189. Merrill Lynch & Co., Global Securities Research &

Economics Group, Global Fundamental Equity Research Department. 2000. 

13
22. See Smithsonian "Revealing Things" exhibit developed by Razorfish. 

http://web2.si.edu/revealingthings/load-index.html

23. Meister, Jeanne, Corporate University Xchange, Inc. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission, 

September 15, 2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory

24. Moe and Blodgett, op. cit., endnote 21, p. 173. 

25. United States. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. “BLS projections to 2008: A Summary” Bowman,

Charles. Monthly Labor Review. November 1999, Vol. 122, No. 11. http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1999/11/contents.htm

26. United States. Department of Commerce (1999). The Emerging Digital Economy II, Henry, David, Patricia Buckley,

Gurmukh Gill, Sandra Cooke, Jess Dumagan, Dennis Pastore, and Susan LaPorte. Washington, D.C. 1999. 

http://www.ecommerce.gov/ede/ede2.pdf

27. Moe and Blodgett, op. cit., endnote 21, p.4.

28. National Journal's Technology Daily. “Labor: H-1B Visa Bill Re-introduced.” November 7, 2000. 

http://nationaljournal.com

29. Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, Inc. Workforce Study: An Analysis of the Workforce Gap in Silicon Valley. 1999.

http://www.jointventure.org/initiatives/edt/work_gap/workgap.html

30. Moe and Blodgett, op. cit., endnote 21, p. 229. 

31. Cappelli, Gregory, Scott Wilson, and Michael Husman. e-Learning: Power for the Knowledge Economy. p. 127. Credit Suisse

First Boston Corporation. 2000. 

32. Meister, Jeanne op. cit., endnote 23. 

33. Moe and Blodgett, op. cit., endnote 21, p. 229.

34. Meister, Jeanne op. cit., endnote 23.

35. Moe and Blodgett, op. cit., endnote 21, p. 230.

36. Meister, Jeanne op. cit., endnote 23.

37. Capelli, Wilson, and Husman op. cit., endnote 31, p.8.

38. Moe and Blodgett, op. cit., endnote 21, p.79.

39. Ibid, p. 171.

40. Ibid, p. 229.

41. Ibid, p. 4. 

14
15

Across America, people told us that the Internet offers

one of the most promising opportunities in education

ever. And yet they were troubled by their inability to

harness its potential advantages. 

The Web-based Education Commission heard

from hundreds of trailblazing heroes around

the nation—teachers, principals, and superintendents; local and appointed officials at all

levels of government; higher education faculty

and administrators; content developers and

telecommunications providers; researchers,

parents, and students. They testified at live

hearings, submitted hundreds of “e-testimonies” on our Web site, and hosted

Commissioners at school and university visits,

conferences and meetings, live and online.

They shared powerful visions. Their online

participation itself was an eloquent demonstration of the power of the Internet.

They urged us to seize the opportunity.

They also showed us a need for changes in

policies and priorities that can only become

more acute as this technology matures. From

their testimony, we have heard a need for:

Broadband Access

Professional Development

Research and Development

Quality of Content

Regulations and e-Learning

Privacy and Protection

Funding

SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY

17
Powerful new Internet resources, especially broadband

access, that is widely and equitably available and affordable

for all learners

Continuous, relevant training and support for educators

and administrators at all levels

New research on how people learn in the Internet age

High quality online educational content that is widely

available and meets the highest standards of educational excellence

Relief from outdated regulations that impede instructional 

innovation in favor of approaches that embrace anytime,

anywhere, any pace learning

Safeguards to protect online learners and ensure their privacy, especially that of young children 

Sustained funding—via traditional and new sources—

that is adequate to the challenges at hand

18

Broken Connections
Perhaps the clearest message of all was that these concerns are interrelated. Like a cabin

built log by log, each notched piece sustains all the others.

The Commission’s recommendations rest on the conviction that solutions come not from the

top down, but from all levels of stakeholders in America’s educational and economic future.

As such, we are issuing a call to action that is addressed to policymakers and politicians, college presidents and parents, teachers and teacher educators, and students and business leaders. To maximize the power of the Internet for learning we must tackle head on the barriers that are limiting its effectiveness. We must seize the opportunity.

The first barrier is access to technology.

Note to Readers:

A significant number of references are made throughout this report to individual projects

and programs, public and private alike. These references should not be regarded as either

Commission endorsements or a complete listing of such projects and programs. They are

cited for illustrative purposes only.

19

Broadband Access

For students to learn with the tools and content of

the Internet, they must have ready access to its supporting technology. But even the term access must

be more sharply defined. “Access” is more than getting one’s hands on a computer, or simply connecting

to the Internet.

Access must be convenient and affordable. It must offer a user the opportunity to find and

download complex, content-rich resources. The technology that supports access must be

where the learner is located and be available whenever he or she needs it. Access may take

place in the school or college or adult literacy classroom, in the library or after school center,

in the community center or workplace, or in the home.

Those who work with the technology that supports access must have the skill and understanding to apply it well. If the user—whether teacher or learner, parent or administrator—

does not know how to work with technology or where to go on the Internet to find material of value, that learner does not have real access to

what the Internet offers.

Access also implies that once a user has the connection and is able to use it, he or she can find content

and applications that have meaning and value for his

or her learning needs. Much of the content on the

Web is created for adults, not schoolchildren. And

little is written at a level that works for the 44 million

Americans who read below the average literacy level.

1

Non-English speakers and those from other cultures

find little on the “shelves” of the Internet that

speaks to them or to their interests.

All these are issues of access—the linchpin connecting all other issues raised in this report.

Without broad access, there will be little demand for

the innovative content and applications that can

“....nothing from

an educational perspective has more

potential to provide

a more profound

positive change in

quality of life than

access to webbased education.”

(e-testimony, Dr. Edna MacLean, President,

Ilisagvik College, Barrow Alaska,

Sept. 8, 2000)

ACCESS TO BROADBAND

TECHNOLOGIES::BRIDGES 

ACROSS THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

21
bring new teaching techniques and new assessment models. Without access, teachers cannot

benefit from the just-in-time training and support the Internet has made possible in other

professions. Without access, schools and universities will not have the links that could move

research into practice and practice into research.

Access is fundamental.

WHAT IS BROADBAND AND 

WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?

In its purest sense, broadband refers to the transmission of large amounts of data

electronically, whether through wire or wirelessly. the more powerful the capability

to transmit data, the richer the online experience.

For education, broadband access means the elimination of time and distance from the

learning equation. Broadband carries with it powerful multimedia learning opportunities, the full interactivity of instructional content, and the quality and speed of communications. Broadband access today is 50 to several hundred times more powerful

than its precursors. Broadband access tomorrow holds even greater promise.

As the table below indicates, the level of broadband capacity determines the degree

to which access to rich, engaging online content is possible."

22

The Visual History Foundation

(http://www.vhf.org), through

the support of the Shoah

Foundation, has collected

more than 50,000 unedited

testimonies from survivors of

the Holocaust. The objective

was to create a multimedia

archive to be used as an educational and research tool.

The archive is comprised of

200,000 plus videotapes filled

with more than 100,000

hours of testimony. To watch

the entire collection straight

through would take about 13

years and six months.

Downloading just the first 100

hours of this testimony at typical school modem speeds of

33.6 kilabits per second would

take approximately 1.5 years!

High-end broadband capability, if made available in schools,

would reduce this download

time to a mere 9.5 minutes.

HOW LONG 

WOULD IT TAKE 

TO DOWNLOAD 

100 HOURS OF 

TESTIMONY FROM 

SURVIVORS OF

THE HOLOCAUST ?
Technology Trends: 

Delivering on the

Promise

The promise of widely available,

high quality web-based education is made possible by technological and communications trends that could lead

to important educational

applications over the

next two to three years.

The first trend is

toward greater broadband access and better

data packet handling

capabilities resulting

from the new

“Internet2” project.

For learners this will

mean a richer delivery of content than

today’s delivery of

simple text.

Tomorrow, higher

“bandwidth” will

enable richer interactive environments.

The second trend is

that of pervasive computing, in which computing, connectivity, and

communications technologies connect small, multipurpose devices, linking them

by wireless technologies. It is

much cheaper to build cellular

relay stations than lay miles of

cable. Wireless solutions may enable

underdeveloped and remote areas to

quickly take advantage of the Web via

wireless phones, two-way pagers, and handheld devices.

ACCELERATING 

THE CREATION OF 

TOMORROW'S INTERNET

Over 30 years ago, large-scale testing, deployment, and

development by the academic community leveraged sustained federal investment in fundamental technologies and set

the stage for the Internet's commercial success. Applications

such as e-mail and the World Wide Web, initially developed to

enable collaboration among researchers, have transformed the way

we work and learn.

Today, academia, government, and industry are once again working

together to sustain the same partnership that nurtured the Internet in its

infancy. This partnership is developing, testing, and deploying the highperformance Internet technologies required to enable a new generation

of network applications.

“Internet2” and the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiatives are among

the efforts in this area. Internet2 is a consortium led by over 180 U.S. universities working with over 70 leading companies to develop and deploy

advanced network applications and technologies for research and higher education. Internet2 members work closely with agencies participating in the

NGI. Of major significance for K-12 education, states and districts with existing networks will be able to apply to the NGI to participate in the vast opportunities provided by Internet2 access.

High-performance networking enables applications that can provide qualitative leaps beyond what is possible using today's Internet technology—

• Digital libraries: HDTV-quality video and CD-quality audio

available on-demand will enable students to search interactively,

and access and retrieve information previously available at only a

few locations.

• High-fidelity collaboration: "tele-immersion" and other technologies will allow teachers and students separated by hundreds

of miles to interact with each other as if they were sitting across

the table.

• Virtual laboratories: remote access to scientific instruments will extend to the classroom resources such as mountain-top telescopes and electron microscopes.

Applications enabled by high performance networking hold

the promise to transform education. Just as the Web was

unanticipated only a decade ago, tomorrow's Internet

may provide us with capabilities and possibilities we

have yet to imagine.

For more information about Internet2, see:

http://www.internet2.edu/

For more information about the Next Generation

Internet initiative, see: http://www.ngi.gov/

23
The third trend is digital convergence: merging the capabilities of telephone, radio, television,

and other interactive devices. The ubiquitous infrastructure of television will be significantly enhanced by conversion to digital transmission, which has been mandated by the Federal

Communications Commission (FCC). Through this increased capability, stations can offer

dramatically enhanced programming by “datacasting” a wealth of supplemental information

to accompany the regular broadcast. This may include course materials, software, and reference guides delivered via text, video, or audio formats. Direct satellite connections to the

home offer another pathway for rich content.2

The fourth trend accelerating the pace of educational technology advances is the establishment of technical standards for content development and sharing. Groups involved in developing learning standards are working together under the umbrella of the federal Advanced

Distributed Learning (ADL) initiative. Led by the U.S. Department of Defense, with the

cooperation of other federal agencies, academia, the private sector, and the technology industry, this group has developed standards for interoperability known as the Sharable

Courseware Object Reference Model (SCORM).3 These standards provide a foundation for

the Pentagon to build the learning environment of the future. The influence of this initiative will reach far beyond the military, as have past initiatives including the development of

the Internet.

Similarly, the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) is an industry initiative to develop an

open specification to ensure that K-12 instructional and administrative software applications

can work together. Close to 100 hardware and software companies and school districts are

involved in this effort.4 Their objective is to “revolutionize” the management and accessibility of data within schools and school districts, enabling diverse applications to interact and

share data efficiently, reliably, and securely, regardless of platform. Adopting standards such

as these makes sharing of content and collaborative design more feasible. For example, the

SchoolTone Alliance, a global partnership of over 25 leading education service providers, is

developing a framework for web-based portals that build on this model.5

The fifth trend is the emergence of “adaptive technology”—technology that combines

speech recognition, gesture recognition, text-to-speech conversion, language translation,

and sensory immersion to change the very substance of network-enhanced

human communication.

A final trend is the dramatic drop in the unit cost of broadband. Bandwidth will decrease in cost and increase in

power more rapidly than the advances in chip technology described by Moore’s law.6 Ubiquitous Internet

access can become a viable option for all, rather than

a privileged few.7

These are promising trends. But to benefit fully

from these trends, learners must have affordable,

easy access to the computing power necessary to

bring these resources to the desktop, the laptop, or

the appropriate Internet-enabled handheld—or even

wearable—device.

Broadband Access

HOUSEHOLDS WITH 

INTERNET ACCESS

DEC

1998

AUG

2000

24

26.2%

41.5%
Broadband Access

Digital Inclusion: Are We Doing Enough?

A number of surveys tracking the growth of computer connections in homes and schools

provide a picture of what the U.S. Department of Commerce calls a growing trend toward

“digital inclusion.”8 But digital inclusion must work wherever the learner and learning

opportunities come together—at home, at school, and on the college campus.

Household Internet Access

9

In the last two years Internet access in households has grown dramatically. In just a year and

a half (from December 1998 to August 2000) the share of households with Internet access

doubled, rising from 26.2 percent to 41.5 percent. Rural households are catching up. The

data show a 75 percent increase in rural household access over this 18 month period, so that

today 38.9 percent of rural households have Internet access. Broadband penetration is still

greater in central cities (12.2 percent) and urban areas (11.8 percent) than in rural areas (7.3

percent). The national average for households with broadband access is 10.7 percent.

But troubling gaps remain and are expanding in some cases: • Between December 1998 and August 2000 the gap in Internet access

between Black households and the national average grew from 15 percent

to 18 percent; for Hispanic households the gap grew from 14 percent to

18 percent.

• About a third of the U.S. population uses the Internet at home; only 18.9

percent of Blacks and 16.1 percent of Hispanics do so.

About 1/3 of the U.S 

population uses the Internet 

at home. Only 16.1% of Hispanics 

and 18.9% of Blacks do.

1/3 OF U.S. 

POPULATION

25

18.9% of Blacks

16.1% of Hispanics
Home access is important for students doing research, taking online

courses, and communicating with

teachers and other learners. For

parents, online access means new

kinds of communication with their

children’s schools, with their children’s teachers, and with other parents. For all households, Internet

access is another way to connect

with their communities and government services. Home access

helps to advance economic opportunities: low-income users were the

most likely to report using the

Internet to look for jobs.

Wiring Schools

and Libraries

Those learners without Internet

access at home rely on schools, libraries, and other public places to provide this access. For

households with incomes below $40,000, students are more likely to have Internet access at

school (31 percent have Internet access at home versus 56 percent at school).10

For many economically disadvantaged and minority group youngsters, a computer at school

or in the library after school is the only link to the wide world of the Internet.

Educational institutions are struggling to provide students with Internet access, and great

strides have been made in bringing schools, libraries, and postsecondary institutions online.11

But here again, there are gaps.

The E-rate has been a major factor in providing school and library access. Enacted as a part

of the Universal Service Program of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the E-rate program provides discounts to public and private schools, libraries, and consortia on the costs of

telecommunications services, Internet access, and internal networking. However, E-rate discounts do not reach places where many others could benefit from the learning opportunities

of the Internet—from daycare centers to senior centers, and from adult literacy programs and

community centers to museums, and other venues for both formal and informal learning.

Broadband Access

26

“The current implementation reminds me of the early

development of the interstate highway system in the

early 1960s. You could

drive for a few miles on a

four-lane highway at higher

speeds and then drive long

distance on an old two-lane

highway at lower speeds.

The current Internet delivery network allows information to travel in the same

uneven way.” 

(e-testimony, class.com, August 23, 2000)
K-12 Educational Access12

The recent growth in Internet connectivity has been dramatic. School connectivity has grown from 65 percent in 1996 to 95 percent in 1999. But

what counts most for instructional purposes is classroom connectivity, providing student access to Internet connections where they learn—in the

classroom. Classroom connectivity has soared from 14 percent in 1996 to

63 percent in 1999.

Classroom access is still greater for the wealthy. Wealthy school classroom

access almost doubles that of poor schools. And per computer access is

no better: schools with the highest percentage of students in poverty

(measured by percentages of students receiving free and reduced price

lunches) average 16 students per Internet-linked computer. For wealthy

schools the ratio is 7 students per computer, while the national average is 9

to 1. Poor schools need a significant investment to reach the ratio of 4 students per classroom computer considered a minimum level of access for

effective use.13

AMERICANS OF ALL 

AGES WHO HAVE 

NEVER USED A 

PERSONAL COMPUTER

60%

25%

Person with a 

Disability

Person without a

Disability

ONE IN FIVE

AMERICANS

AGED 16 AND

OVER HAS A

DISABILITY OF

SOME KIND

27
Postsecondary Institutions

Postsecondary education institutions are also rapidly expanding student access to the

Internet. Yet, there are institutional disparities. For example, 58 percent of all postsecondary students own their own computer. This figure varies from a high of 79 percent of

students at private universities, to 34 percent of those attending private two-year institutions,

and 39.6 percent of those attending public two-year institutions.14

The lower figure for community colleges is particularly troubling because community colleges—with their tradition of low tuition, flexible programming, open door admissions, and

customized services—enroll proportionately larger percentages of the postsecondary student

population, and larger percentages of minority students. Currently 55 percent of Hispanicand Native-Americans, and 46 percent of African-American undergraduates, are enrolled in

community colleges.15

In e-testimony to the Commission, the United Negro College Fund (UNCF)16 reported that

only 15 percent of students attending member institutions had their own computers. They

also reported that:

• College students nationally are more than twice as likely to have access to a

college-owned computer than their private historically-black colleges and

universities counterparts (one computer for every 2.6 students in higher education institutions nationally vs. one for every 6 students at UNCF colleges

and universities).17

• Seventy-four percent of faculty nationally owns their own computer18 as compared with only half of UNCF faculty. Less than half of UNCF faculty have

college-owned computers at

their desks.

• The number of network

servers at UNCF colleges per

1,000 students is approximately half that of all colleges and

universities nationally.

• Seventy-five percent of these

servers, hubs, routers, and

printers are obsolete or nearly

obsolete and need replacement.

• Because so many of these

institutions are located in rural 

areas, they face the additional

burden of limited access to

high-speed Internet access or

other learning resources.

Broadband Access

MAKING 

TECHNOLOGIES

MORE ACCESSIBLE

FOR THOSE WITH

DISABILITIES WILL

MAKE THEM MORE

ACCESSIBLE IN

WAYS THAT 

BENEFIT ALL

USERS:

28
Internet Ramps for the Disabled

One in five Americans aged 16 and over has a disability of some kind19. As our population ages, the number of learners with vision, hearing, and physical limitations will continue to grow.

The Internet is a double-edged sword for these learners—it can be a gateway to new opportunities, or a barrier that challenges them even further. Among Americans of all ages, nearly 60 percent of those with a disability have never used a personal computer, compared with

25 percent of those without a disability. Among those with a disability, people who have impaired vision and problems with manual dexterity have even lower rates of Internet access and are less

likely to use a computer regularly than those with hearing and

mobility problems.20

Students with disabilities comprise 11 percent of preK-12 and 7.2 percent of beginning

postsecondary students.21 Current laws mandate that recipients of federal funds cannot discriminate on the basis of disability. These laws have been extended to ban discrimination by

any state or local government under the Americans with Disabilities Act.22 Educational

institutions receiving federal funds must offer equitable access to technology for all students.

With the advent of adaptive technology, equity of access for disabled students is possible.

Speech synthesizers and screen access software allow the computer to speak whatever text

appears on its monitor, facilitating use for blind users. Audio components and simulcasts

can be accompanied by real-time captioning. But not all sites and not all distance-learning

programs provide these capabilities.

Broadband Access

• Multiple means of representation

(e.g., a math concept) in both text and

graphic modes, animated science simulations, poetry read aloud by the

author, etc.

• Multiple means of expression for

the learner (use of text, sound,

images, video, and combinations of

media as vehicles for expressive literacy

through writing, illustrating, speaking,

video-making, and drawing). 

• Multiple means of engagement to

attract the easily bored or the easily

distracted learner.

29
Currently, there are basic design and development guidelines that are widely available and

accepted by industry and consumers, through the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World

Wide Web Consortium.23 As a support for Web site developers, the Center for Applied Special

Technology (CAST) created Bobby, a Web-based tool that analyzes Web pages for their accessibility to people with disabilities. CAST offers Bobby as a free public service in order to

expand opportunities for people with disabilities through the innovative uses of computer

technology. Once a Web site receives a Bobby approved rating, it is authorized to display a

“Bobby Approved” icon. CAST also maintains a database of Bobby-approved Web sites.24

Universal designs are those that eliminate “gratuitous barriers” while adding functional equivalents. These universal design principles ultimately benefit all learners.25

They support what neuroscience and other learning research have shown us about learning—

there is not one “typical” learner, just as there is not one path to learning. Web-based learning environments can provide support and challenge through multiple means of:

• Representation (e.g., a math concept in both text and graphic modes; animated science simulations; poetry read aloud by the author; etc.)

• Expression (i.e., use of text; sound; images; video; and combinations of

media as vehicles for expressive literacy through writing, illustrating, speaking, video-making, and drawing)

• Engagement to attract the easily bored or the easily distracted learner26

Designing accessibility into an Internet site or a course at the beginning is far less expensive than

after the fact. Designs that create barriers harm everyone, not just people with disabilities.27

In the final analysis, if the Internet is to raise the quality of education for some of our

nation’s learners, it should do so for all.

Broadband Access

30

Broadband Access
South Dakota, with its sparse population and large landmass, has 127 school districts with

fewer than 600 students. In the past, many of these small schools could only provide a basic

curriculum. Governor William Janklow committed to equalizing education through networkbased technology. The challenge he issued was immense: connect every classroom in 622

buildings so that three out of four students could simultaneously use the Internet.

The solution? The Governor commissioned 11 teams of inmates from the South Dakota

corrections system, and had them trained to install 101,250 commercial grade network connections. The state provided supervisors and materials, the schools provided food and lodging for the inmates. Over three years, the classrooms of every public and private school with

more than 50 students were wired with Category V wire, video cable, and additional electrical power. The resulting school area networks were then linked into school district networks.

Connections were also installed in libraries, government offices, public universities, and technical institutes.

Sixty-three telecommunications companies serving South Dakota provided connections.

The resulting Digital Dakota network1 became the state Internet Service Provider, which

provides services to the K-12 schools, libraries, units of government, postsecondary education institutions and universities. Since the Digital Dakota network is a full fledged data

communications network, schools can implement client-server information systems using

video, data, and voice components.

How was this financially possible? Without the inmate labor and large-scale purchases of

materials, the cost could have been as much as $100 million. Governor Janklow also used

state and federal education improvement funding to provide the $15 million needed to connect the K-12 classrooms. Local school boards are providing the computers for the classrooms, with help from businesses. U.S. West donated interactive television equipment, worth

$17 million, enough for every high school and middle school to set up one classroom that

could generate and receive video.

The Governor understood that without teacher training infrastructure alone would not

improve learning. An intensive teacher-training program was created and implemented

through the universities and technical institutes in South Dakota. Thirty percent of the K12 teachers received 200 hours of training during the summer. They each received a

$1,000 stipend for attending the training, and another $1,000 to purchase software for use

in their classrooms.

In addition, K-12 administrators participated in two-week intensive workshops to prepare

them to lead their communities in the use of the innovative network. Teachers and staff

from each of the 176 school districts were trained to operate the servers connecting their

local schools.

Seventeen percent of the university faculty received three months of summer support to

incorporate technology into their instructional programs.

DIGITIZING DAKOTA!

31
The state has developed an extensive framework of content standards to direct the learning

expected by each student. The Rapid City School District is working with the South Dakota

School of Mines and Technology to develop software to link students, teachers, and parents

into a partnership for enhanced individual learning. This innovative partnership will combine

the best features of traditional teacher-delivered education with broadband technologies.

South Dakota offers a world-class example of how to democratize access to Internet learning.

1. http://www.support.k12.sd.us/

32
Just as the Internet was opening up the world, the members of the Havasupai Indian reservation in Arizona felt the walls closing in on them.

Living at the basin of the Grand Canyon, the Supai are isolated on all sides by high canyon

walls that make even radio communications impossible. Cable, fiber, and ISDN Internet

access, common in densely populated areas, are prohibitive luxuries for this remote reservation.

In short, the “Information Age” gives the Supai reason to feel even more isolated. No group

among them has suffered more from this isolation than the Supai children. It was bad

enough that these children were left out of the revolution in web-based education. Even

worse, they faced a cut-off in critical Head Start services, triggered by changes in the federal program. Head Start now requires teachers in every state to obtain an associate degree in

early childhood development or a related field by 2003 and certification by 2005, or face disqualification from the program.

While meeting these requirements is a challenge for many Head Start

programs, they absolutely threaten to wall-off geographically remote

Indian reservations such as the Supai’s.

Fortunately, the Supai decided to take destiny into their hands. They

used satellite technology to vault the canyon walls, to open their isolated community, and save their Head Start program.

Broadband Access

THE WORLD TO ISOLATED RESERVATIONS

BREACHING CANYON WALLS: BRINGING

THE WORLD TO ISOLATED RESERVATIONS

33
They did this by turning to Northern Arizona University,1 an institution experienced in using

the Internet and video-conferencing to broadcast higher education classes to isolated communities. Using a federal grant to install satellite dishes, the Supai contracted with StarBand

Communications for six satellite dishes: one in the Head Start office; another at the Indian

Child Welfare Act office; two at the school; one at the tribal court; and another at the tourist

lodge. Now the Supai are working with the university to have an early childhood education

program beamed into the community.

A similar story is unfolding in New Mexico, where only 13 percent of Head Start teachers

have their associates degree. In this state, the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

(SIPI)2 has stepped forward to help train Native American Head Start teachers online.

SIPI began with a response to requests from tribal leaders, developing a 70-hour associates

degree program in early childhood education that can be delivered by satellite to remote tribal sites in New Mexico.

Early in 2000, SIPI began satellite broadcasts of a two-credit introductory course in child

development to the Head Start staff located at the Santa Clara Pueblo. By April 2000, three

other downlink sites came online—Mescalero Apache, Southern Ute, and Canoncito Chapter

of Navajo. Santo Domingo Pueblo and Jicarilla Apache have installed their own downlinks

and are now served by programming from SIPI.

By December 2000, additional sites will be operational with SIPI downlinks at Laguna

Pueblo, Ramah Navajo, Alamo Navajo, and Jemez Pueblo. More advanced courses

required for national Head Start certification are also being broadcast to sites at the request

of tribal leaders.

The early childhood education degree program, which will be transferable to four-year institutions in the state, will begin January 2001 with an enrollment of 60 student-employees of

a tribal Head Start Program.

Harlan McKostao, producer of the national call-in radio program “Native America Calling,”

sees in these efforts the beginning of a greater opportunity for the reservation to link to the

wider world. Connecting tribal schools, colleges, and community centers, McKostao says, is

critical because “if you get

the school online, you get

the whole community.”

1. See http://www.nau.edu.

2. See http://kafka.sipi.tec.nm.us.

Broadband Access

34
ENDNOTES

1. The Children's Partnership. Online Content for Low Income and Underserved Americans: A Strategic Audit of Activities and

Opportunities. 2000. http://www.childrenspartnership.org/pub/low_income/index.html

2. American Public Television Stations. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August, 31 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory; see also http://www.apts.org/digital/index.cfm

3. Among the organizations involved are the Instructional Management System (IMS), the Aviation Industry ComputerBased Training Commission (AICC); Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE). For more information see http://www.learnativity.com/standards.html

4. For more information, see http://www.sifinfo.org

5. For more information, see http://www.schooltone.com

6. Moore's law states that the speed and performance of computer chips doubles every 18 to 24 months, thereby expanding computational power in exponential leaps.

7. The price of technologies continues to drop, as evidenced by a nearly 20 percent decline in the 1999 Producer Price

Index for electronic computers, which followed decreases of no less than 20 percent in each year since 1997. United

States. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2000. “Computer Prices Dip Again”. Monthly Labor Review.

MLR: The Editor's Desk, October 2, 2000. http://stats.bls.gov/opub/ted/2000/Oct/wk1/art01.htm

8. United States. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration and the National

Telecommunications and Information Administration. Falling Through the Net: Toward Digital Inclusion. Washington, D.C.

2000. http://search.ntia.doc.gov/pdf/fttn00.pdf

9. Ibid.

10. Grunwald Associates. Children, Families and the Internet 2000. 2000. http://www.grunwald.com

11. United States. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. eLearning: Putting a World-Class Education

at the Fingertips of All Students. Prepublication draft. Washington, D.C. 2000.

12. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Teachers’ Tools for the 21st Century.

A Report on Teachers Use of Technology, NCES 2000-102, Smerdon, Becky, Stephanie Cronen, Lawrence Lanahan, Jennifer

Anderson, Nicholas Iannotti, and January Angeles. Washington, D.C. 2000. http://nces.ed.gov/spider/webspider/2000102.shtml

13. Levin, Douglas A. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 18, 2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory

14. Green, Kenneth C. Campus Computing 2000. 2000. http://www.campuscomputing.net

15. League for Innovation in the Community College. Community Colleges Bridging The Digital Divide. de los Santos, Alfredo

G., Jr. and Gerardo E. de los Santos. 1999. http://www.league.org/publication/abstracts/leadership/labs0002.htm

16. United Negro College Fund. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 28, 2000. 

http://www.webcommission.org/directory; see also http://www.uncf.org

17. Ibid.

18. Green, op. cit., endnote 14.

19. Based on response to the Survey on Income and Program Participation of the U.S. Census Bureau, research data file.

August to November 1999, Wave 11. These were defined as difficulty with walking, vision, hearing, using hands, or a

learning disability.

20. United States. Department of Commerce, op. cit., endnote 8.

21. Association of Tech Act Projects. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 18, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

22. Specifically, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act provides that “no individual with a disability shall be

excluded from participation in or shall be denied the benefits of the services, programs or activities of a public entity or

be subject to discrimination by such an entity on the basis of disability.” Because Title II covers public elementary and

secondary schools and colleges, these institutions must provide the accommodations necessary for deaf and visually

impaired students to be able to use the technological resources available to other students in the schools. United States.

Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 18, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

23. For more information, see http://www.w3.org/wai

35

Broadband Access
24. Bobby Logo is a tradmark of CAST, copyright 1996-2000. For more information, see http://www.cast.org/bobby

25. For more information, see Making Educational Software Accessible.

http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/ncam/cdrom/guideline/introduction.html

26. Association of Tech Act Projects, op. cit. endnote 21. See also Rose, D. and Meyer, A. The Future is in the Margins: The

Role of Technology and Disability in Educational Reform. White paper prepared for the United States, Department of

Education, Office of Educational Technology. Forum on Technology in Education: Envisioning the Future. Washington,

D.C. 2000. http://www.air.org/forum/Abrose_meyer.htm

27. CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August

14, 2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory

Broadband Access

36
37

Training helps teachers transform lifeless equipment

into useful tools. Creating high tech educational

tools without training teachers to use them would be

as useless as creating a new generation of planes,

without training pilots to fly them. 

We must train the nation’s teachers—and the principals and administrators who lead them—

or investments in high tech educational resources will be wasted.

Teachers are the key to effective use of web-based tools and applications, but first they must

become skilled at using them.

It is the teacher, after all, who guides instruction and shapes the instructional context in

which the Internet and other technologies are used. It is a teacher’s skill at this, more than

any other factor, that determines the degree to which students learn from their Internet

experiences. Teachers must be comfortable with technology, able to apply it appropriately,

and conversant with new technological tools, resources, and approaches. If all the pieces are

put into place, teachers should find that they are empowered to advance their own professional skills through these tools as well.

This is how it should be. Yet we are far from this ideal today.

• Almost two-thirds of all teachers feel they are not at all prepared or only

somewhat prepared to use technology in their teaching.1

For some teachers, especially those who are older and were educated “B.C.”—before computers—technology seems a foreign element, far from necessary to them in their teaching.

They grew up without computers, were educated without them, and have taught their entire

careers without them.

• Almost two-thirds of teachers (65 percent) had never used a computer

before being introduced to one in the classroom. These teachers need basic

technology training, especially those who are receiving computers and using

the Internet in their classrooms for the first time.2

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: 

HOW TECHNOLOGY CAN 

ENHANCE TEACHING

Professional Development

39
Getting Beyond the Basics 

Basic technology training alone is not sufficient. A recent survey by the National Education

Association (NEA) found that most teachers have some facility using computers. Ninetyfour percent of NEA members, and 99 percent of those under 35, are able to surf the Web.3

However, familiarity does not equal proficiency. Most do not know how to apply these skills

in classroom instruction.

Common sense holds that technology training for teachers will no longer be an issue if we

can wait long enough for a new generation of younger teachers, raised on technology, to enter

the profession. However, this is one common sense belief that simply does not hold up to

close examination.

Another recent survey4 found that young teachers’ self-assessment of their

ability to teach with technology was no different than that of their older

colleagues. While younger teachers may have basic technology

skills—(e.g., the ability to use word-processing software, spreadsheets, presentation software, and Internet browsers)—they

realize that they, like their older colleagues, do not know

how to apply these skills to teaching.

The ability to use technology for non-instructional

purposes does not necessarily translate into either

the will or the capability to use technology to support student learning. Although they are not

technophobes, these new teachers lack a clear conception of effective classroom uses of technology

in their subject area.5

Professional development is the critical ingredient

for effective use of technology in the classroom.

Seventy percent of educators polled regarding technology in instruction put professional development at

the top of their list of technology challenges.6 They

said what is needed is both the initial training for those

just beginning to use technology and continuing education

to support the growth of innovators. Three consecutive years

of surveys in higher education showed the same thing: institutions ranked their greatest technological challenge as “assisting faculty to integrate information technology into instruction.”7

Professional development is often called “training,” but the term implies much more than

just building basic technology skills. It means developing a vision built on the understanding that technology is a tool that can offer solutions to longstanding teaching and learning

problems. It is more than knowing how to automate past practices. It is the growing understanding that comes with confidence to “think with technology” in order to approach old

problems in new ways.

40

Almost two-thirds of 

all teachers feel they are

not at all prepared or only

somewhat well prepared 

to use technology in 

their teaching. 
Change is necessary on two fronts: in the preparatory (pre-service) education of teacher candidates, and in the continuing (in-service) education of those already in the education profession. Both groups need assistance and support in using the best tools technology offers

to meet teaching goals and challenges.

Professional Development and

Technology: Too Little, Too Basic,

Too Generic

Some might wonder why past investments in technology training for K-12 classroom teachers have not had a greater impact. The reality is that the money spent on teacher training

with technology is just a fraction of what is needed. In 1995, the Office of Technology

Assessment sounded the alarm in a report on teachers and technology, urging that schools

and districts devote at least 30 percent of technology budgets to teacher training and support.8 Yet, of the $4.2 billion that K-12 schools spent on technology in 1996, only 6 percent

was for training.9 This figure is beginning to rise: in the 1999-2000 school year, 17 percent

of public school technology spending went to teacher training, according to an annual survey conducted by Market Data Retrieval. Still, this remains far below the mark. Today NEA

recommends that schools devote 40 percent of their technology budgets to teacher training.10

The training teachers do receive is usually too little, too basic, and too generic to help them

develop real facility in teaching with technology. Ninety-six percent reported that the most

common training they received was on basic computer skills.11 Another national survey of

public school teachers found that while most (78 percent) received some technology-related

professional development in the 1998-99 school year, the

training was basic and brief, lasting only 1 to 5 hours for 39

percent of teachers, and just 6 to 10 hours for another 19 percent of those trained.12

Teachers need more than a quick course in basic computer

operations. They need guidance in using the best tools in the

best ways to support the best kinds of instruction. And they

need something more. They need time.

When asked in a National Center for Education Statistics

(NCES) survey to name the greatest barrier to their use of

computers and the Internet in the classroom, most teachers

(82 percent) cited lack of “release time” (time outside classroom) to “learn, practice, or plan ways to use computers or the

Internet.” This factor outweighed their concern about too few

computers (78 percent) or lack of time in the schedule for students to use computers in class (80 percent).13

Professional Development

Another national survey

of public school teachers

found that while most (78

percent) received some

technology-related professional development in

the 1998-99 school year,

their training was basic

and brief, lasting only 1 to

5 hours for 39 percent of

teachers, and just 6 to 10

hours for another 19 percent of those trained.

BASIC & BRIEF

41
Comparisons With the Private Sector

Business, for all its pressure to manage the cost of employee time, doesn’t operate this way.

Once again, the success of the private sector in integrating technology into its operations suggests a better approach for American education.

In the business world, training is tailored, focused, and just-in-time. In the education world,

it is more often one-size-fits-all, generic, and just-in-case.

The overwhelming majority (90 percent) of all corporate and government training occurs on

paid time.14 In public schools, teachers report just over a third (39 percent) of their professional development occurs on paid time.15 Professionals in other fields expect to be trained

regularly. Motorola, long the standard for industry, provides every employee with at least 40

hours of training each year.16

Equally significant, professionals in other fields are provided with follow-up support needed

for that training to take root—including immediate access to the hardware and software on

which they are trained, Internet connections, and easy access to support personnel and follow-up skill building.

Many teachers have been trained on systems not

installed in their schools. Many do not receive

follow-up support. Only 67 percent of teachers

in the NCES survey reported that follow-up or

advanced training was available to them.

Most business professionals have personal computers provided to them at work and some

industries give employees computers they can

use at home (such as Ford Motor Company).

But K-12 teachers rarely are provided these benefits. Although 62 percent of teachers have

access to a desktop computer while at school,

only 28 percent have the ability to borrow one

for occasional use at home.17

Most teachers are not rewarded or reimbursed

for the time they spend in training. Just as some

teachers spend their own money for classroom

supplies, some teachers pay for their own preparation. Many take classes on their own time and

pay their own tuition or fees. For example,

OnlineLearning.net, an online continuing education provider, offered over 1,000 courses in the

past year. Over 6,000 teachers enrolled in these

courses. Eighty-five percent paid the $450

tuition fee on their own.18

42

TRAINING 

CONDUCTED

ON PAID TIME

90%

39%

Corporate/

Private

Education
Technology training rarely translates directly into higher pay for teachers. In fact, a growing

concern among schools is the lure of higher salaries offered in the private sector to teachers

and administrators who do exhibit strong technical proficiencies or a desire to develop these.

In sum, the message to teachers is a mixed one—we expect you to teach with technology,

but we will not help you do so.

There are other ways K-12 teachers are treated differently than professionals in business and

industry. Intellectual support, as well as technical support, is rare. A recent national study

found that only 13 percent of the nation’s teachers work in what could be defined as a “high

quality technology-supported environment.”19 For most teachers, technical assistance is limited, if available at all.

Another study measuring technology support for district technology coordinators in 27

states found that it took from 14 hours to more than 7 days to fix a technology problem in

a school or classroom. The average response time was more than two days.20 While this

would be unthinkable in most businesses, imagine what it means to a teacher who has developed a lesson around the Internet, only to discover that the whole class is disrupted for an

unknown period of time. It is simply intolerable.

Fewer than 20 percent of all schools have a full-time technology coordinator. In most cases,

technology coordinators are charged with training teachers and helping them integrate technology in their classes. In reality, they spend most of their time on technical support. On a

weekly basis, full-time technology coordinators spend only 3 to 4 minutes per teacher assisting with technology integration. Part-time technology coordinators perform this kind of

assistance only 1 to 2 minutes per week.21

Bringing Teachers Out of Isolation

But the larger problem is one that is endemic to the K-12 teaching profession—the isolation

of the classroom teacher. How can Internet access change that?

Most of a teacher’s day is spent separated from colleagues, with little time or opportunity to

share in the give-and-take of problem-solving common in most office or work environments. For elementary and secondary education teachers, planning periods are few and often

occur in isolation. Group meetings are focused on issues that affect the institution as a

whole or the department or grade level, but they don’t offer the opportunity to express the

concerns or share the wisdom of the individual teacher.

Teachers rarely have the opportunity to work with others to share their questions, concerns,

and successes. Most are isolated and, unlike other professionals, have little access to the

resources they need to stay up to date in their fields. In contrast, teachers in other countries

are provided far more paid time for planning: Japanese teachers spend about 40 percent of

their paid time on professional development and collaboration compared with about 14 percent for their American counterparts.22

Professional Development

43
The Internet as a Tool for

Teacher Learning

Fortunately, the Internet is making it possible to connect teachers to each other, giving opportunities for mentoring, collaboration, and formal and informal online learning. Traditional onesize-fits-all professional development workshops are giving way

to a new, more teacher-centered, self-directed model of teacher

learning. Through the Internet, teachers have access to high quality online professional development opportunities beyond what the

local school or district is able to offer.

Online courses and seminars, follow-up consultations and mentoring, and collaborations with experts and peers can take place without the expense and classroom disruption

created by repeated absences for face-to-face meetings. And, in working in online environments, teachers obtain a collateral benefit: they learn important technological skills.

A supportive social structure is one of the key elements for successful online learning. In

projects like SRI International’s TAPPED IN program, supported by the National Science

Foundation, the technological tools and communication resources serve as the underpinnings

of a well-maintained community of practitioners.23 Those wishing to create their own projects are assisted by TAPPED IN support personnel. User groups include school districts,

museums, and teacher education programs. Through TAPPED IN, educators can participate

in online courses, take their own students online, experiment with new ways to teach or conduct research, or participate in community-wide events. Since opening in 1997, TAPPED IN

has served more than 9,000 K-12 teachers, librarians, researchers, teacher education faculty,

professional development staff, and other education professionals.

Wanted: Two Million New Teachers

But unless new teachers enter the classroom ready to teach with technology, we will never catch

up. If teacher education programs do not address this issue head on, we will lose the opportunity to get it right with a whole generation of new teachers—and the students they teach.

The size of the challenge is staggering.

There are three million teachers in K-12 schools today. In the next decade alone, we must

recruit and train two million more new teachers just to replace retirees and to meet expected

growth in enrollment.

Put another way, one-third of today’s teachers have 20 years or more of teaching experience;

two-thirds are in mid-career. As the teacher population ages, moving into retirement, 54.2

million students are expected in K-12 education by 2009, up 2 million from 1997.24 We need

a fundamental change in recruiting new teachers, and giving them the tools to do a more

effective job.

Professional Development

44

www.tappedin.org
In the midst of this crisis, teacher education has yet to come to grips with the immediacy of

preparing a new generation of teachers to use technology as a teaching tool.

Teacher education programs tend to be profit centers for colleges and universities—they pay

for themselves with strong and steady student enrollments and have few of the expenses

associated with equipping science laboratories, engineering, or other professional programs.

We should expect a college of education to provide, at a minimum, a high tech teaching laboratory that models instructional use of technology for the entire campus. We should expect

college and university presidents and trustees to make the necessary adjustments. Yet this is

rarely the case.

As noted in a 1999 report on teacher preparation by the CEO Forum on Education and

Technology,26 many teacher education programs “receive less attention than the higher status professional programs in the university such as law, engineering, business, and medicine... (Furthermore, they) have a less affluent alumni base, meaning that large gifts from

donors (as well as industry) are harder to obtain.”

The most recent Campus Computing Project survey27 asked chief technology officers

(CTOs) of higher education institutions to compare the information technology components in departmental programs across their campuses. Overall, the CTOs ranked their campus’ education programs eighth of 10 in use of the Internet and Web resources, seventh in

the use of technology for instruction, and tied for sixth in preparing their students with the

technology skills needed over the next decade.

Most teacher education institutions now offer what is called “the course” in information

technology.28 But providing a stand-alone course about technology is not the same as ensuring that courses in teaching methods integrate technology as a way of building

understanding or assessing learning.

Faculty in teacher education programs, many of whom were

educated and taught in schools before computers were a part

of the educational landscape, are not comfortable or skilled

in teaching with technology. This problem extends across

the college experience of teacher candidates. If they do

not see their faculty use technology in the courses they

take outside their teaching major (whether in science, literature, math, and history departments), tomorrow’s

teachers will not have a full understanding of how technology advances understanding in each academic area.

It is clear that the need for professional development in

technology among higher education faculty parallels that

required by educators in K-12 schools. It is also clear that

our campus higher education leaders have a deep responsibility

for modernizing their colleges of education and incorporating a

priority on teaching and learning with technology.

Professional Development

45
Making Professional Development in

Technology a High Priority

There are, of course, exceptions and promising new practices that suggest change is coming.

These include leadership initiatives undertaken by Congress, the states, universities, professional organizations, and the business community.

• The Higher Education Act Amendments, passed by Congress and signed

into law in 1998, provide a gateway for technology integration in college

teacher education programs. A major objective within the section of the Act

focusing on enhancing the quality of teaching in the U.S. is to “hold institutions of

higher education accountable for preparing teachers who have the necessary teaching skills and are highly competent in the academic content areas in which the

teachers plan to teach, such as mathematics, science, English, foreign languages,

history, economics, art, civics, Government, and geography, including training in the

effective uses of technology in the classroom...” (emphasis added)29

• An increasing number of states (42) now require teachers to demonstrate

proficiency in technology as one component for receiving certification.

However, only 4 require technology training for re-certification.30

• The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE),31

the largest accreditation association of schools, colleges, and departments of

education, has made technology an area of accreditation focus. While this is

an important leadership message, only 38 percent of the nation’s 1,300 teacher

preparation programs are accredited by NCATE. Many schools, colleges, and

departments of education choose not to apply to NCATE; others have been unable

to meet its standards.

• The CEO Forum developed a special STaR (School Technology and

Readiness) self-assessment tool for schools and colleges of education.32 At

the urging of Education Secretary Richard Riley and President Bill Clinton in May

2000, 243 institutions have “taken the pledge” to conduct self-assessments as a first

step for turning their programs around and moving from “early tech” or “developing tech” to “advanced tech” or “target tech.”33

New funding initiatives have also led to promising practices. The National Science

Foundation-supported “Inquiry Learning Forum”34 is a model of using the Internet for

teacher growth. The U.S. Department of Education’s Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers with

Technology (PT3) Program, begun in 1999, is bringing new ideas, new collaborations, and

new models to teacher education. The PT3 program has made $150 million in federal

funding available to 352 teacher preparation institutions to

help them develop capacity, implement new programs, and

provide innovative catalysts for broader change. These programs are just beginning to take root, but they offer promise

for the future.35

Professional Development

46
Many teachers lack connections to colleagues with similar interests, responsibilities, and challenges. Imagine being the only physics teacher in a school. Under normal school conditions,

you could go for weeks or months without contact with another physics teacher. Sharing

teaching strategies and content with colleagues or even getting outside advice or constructive criticism—this just isn't a part of your world.

No wonder so many teachers feel professionally isolated.

Four hundred teachers in Indiana are turning to a new online environment, the Inquiry

Learning Forum (ILF)1

, to establish connections with other teachers, as well as to expand

access to classroom resources. They are acting to end the isolation of teachers.

The ILF is a video centered, web-based learning forum designed to support an online community of current and future science and mathematics teachers interested in "inquiry-based"

teaching. The ILF provides opportunities to virtually "visit" classrooms across Indiana. It

features a large video library of classroom episodes and enables teachers to discuss, annotate, reflect upon, and replay these classroom episodes as needed.

The home screen of the ILF, shown here, displays which of the classrooms are available

through the Visit Classrooms space. When ILF members select a specific classroom lesson,

they can view a videotape of that lesson being implemented. They can also review a lesson

overview, reflective commentary, descriptions of teaching activity, lesson plans, students'

examples, and connections with both state and national standards.

In addition to the Visit Classroom spaces, there are also 5 other virtual spaces designed to

support professional development needs. The ILF Office is the place where new particiProfessional Development

47

HELPING ISOLATED TEACHERS MAKE 

NEW CONNECTIONS
pants can secure a password, get help with technology, or make suggestions. The Workroom

provides groups with an online space to form working circles, or sub-communities, that facilitate collaboration on a particular project, product, or goal. The Lounge hosts general conferences that are not tied to a particular classroom as well as a space for real-time chat to allow

users to communicate with others. The Auditorium is the place where special events can

occur. These usually involve chat discussions with a white board and resources. It also provides the opportunity for video-casting live or recorded presentations for discussion. Any

member of the community can hold a workshop, experts can be brought in, or there may be

simultaneous discussion of specific issues.

The Library is a place where teachers can go to access reference materials of interest, including references on teaching resource materials (software, other classroom artifacts like the

graphing calculator, manipulatives, sensory probes), state and national standards, grants,

applied research and theory, state initiatives, and other materials the teachers identify as relevant.

Finally, My Desk is the place where a teacher can store bookmarks to resources and classrooms of personal interest. Not only do teachers have the opportunity to share lesson plans,

unit plans, and other resources through the ILF, they are also able to watch other teachers

implement these resources in their classrooms, read the personal reflections of these teachers, and discuss what they have seen, heard, or read. Every classroom resource available in

the ILF community is "attached" to a videotaped segment of a lesson or a particular discussion thread. This enables teachers to not only find resources, but also to read or hear about

how they might be used in a particular classroom.

Dr. Sasha Barab, the project principal investigator, expects the ILF to grow by more than

1,000 members by 2002. Plans are underway to extend the ILF beyond Indiana, providing a

welcoming space that can help make teachers feel less isolated and more a part of a professional community.

1. http://ilf.crlt.indiana.edu/

Professional Development

48
“I want my students to have a rich experience with words,” says Florence McGinn, a poet

and an English teacher at New Jersey’s Hunterdon Central Regional High School (HCRHS).

“I want them to have a sense of audience.”

Through the award-winning, student-created online magazine ELECTRIC SOUP1 McGinn

uses technology to open up opportunities for individualizing learning and challenging her

students to take on fresh, empowering roles. Technology is a central tool for the students’

creative writing and communications. This online magazine is both showcase for the students’ talents and learning space for their creativity. It includes:

• Poetry, short stories, and essays supported by rich backgrounds, digital images, and animated graphics

• A special feature for Hunterdon alumni to demonstrate how the writing process continues after graduation

• A Community of Writers segment featuring the works of teachers,

community members, and outside contributors

• A Young Writers’ feature for elementary and middle school student

writers as well as for those who write for younger readers

• Silicon Sound, which offers RealAudio of original student poetry,

produced as song

• A Virtual Gallery that highlights student-created 3D images and digital animations

• An international feature with work from writers of all ages from

around the world

• An interview section featuring writers, educators,

and business leaders 

Classroom computer stations equipped with small cameras, audio, electronic notebook software, and annotation tools provide HCRHS student

writers with live communications links with university student mentors

at Rider University. The high school students meet weekly with these

university mentors to discuss manuscripts in a lively, re-imagined, electronic version of the traditional writing workshop. Feedback is immediate and focused. The university student mentors, who receive English

credit for the supervised interaction, grow with the high school writers.

McGinn’s class also uses technology to link students to distant schools

with very different cultures. The English class is linked to a class in

Professional Development

CO-AUTHORS IN CYBERSPACE

49
Asbury Park High School, an urban school in another part of the state. The students work

together in cyberspace to write and publish collaboratively.

Hunterdon student Emily Judson writes of her experience as a writing mentor with the

Asbury Park students:

“During our videoconferencing sessions, the Asbury Park students have the choice of either showing me a manuscript or writing a collaborative poem. [If] they choose to show me a manuscript, I provide them with feedback on areas of strength as well as suggestions to improve stylistics, imagery, and symbolism. If we choose

to write a collaborative poem, one person begins by writing the first line, then the person on the other side will

write the next line; this method is utilized throughout the entire poem. Since we come from two different cultural backgrounds, the collaborative poems are especially intriguing because our writing styles are very different. Yet, in this type of poem, our styles fuse, creating a metaphorically evocative piece of writing . . .”

Another Hunterdon student, Evan Machusak says his experience with Asbury Park students,

“opened my eyes to a kind of courage I have never seen before. It’s the courage to try in

spite of the odds, the courage to reach for something more than what you see around you or

what people expect of you.”

Students like Evan and Emily assisted writers at Asbury Park in publishing their own literary

magazine, SONGS OF HOPE.2

McGinn says her role is to introduce students to the software’s potential and its vocabulary,

to guide them toward challenging learning goals, and to help them achieve and innovate.

“Once involved, students become active and empowered. They shift naturally from roles of

learner to those of mentors, teachers, and leaders.”

The teacher remains the ultimate mentor, the person who both challenges and nurtures.

Student Neela Mookerjee says, “I wouldn’t bother attempting a second multimedia presentation if no one had cared when I made the first one. I wouldn’t pursue a new avenue of exploration or undertake a challenge if no one was enthusiastic when I talked about it.”

McGinn, who was not trained in technology, learned about the emerging technologies with

her students. She encourages educators to “simply start where you are to empower your students. Enable their exploration, mentor their learning, and they will empower themselves to

share the rich bread of technology and its modern opportunities.”

1. See http://www.hcrhs.hunterdon.k12.nj.us/esoup/welcome.html

2. See ELECTRIC SOUP's Asbury Park feature: http://homer.hcrhs.k12.nj.us/esoup/esvol10/index.html

Professional Development

50
ENDNOTES

1. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (1999). Fast Response Survey

System, Public School Teachers Use of Computers and the Internet, FRSS 70, Washington, D.C. 1999.

2. Michael Moe and Henry Blodgett. The Knowledge Web. p. 104. Merrill Lynch & Co., Global Securities Research &

Economics Group, Global Fundamental Equity Research Department. 2000.

3. National Education Association. Annual NEA Today Readership Survey. 2000. http://www.nea.org

4. Market Data Retrieval. New Teachers and Technology. Shelton, C.N. 2000.

5. Means, Barbara. “Accountability in Preparing Teachers to Use Technology.” p. 58. Council of Chief State School

Officers. 2000 State Educational Technology Conference Papers. Washington, DC. 2000.

6. Data refer to 24-hour poll conducted online in preparation for testimony to the Joint Economic Committee on July 7,

2000. Classroom Connect. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 25, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory.

7. Green, Kenneth C. Campus Computing Project. 2000. http://www.campuscomputing.net

8. Office of Technology Assessment. Teachers and Technology: Making the Connection. OTA-HER-616. Washington, D.C.

1995. http://www.wws.princeton.edu/~ota/disk1/1995/9541.html

9. The CEO Forum on Education and Technology. From Pillars to Progress. Washington, D.C. 1999.

http://www.ceoforum.org

10. Moe and Blodgett, op. cit. endnote 2. p. 104.

11. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2000). Teachers' Tools for the 21st

Century. A Report on Teachers Use of Technology, NCES 2000-102, Figure 5.4. Smerdon, Becky, Stephanie Cronen, Lawrence

Lanahan, Jennifer Anderson, Nicholas Iannotti, and January Angeles. Washington, D.C. 2000.

http://nces.ed.gov/spider/webspider/2000102.shtml

12. Market Data Retrieval, op. cit., endnote 4. 

13. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2000). op. cit. endnote 11. Figure

6.1. http://nces.ed.gov/spider/webspider/2000102.shtml

14. Training Magazine's 18th Annual Industry Report.. TRAINING Magazine Vol. 36. No. 10, p. 37. 1999.

15. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2000). Op. cit. endnote 11. Figure

5.8. http://nces.ed.gov/spider/webspider/2000102.shtml

16. Meyer, Kathleen, Matt Kelemen and Stephanie Weiss. Motorola (Case Studies) Harvard Business School Case

Program. 1996. http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu.

17. Ronnkvist, Amy M., Sara L. Dexter and Ronald E. Anderson. Report #5: Technology Support: Its Depth, Breadth and Impact

in American Schools. Table 2. Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations, University of California,

Irvine and University of Minnesota. 2000. http://www.crito.uci.edu/tlc/findings/technology-support/startpage.htm

18. Arkatov, Alan. OnlineLearning.net. Personal communication. November 26, 2000.

19. Ronnkvist, Dexter & Anderson. op. cit. endnote 17. p. 19.

20. Solomon, L. and J. Wiederhorn. Progress of Technology in the Schools: 1999-Report on 27 States. Milken Exchange on

Education and Technology. Milken Family Foundation. Santa Monica, CA. 2000.

21. Ronnkvist, Dexter & Anderson. op. cit. endnote 17. p. 5.

22. Committee for Education Funding. Education Budget Alert for Fiscal Year 2000. p. 42. Washington, DC. 1999.

23. Schlager, Mark. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 16, 2000. For more information, see http://www.tappedin.org/; to view e-Testimony see http://www.webcommission.org/directory

24. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (1999). Projections of Education

Statistics to 2009, NCES 1999-038, Gerald, Debra E. and William J. Hussar. Washington, D.C. 1999.

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs99/1999038.pdf

25. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (1997). Characteristics of Stayers,

Movers, and Leavers: Results from the Teacher Followup Survey, 1994-95, NCES 97-450. Washington, D.C. 1997.

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=97450

Professional Development

51
26. The CEO Forum on Education and Technology. Teacher Preparation STaR Chart. Washington, D.C. 2000.

http://www.ceoforum.org/downloads/tpreport.pdf

27. Green. op. cit. endnote 7.

28. This figure is 85 percent, according to Will New Teachers Be Prepared To Teach In A Digital Age?, a National Survey on

Information Technology in Teacher Education. The Milken Exchange and the International Society for Technology in Education

(ISTE). 1999. http://www.mff.org/pubs/ME154.pdf

29. P. L. 105-244. 1998 Amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965. Title II-Teacher Quality Enhancement

Grants for States and Partnerships. Sec. 201 (a) (3).

30. Trotter, Andrew “Preparing Teachers for the Digital Age” Technology Counts '99. Education Week. p. 42, Vol. XIX,

Number 4. September 23, 1999.

31. For more information, see http://www.ncate.org

32. For more information, see http://www.ceoforum.org

33. Data from CEO Forum for Education and Technology website on Oct. 30, 2000. http://www.ceoforum.org

34. This initiative is descibed in the Illustrated Story “Helping Isolated Teachers Make New Connections” in this report. For

more information, see http://ilf.crlt.indiana.edu

35. For more information, see http://pt3.org

52
53

We must establish a pedagogical base for the effective

use of Internet learning. We need a vastly expanded,

revitalized, and reconfigured educational research,

development, and innovation program, one built on a

deeper understanding of how people learn, and how

new tools support and assess learning gains.

Compare research in medicine and

sports with research in education.

In medical research, cumulative,

aggregated protocols, involving practitioners and patients, together with

well-coordinated and publicized clinical trials, have led to treatments that

enhance the health and extend the life

span of many people. Technology

has been central to studying diseases,

to finding new solutions that address

them, and to disseminating research

results to medical practitioners and

the public. Increasingly, technology

has empowered an educated patient

population to demand the best treatments. In short, research has made it

possible to enhance health.

Sports research offers another example. Research employing new technologies has made it possible to

enhance performance in athletics.

Research on new designs and materials in golf clubs, skis, and bicycles, as

well as new training feedback mechanisms (e.g., video replay), allows professional athletes and weekend sports

Research and Development

CORRECTING A PAUCITY OF

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

“I would be astonished if a

sustained educational

research program like the

one envisioned by the

PCAST panel (at a level of

$1.5 billion per year) failed

to yield at least a 5 percent

improvement in what

economists refer to as the

‘education production function’—the ratio of educational outcomes (measured

using some reasonable

metric) to educational

expenditures.”

(David E. Shaw, Chairman and CEO, D. E. Shaw & Co., Inc.,

testimony before the Web-based Education Commission,

September 14, 2000)

55
enthusiasts to attain new levels of performance. Research using the latest technologies has

made it possible to enhance athletic performance.

Educational research, focused on using long-term, longitudinal studies as well as aggregated

short-term trials supported by technology, should be directed at enhancing performance in learning.

We know that technology offers both the impetus and the opportunity to vastly improve

learning performance.1 Without a vigorous, dynamic research base, however, we will miss the

opportunity to advance the state of the art and science of education.

Educational research suffers from three major problems—

Not enough money is spent on educational research

Educational research often does not support enhanced learning performance

Educational research often is not accessible to teachers or easily 

translated into practice

Not Enough is Spent on

Educational Research

Consider these comparisons between the private sector and the educational sector:

• The U.S. Department of

Commerce reports that

“Between 1994 and 1999,

total U.S. R & D investment

increased at an average

annual (inflation adjusted)

rate of about 6 percent, up

from roughly 0.3 percent

during the previous 5-year

period. The lion’s share of

this growth—37 percent

between 1995 and 1998—

occurred in Information

Technology (IT) industries.

In 1998, IT industries invested $44.8 billion in R & D, or

nearly one-third of all company funded R & D.”2

313

BILLION

.O1%

INVESTMENT 

IN PUBLIC K-12

EDUCATION

AMOUNT INVESTED 

TO DETERMINE 

EDUCATIONAL 

TECHNIQUES 

THAT WORK

56
• Last year, the

United States

spent about $77

billion on prescription and

non-prescription medications, and

invested approximately 23 percent, or nearly

$18 billion, of

this amount on

research, development, and

testing aimed at

discovering new drugs and evaluating their effectiveness.3

• In the same year, our nation spent about $313 billion on public K-12 education, but invested less than 0.1 percent of that amount to determine what

educational techniques actually work, and to find ways to improve them.4

In its 1997 landmark report, the Panel on Educational Technology of the President’s

Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) recommended that “the federal government initiate a large-scale program of rigorous empirical research aimed at

improving both the effectiveness and the cost-effectiveness of elementary and secondary

education in the United States ... at a level equal to at least 0.5 percent of the nation’s aggregate K-12 educational spending, or approximately $1.5 billion per year at present expenditure levels.”5 We are a long way from this goal. Consider the following:

• The current budget for the Office of Educational Research and

Improvement, the major research arm of the U.S. Department of

Education, is $540 million.6 Even adding the $60 million spent by the

Research, Evaluation, and Communication Division of the National Science

Foundation’s Education and Human Resources Directorate,7 best estimates

suggest total spending for education research is in the $600 million range.

• The federal government invests more than $75 billion a year in research in

science and technology development in military, health, aerospace, agriculture, and other areas. Added to this are equivalent industry investments.

It is obvious that R & D in these fields are mature. By comparison, the

learning R & D field is in its infancy.8

FEDERAL TECHNOLOGYRELATED R&D INVESTMENTS 

Learning Sciences and 

Technology for Education Total Science and Technology R&D 

Approx.

$100 million

Approx.

$75 billion

57
Educational Research

Should Lead to

Enhanced Learning

Performance

We are at a critical moment of discovery in the quest to “unlock the

mysteries of learning.” As

reported in recent National

Academy of Sciences reports,

learning sciences have made

substantial progress in the

past 30 years, more than

most people realize.9 This

expanding knowledge

base about how we learn

has important implications for improving education at all levels. And

it is telling us something

important: what goes on

in schools is far from

optimal for learning.10

We know from this

research that learning

environments should be

centered around knowledge, learners, social interactions, and assessment.

Instead, learning environments in school often:

• Focus on the shortterm recall of facts,

rather than opportunities for deeper 

building of knowledge

• Organize around the

top-down, teacherand-textbook centered instruction,

rather than the needs 

of the individual learner

NEW

TECHNOLOGIES/

NEW FORMS OF

TEACHING AND

UNDERSTANDING

• Simulations, models, and visualization tools can

make it possible for students to bridge experience and abstraction, helping to deepen understanding of ambiguous or challenging content. For example, "Model-It" is a tool students use to create models that represent their theories about scientific phenomena.11 "SimCalc" has made it possible for inner-city middle school students to learn pre-calculus with the aid of visualization tools for understanding functions.12

• The Internet opens the classroom door to authentic issues and

problems that can form the basis of guided, reflective inquiry through

extended projects. For example, in the GLOBE program13 students conduct research and share their findings with other students as well as scientists seeking more data to answer problems related to the environment.14 

• The public nature of the Web gives students a chance to share what they

learn with others. Clarity and accuracy take on new meaning to students

when they share their products with people outside the classroom.

Teaching others is the most powerful way to learn, as students have demonstrated in the Web sites they create in the ThinkQuest competition.15

• The resources of the Web give students access to more information than

is often found in textbooks, locating primary historical source materials,

texts, artifacts, and works of art that are equal to the resources used by

real historians, scholars, and scientists. In the "Culture of

American History" course taught at the New School University, students

can access Internet resources at the Smithsonian, the New York

Historical Society, and other world-class institutions just by a mouse

click. Students "become their own historians" by going right to primary

documents and archival sources.16

• Web tools allow students to work with resources and tools

that are not available in their own schools. For example,

they can conduct experiments with online tools and simulated

laboratories like those provided in the Concord Consortium's

Molecular Workbench.17

• Web-based projects encourage students' collaborative construction of meaning through different

perspectives on shared experiences. For example, through I*Earn's "Street's Children" Web

project, students learn about and share

their concerns around the issue of

homeless children.18

58
• Limit social interaction to occasional times with peers in the classroom

encouraging solo study, rather than collaboration

• Allow current assessment to influence instruction in ways that may not

match the goals of 21st Century learning

Schools often use technology to mimic this pattern of a top-down, lecture or text-driven

model of instruction. Similarly, we have used the Internet in a narrow fashion, like vast textbooks or lectures online, instead of exploring its interactive potential.

Technology can support what we now know to be more effective learning environments.

Interactive applications linked to the Internet can provide environments better matched to

support learner-centered, knowledge-centered, community-centered, and assessment-centered conditions for learning.

New technological tools and applications allow for expanded forms of communication,

analysis, and expression by students and teachers. These innovations support new forms of

teaching and understanding built on the early findings of learning research.

Building the Foundation for

21st Century Learning Goals

Perhaps the greatest barrier to innovative teaching is assessment that measures yesterday’s

learning goals. It is a classic dilemma: tests do a good job of measuring basic skills, which,

in turn, influence the teaching of these skills so students can score well on the tests. Testing

works well so long as we are testing the right things.

Learning frameworks at the K-12 level are important for providing a common definition of

what is valued, but often they are built around collections of content rather than demonstrations of higher-order cognitive, affective, and social skills vital in a knowledge-based

economy. Most states use standardized tests for determining how well students meet these

frameworks at several grade levels.

Witnesses before the Commission made it clear that academic standards are important, but

they must be connected to the needs of the 21st Century. Often this is not the case. Too

often today’s tests measure yesterday’s skills with yesterdays’ testing technologies—paper

and pencil.

What will it take to develop tests that truly reflect what students need to learn for the 21st

Century? It will take a concerted effort and large amounts of R & D funding with the collaboration of educators and psychometricians, content specialists, and technologists. Above

all, it will take a focus on the potential of technology to help us better measure the knowledge, competencies, and understandings we value in education.

The same kinds of innovative 21st Century tools and learning environments that people are developing for teaching and learning can be designed to administer and score student performances.

Research and Development

59
Advances in testing technologies have made it possible to extend test item formats beyond

the selected-response formats of past test designs. For example, through web-based testing

a student may be asked to place works of art along a timeline, to design a building to meet a

set of constraints, to troubleshoot a faulty system, or to analyze a text and compare it for historical accuracy with other documents of the same era.

In computer adaptive testing, the test “adapts” to the examinee’s performance on it. The

individual is given a question, and, if answered correctly, moves on to more difficult questions. Incorrect responses generate less difficult questions. Information is stored on the

computer and the score reflects the skill level he or she has achieved. The use of computeradaptive testing is growing in the military and training fields, and for professional certification (Medical Licensing Examination) and graduate admissions testing (e.g., Graduate Record

Exam and Graduate Management Admissions Test).19

With storage and delivery capabilities of the Web, it is now possible to provide web-based test

administration. A central server may contain an “item bank” of thousands of questions of

varying types and difficulty levels. Students could take the tests from their classroom or computer lab, with the delivery of items adapted to the students’ performance. Scoring could be

immediate, and administrators and teachers could have access to this information at any level—

aggregated by school, grade level, classroom, individual student, or even concept area. This

feedback could provide much better monitoring of achievement at all levels, and, unlike today’s

large-scale assessments, make it possible for teachers to adapt instruction in response to commonly found difficulties, or an individual student’s learning profile.20

The use of information technologies, for both teaching and assessment, afford

new opportunities for an increased focus on the application of knowledge, not

just its rote recitation. Assessment of student performance can be embedded, almost seamlessly, in systems that promote continuous learning.

However, the current forms of testing are not designed to measure

how educational reforms, including those based on technology, can

improve student understanding. This mismatch between reforms

and testing leads many to underestimate the impact of technology. It discourages educators from spending the effort to undertake these reforms and changes in practice.

Fortunately, development of sophisticated test construction, delivery, and scoring through new technologies will

make it possible to do a better job of evaluating the skills

we seek to build.

Research and Development

60
Educational Research That 

Teachers Value

Too often educational research has been seen as esoteric, faddish, or too far from the realm

of the day-to-day to have meaning. It takes too long, and is too little used.

In part, this reflects the isolated researcher in the university community who may not be connected with K-12 schools, or even the teacher education programs in his or her own institution. The highest forms of knowledge-building today are those that come through collaboration and sharing of what is known, just as medical research pulls together relevant specialties (from genetics to infectious diseases, neuroscience, pharmacology, or radiology) in

exploring a problem and potential ways of addressing it.

Similarly, research on learning will need to draw on specialists in neurocognition, behavioral

and biological sciences, and other fields, as well as the expertise of content area specialists,

educational practitioners, designers, and technology developers to create the applications

that carry research findings into the classroom. And teachers can now be more a part of the

process, as the Internet links them to the world of the researcher, making classrooms more

likely settings for research and for implementation of research findings.

Witnesses before this Commission called for such “mission-oriented” research, combining

basic and applied research, designed to yield fundamental new knowledge while exploring

problems that have important practical consequences. And this

research should focus on problems

of practice faced daily by teachers

and administrators—research for

real-time practice, not just research

on practice.

Imagine if schools, on demand,

could apply research technologies to

profile what a student needs to learn,

how he or she learns best, what his

or her learning style is, and what

worked or did not work in the past,

with continuous feedback to teachers, parents, and the student.

The Internet, with its tools for collaborative research and immediate

communication, makes it possible

to create new models of knowledge-building communities that

can support and quickly implement

new forms of research, innovation,

and application.

Research and Development

POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF 

WEB-BASED TESTING:

• Time and cost savings in test 

administration and scoring

• Greater score precision

• Maximized student engagement, 

minimized student frustration in taking 

tests that are too difficult or boredom 

in taking tests that are too easy

• Improved test security

• Greater opportunity to

evaluate progress over time 

and to use test results to 

influence instruction

• Possibilities for new kinds of 

questions, using multimedia, 

simulations, and other resources

to assess sophisticated learning 

goals (e.g., problem-solving, 

visualization, and modeling)

61
No group is more likely to benefit from web-based education than people with disabilities.

Learning over the Web can minimize the impact of disabilities by eliminating transportation

barriers. It can allow students to reveal their disabilities at their discretion. It can promote

equality among learners, with and without disabilities, reducing potential discrimination. And

it can make previously inaccessible classroom materials accessible.

In short, people who are blind, deaf, or who have mobility impairments can overcome

numerous educational and vocational barriers if online educational materials are produced in

a way that makes them accessible.

Techniques and technologies are already in place for assuring such accessibility. What is missing is public awareness of these standards and policies to guarantee that they are followed.

A powerful example of accessible design can be found in the new web-based multimedia

physics curriculum called “Physics Interactive Video Tutor” (PIVoT)1 created by the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). PIVoT is designed to provide freshman students with a virtual learning environment that offers the immediacy, responsiveness, and

dynamism of a traditional tutor.

As part of PIVoT’s activities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting/WGBH National

Center for Accessible Media (NCAM)2 is collaborating with MIT on a three-year project

funded by the National Science Foundation and the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation.

Launched in January 2000, this project is using PIVoT as a model to test, implement, document, and promote the development of multimedia access solutions that will make distancelearning accessible to blind, low-vision, deaf, and hard-of-hearing students.

To understand the PIVoT approach, it is important to first understand why so much webbased material is difficult for disabled students to access.

Web browsers present information through software known as a graphical user interface

(GUI). Navigation through GUIs is difficult for blind and visually impaired people

because image maps, buttons, menus, and other controls are often invisible or nameless

when accessed by a blind user’s assistive technology, such as a screen reader or refreshable

Braille display.

Access to most graphical content (such as drawings, photos, or image maps) must be provided

via technical instructions known as “alt-text tags.” The PIVoT web site is becoming a model

of accessible Web site design and is striving for adherence to the Web Content Accessibility

Guidelines of the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web (W3C) Accessibility Initiative3

Research and Development

62

MAKING THE WEB ACCESSIBLE 

FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES 
PIVoT supports disabled users in the following ways—

• First, it offers better design and layout. NCAM is working with PIVoT designers to improve the Web site’s layout so that blind users can more easily navigate the

site. For example, designers have improved text/background contrast to help visually impaired students use the site more effectively.

• Second, it offers access to tables. Reading and manipulating tables is an important way of processing scientific information—but tables present a particular problem for blind users. Tables require that the user refer to both row and column

headings in order to interpret the information in a single cell. The PIVoT Web site

is being designed to permit blind users to explore a set of tabular data more efficiently through cues that help them understand these relationships.

• Third, it offers access to math equations. Improving access to equations and

graphs is crucial in making math and science accessible to blind and visually

impaired students. A promising standard is the MathML specification from the

W3C. A discussion is underway regarding appropriate MathML browsers in conjunction with the User Agents Working Group of the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Once tools are available for authoring MathML, the PIVoT project intends to use

them to prepare physics materials for the Web. This solution should enable blind

students to read and manipulate equations with output in speech and Braille.

Research and Development

63
• Fourth, it offers access to multimedia. The MIT development team has elected

to use the W3C’s Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) to assemble and present the course’s multimedia lectures and help files. NCAM’s captionauthoring tool, the Media Access Generator (MAGpie), is being used in the PIVoT

project to add captions to multimedia, thus simplifying the process of making these

clips accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing students. MAGpie can also sequence

audio descriptions into SMIL presentations, making them more accessible to blind

or visually impaired students.

When implemented from the start, accessibility features such as alt-text tags, captions, audio

descriptions, and proper layout add little if anything to the cost of a Web site. However,

when implemented as add-ons, after the site has been launched, considerable costs related to

labor and time may be incurred as the site is retrofitted to accommodate specific features.

It is important to consider that accessibility improvements benefit all users, not just those

who are disabled. For example, Web users who are not sight-impaired may turn off their

browser’s automatic image-loading feature to make use of alt-text tags to identify and manipulate images. All users have the option of using captioned multimedia when viewing movie

clips in a noisy environment, or where the use of sound is not appropriate. Caption (text)

tracks are also useful as indices for searching through large collections of digital video files—

the captions act as keywords.

Within three years, the PIVoT project aims to:

• Enable science-focused high school and college students who are blind,

visually-impaired, deaf, or hard-of-hearing to participate in an innovative and

challenging web-based introductory physics curriculum

• Provide developers, publishers, and distributors of distance-learning and

educational multimedia with recommended practices and an applied demonstration of accessible design principles for network-delivered multimedia

• Enable the MIT Center for Advanced Educational Services4 to institutionalize the technical capabilities developed through this project to develop a

range of future educational products that are accessible to individuals

with disabilities

Through the application of pragmatic and common sense design and development standards it

is possible to provide the enormous benefits of accessible online learning equally to all students.

1. http://www.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/ncam/webaccess/Pivot/PIVoToff.htm

2. http://www.wgbh.org/ncam

3. http://www.w3.org/WAI

4. http://caes.mit.edu/

Research and Development

64
While educators and policymakers talk about e-learning, the medical profession is doing it.

Elliott Masie,1 a technology and training expert, saw this first-hand when he was invited to

see what he calls "a truly breakthrough example of e-learning." 

Imagine a conference hall with 7,000 cardiologists watching and interacting with surgeons

conducting heart surgery simultaneously in 3 countries around the world. Six patients were

prepared for cutting-edge heart procedures in operating rooms in Israel, Italy, and New York

City. Each operating room had 3 to 8 TV cameras and scanning equipment to show these

operations live and give internal imaging views.

The cardiologists in each operating room were pushing the edge of current practice, doing

very complicated procedures that were far more advanced than standard approaches. Several

of the patients had quite complicated and serious conditions, but all had signed consent

agreements, and, in fact, were awake and respondent during much of the procedure.

A satellite feed and connection allowed the viewers to communicate live and interact with

the doctors during the process, as well as track various instrument read-outs. A "reaction

panel" comprised of top cardiologists expressed different views and opinions about the procedures underway. The doctors in the audience used response keypads to vote in real time

on what procedure they would do or whether they would continue or stop an action. As voting was underway, four screens filled with real-time data that helped the group place what

was happening into context.

"It was a deeply powerful learning experience," Masie reported. "The process supports very

rapid dissemination of medical information and knowledge, quite faster than the normal

medical publishing process." Masie said that the virtual operating room allowed approved

trials to be witnessed in real time and disseminated instantly.

"The group process fostered an incredible amount of discussion and conflict that brought

forth a level of intellectual dialogue on best practices that I have rarely seen in other professions," he said. "The group voting process seemed scary to me at first, but actually gave

some feedback to the doctors in the operating rooms and placed the learner's risk-taking

process in perspective. The intensity of side-dialogues was amazing, as we watched and

reacted in small peer conversations alongside the real time group interaction."

Masie added, "The international perspective gave a global element to the entire learning

experience and we were able to see very different attitudes toward similar innovations in

diverse cultures . . . The use of research to frame the discussion was powerful, as we were

seeing a multi-dimensional view of the points of conflict."

Did the patients mind? Masie reports that the outcomes and survival rates for this process

are higher than normal procedures. Do all doctors approve of this model of medical knowledge transfer? No, there are some that are quite opposed. Was the live element necessary? 

"I think it added greater levels of learner attention and made the experience quite real versus simulated," he said. "I was jealous. I wondered when the learning and training profession

would have this level of an open and intense discussion about what actually works and does

not work in each e-learning genre." 

1. http://www.masie.com

Research and Development

65

E-LEARNING: THE MEDICAL MODEL
ENDNOTES

1. See, for example, “Selected Examples of Research on the Effectiveness of Educational Technology” in eLearning:

Putting a World-Class Education at the Fingertips of All Students. United States. Department of Education, Office of

Educational Technology. Washington, DC. Prepublication draft. November 2000.

2. United States. Department of Commerce. Digital Economy 2000. Buckley, Patricia, Sandra Cooke, Donald Dalton, Jess

Dumagan, Gurmukh Gill, David Henry, Susan LaPorte, Sabrina Montes, Dennis Pastore, and Lee Price. Washington,

D.C. 2000. http://www.esa.doc.gov/de2000.pdf

3. Shaw, David, D. E. Shaw and Co, Inc. and Juno Online Services. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission.

September 14, 2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. United States. Department of Education. Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Summary - February 1999. Washington, D.C. 1999.

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/Budget00/BudgetSumm/apndx-2o.html

7. National Science Foundation. Summary of FY 2001 Budget Request to Congress. Data from the Education and Human

Resources Directorate's 1999 fiscal year allocation for Research, Evaluation and Communication. 2000.

http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/bud/fy2001/ehr.htm 

8. Arizona Learning Technology Partnership. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 31, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

9. See, for example, National Research Council. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience and School, 1999; How People Learn:

Bridging Research and Practice, 1999; and How People Learn, Expanded Edition. 2000. National Academy Press. Washington,

D.C. 1999-2000. http://www.nap

10. Bransford, John D., Vanderbilt University. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. September 14, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

11. For more information, see http://www.hi-ce.org/sciencelaboratory/modelit/index.html

12. For more information, see http://tango.mth.umassd.edu

13. For more information, see http://www.globe.gov

14. Another example is “Hands-On Universe”, an educational program that enables students to investigate the universe

while applying tools and concepts from science, math, and technology. http://hou.lbl.gov

15. For more information, see http://www.thinkquest.org

16. For more information, see http://homepage.newschool.edu/~johnsonc

17. For more information, see http://www.concord.org/projects/index.html

18. For more information, see http://www.iearn.org

19. Bennett, Randy. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. July 24, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

20. Ibid.

Research and Development

66
67

The real revolution now taking place is not the hardware of technology, but the intellectual technology of

information, communication, and the augmentation

of human intelligence.

All too often, discussions about web-based learning tend to fall back on a simplistic faith in

the power of technology. Of course interactivity is a powerful draw for teachers and students alike. But dazzling technology has no meaning unless it supports content that meets

the needs of learners.

Some of the content currently available on the Web is excellent, but much of it is mediocre.

Challenges await content developers and educators in producing, distributing, cataloging,

indexing, and evaluating good online content. They must address gaps in this market, find

ways to build fragmented lesson plans into full courses, fully develop the promise of postsecondary educational opportunities on the Web, and assure quality in this new environment.

State of the Market

The educational content market is a huge

business. Total U.S. spending each year on

textbooks and instructional technology

content (e.g., software and online course

materials) amounts to approximately $4 billion. Online content currently represents

only a fraction of that market, although

many expect the Internet to both capture a

large share from offline content sources,

such as textbooks, as well as expand the size

of this market overall.1 According to one

report, 13 percent of K-12 schools already

subscribe to online curriculum.2

Traditional content providers—publishers

and software developers—are increasingly joined by new providers of online content.

Federal agencies, museums, teachers, and even students themselves are contributing to

web-based content. Much of the online content consists of data, Web pages, applets, and

other information that teachers use as supplements to text-based teaching, rather than full

courses. For example, the U.S. Department of Education sponsors the Gateway to

Educational Materials, containing more than 14,000 lesson ideas and learning resources

from over 200 organizations.3

Quality of Content

COMPELLING ONLINE CONTENT

“Students conditioned by

the dynamic imagery of

communication media,

particularly television and

digital games, expect to

learn in an environment

that takes advantage of

visual and auditory stimulation and interaction.”

(e-Testimony, Susan Metros, Innovative Technology

Center, University of Tennessee, August 20, 2000)

69
Many private-sector providers have changed their focus from producing content to aggregating instructional information, acting as a “portal” or access point for other content-based

resources and information provided by teachers and schools. For example, bigchalk.com

aggregates “best of class” content and makes it available to subscribing schools through

community Web sites.4

However, only a handful of providers have been able to take advantage of the online education content market. That is because the market is highly fragmented (products and services are targeted by age, grade, and subject matter and marketed to over 15,000 school districts)

and often finite (demand tends to be limited to the number of students taking any given class

at any given time—the number of 7th graders taking Algebra in the U.S. in 2000, for

instance). The cost to compete in these specialized sub-markets is high, forcing many

providers to retreat and instead produce “big ticket” general studies content (usually in the

K-6 range) that historically have provided a greater rate of return.

Quality of Content

K-12 ONLINE CONTENT IS AVAILABLE TODAY

FROM A RANGE OF PUBLIC SECTOR PROVIDERS

Federal Agencies

Museums and Science

Centers

Professional Organizations

Teachers

Students

· Expertise

· High quality materials

· Priceless, unique, original resources

· Expertise

· At any time a museum has 5% to

10% of its collection on exhibit

· 59% of museums in recent survey

have/are developing classroom 

materials via Web site

· Linked to content standards

· Teacher input

· Range of teacher experience

· Resources organized, filtered for

educational appropriateness

(grade level, quality, etc.)

· Creativity

· Student focus

· Student initiative valued

· High standards if juried

PUBLIC SECTOR

CONTENT PROVIDERS

BENEFITS

70
As a result of this fragmented and finite market, there are areas where online content produced by the private sector is of limited quality or quantity. And, because the content is generally produced to match state academic standards or the assessments of major testing programs, it may reflect a limited emphasis on inquiry learning, project based activities, or collaborative learning models.

There are gaps in specific subject areas as well—in foreign language materials, higher level

courses in math and science, and other thin markets. Moreover, much of the online content

fails to address the interests of cultural or ethnic groups. One survey, for example, found

that only 2 percent of Web sites target Americans who do not speak English as their first

language. In the same survey, only 6 percent of low-income users reported finding content

that met their needs.5

Materials may not be developed for

student audiences

Cost of digitizing collections is high

For some the only criterion for

inclusion is a recommendation by site

visitors

Issues of quality control and

intellectual property rights for

non-juried submissions

Issues of quality control and 

intellectual property rights for

non-juried submissions

· NASA Learning Technologies Program

· Library Of Congress American Memory

· Free Federal Resources for Educational

Excellence

· U.S. Department of Education Gateway

to Educational Materials

· St. Louis Science Center

· American Museum of Natural History

· The Exploratorium

· Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

· National Science Teachers Association

· National Education Association

· Mrs. Rennebohm Franz's Classroom 

· Mr. & Mrs. Donn's Ancient History Site 

· ThinkQuest

http://learn.ivv.nasa.gov

http://memory.loc.gov

http://www.ed.gov/free

http://thegateway.org

http://www.slsc.org

http://www.amnh.org

http://www.exploratorium.edu

http://www.mfa.org

http://www.nsta.org

http://www.nea.org 

http://www.psd267.wednet.edu/

~kfranz

http://members.aol.com/

donnandlee 

http://www.thinkquest.org

LIMITATIONS EXAMPLES URL

71
Quality of Content

VIRTUAL HIGH SCHOOLS AND COURSE PROVIDERS

· $6.2 million this year

from state funds

· Students enroll through

their local high school or

private school, or as 

home school student

· Districts pay $275 per

half credit (half Carnegie

unit) per student per

semester course

· Students can apply

either on their own or

through their guidance

counselors

· Also open to private,

home school, and middle

school students

· Affiliation with the

University of Nebraska,

Lincoln's Independent

Study High School

· Students take courses

individually for credit

transfer to their local

high school or as part of

a full high school

diploma program

· U.S. Dept. of Education

Challenge Grant

· Also private sector

sponsors

· Up to 20 students may

enroll per course

· Beginning in Fall 2001,

a school membership

fee will apply

· $395 per student per

course, paid by state,

district, or private

school

· Discounts offered for

quantity sign-up

56 courses

35 courses

48 courses

156 courses in 

Fall 2000

175 courses in 

Spring 2001

10 Advanced

Placement courses;

also online exam

review

ONLINE COURSE

PROVIDER

FUNDING 

MODEL

NUMBER OF 

COURSES

Florida Online

High School

http://fhs.com

Kentucky Virtual

High School

http://www.

kvhs.org

class.com

http://www.

class.com

Concord

Consortium

Virtual High 

School

http://vhs.

concord.org

APEX Learning

http://www.

apexlearning.

com

72
Florida

(plan to serve outside Fla. on a per

student/per course

arrangement

through licensing

with other

states/districts)

Kentucky

National and

international

National and

international

National and

international

· Approximately 

5,000 students

· 300 students

· 6,000 students

· 2,500 students

in Fall 2000

· 3,000 students

in Spring 2001

2000 Fall:

· 2000 students

in AP courses

· 8,000 students

in online

courses and

exam review

· 55 teachers, most full-time, 

certified in Florida

· Certified by Ky. in specific

content areas; average 16

years experience

· Part-time—comprised of

current high school teachers 

or retired teachers

· 12 online instructors in

addition to 12 curriculum

developers and 18 involved

research and development

· School districts and state

organizations can provide

class.com courses locally

· 156 teachers plus 50

additional teachers currently 

in training

· The VHS course is part of

teachers' full-time teaching

load at school where they

teach

· 32 online instructors

· High school teachers with

AP experience, and college

faculty

· Program accreditation 

possibly in place by 

Fall 2001

· Courses count toward 

student graduation

· Through students' schools

· North Central Association

of Colleges and Schools via

the Independent Study 

High School

· ISHS diplomas are

recognized by higher

education institutions

· Not applicable - VHS

provides extended offerings

of participating schools

· Accredited by the

Commission on 

International Transregional Accreditation

· Schools grant students'

credit based on

performance on the AP

exam; colleges may also

grant AP credit

SCOPE OF

SERVICE

NUMBER OF

STUDENTS

TEACHERS ACCREDITATION

73
School districts and states may soon be faced

with a paradox. Overall market growth, along

with expansion of the delivery mechanism

(i.e., the Internet), may not, by themselves, be

enough to sustain robust competition and

innovation in product design, capability, and

customization.

Unless school districts and states create significant demand for innovative online learning

materials, it may not be economically feasible

for many online education content providers

to stay in the business. The result could be a latter-day online equivalent to the current K-12

textbook market—domination by just a few providers, limited choice, and perhaps, stagnancy in innovation and design.

The good news, however, is that some states are beginning to respond by investing in

approaches that provide web-based content for educators, when and where they need it.

The Massachusetts’ Virtual Education Space (VES), for example, will provide every K-12

student, teacher, and parent a personal “workspace” they can log onto with an Internet

browser and personal password. Students will have access to assignments, content linked

to their specific learning objectives, works-in-progress, and portfolios of completed work.

Teachers will be able to access state and district curriculum standards related to their teaching areas, and a database of content and lesson plans linked to the standards.

Collaboration, planning, administration, and assessment tools will also be at the teacher’s

access. Parents, too, can access their children’s assignments, work to date, and teacher evaluations of progress.6

Washington State is partnering with Massachusetts, developing its own version of this program called WAVES. Several other states (New York, Oregon, Wisconsin, and New Jersey)

are discussing working together in development of similar “smart desktops”.7 Some school

districts have developed their own instructional management systems that use the Web to

help teachers organize and manage instruction more effectively and efficiently. Fairfax

County Public Schools in Virginia testified that it is investing upwards of $100,000 to develop

several web-based high school courses for its students.8

PreK-12: Moving From Online Materials,

to Courses, to Full Programs

While there are thousands of online lesson plans and supplementary course materials at the

preK-12 level, full courses are more limited. Most have been developed by state, district, or

cross-regional online high schools.

Quality of Content

“ ‘What did the student

learn?’ is far more

important than ‘How

was the information 

presented?’ ”

(e-Testimony, Distance Education and Training

Council, August 18, 2000)

74
State-created online high schools offer courses that parallel those required in the traditional

high school curriculum of the state. As more states are developing virtual high schools, (e.g.,

Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Mexico) a greater range of courses

are being offered online.

Another model is the Virtual High School (VHS) Project funded through a U.S. Department

of Education Challenge Grant to the Hudson, Massachusetts School District and operated

by the Concord Consortium. VHS offers over 156 courses to about 250 schools in 32 states

and 13 countries. Many of these courses are taken as electives rather than core curriculum

requirements. At VHS, the per student tuition fee can be waived if a school creates an online

course or facilitates a section of a course that students in any participating school can take.

Course design is structured around VHS guidelines and practices taught to teachers through

their required participation in the yearlong VHS teacher developer course.9

Advanced Placement (AP) courses are an important gateway helping to prepare students for

college. Many schools do not have either the in-house expertise or enough students to warrant hiring a teacher to offer advanced placement courses. Today only 60 percent of high

schools offer AP courses, with the average high school offering only about 5 AP courses out

of 32 subject areas. A private sector provider, APEX Learning, is providing courses in 10

AP subjects online, as well as other services like AP preparatory materials online.10

Evaluation of preK-12 online courses follows the model of traditional education. That is,

these courses are certified by the home state or regional accrediting body with jurisdiction in

that state. This task becomes considerably more complicated in the case of courses offered

across state lines. Assessment requirements, teacher credentialing, and the granting of credits have all been areas of individual state policy. This means that an offering entity may have

to traverse a complex maze of accreditation standards that can vary from state to state.

Online Content and Courses at the

Postsecondary Level

At the postsecondary level, there is a growing use of online content and tools for both traditional courses and those taken at a distance.11

• Nearly 40 percent of all college classes used Internet resources as part of

the syllabus in 1999, compared with 15 percent in 1996.

• More than 25 percent of all college courses have a Web page compared with 

9.2 percent in 1996.

• Three-fifths (59.3 percent) of all college courses now utilize electronic mail,

up from 54.0 percent last year, 44.0 percent in 1998, and 20.1 percent in 1995.

• Similarly, two-fifths (42.7 percent) of college courses now use Web resources

as a course component, up from 10.9 percent in 1995, 33.1 percent in 1998,

and 38.9 percent in 1999.

Quality of Content

75
• Almost one-fourth (23.0 percent) of

all college faculty have a personal

Web page not linked to a specific

class or course, compared with just

19 percent in 1999.

Instructors add online resources to their

classes to:

• Make readings, original sources, or

specialized materials more easily

accessible to their students.

• Encourage more out-of-class student

reflection and interaction among students or with the instructor.

• Meet the expectations of students

who increasingly anticipate that

courses will be supplemented with

online materials or discussions.

The greatest technological concern of higher education faculty, like that of K-12 teachers, is

finding the best ways to integrate technology to enhance their classes. And for them, like

their K-12 colleagues, training is essential for addressing the special requirements of integrating web-based learning tools and applications.

First, the online faculty themselves must be comfortable using the available communications

technologies. They also need assistance in designing courses that take full advantage of the

medium, and the strategies and skills to communicate with students electronically in the

absence of visual and oral cues.

Creating a course for online delivery can take much longer, anywhere from 66 percent to 500

percent longer than creating traditional courses, and costs are widely variable.12 Even adding

online components to an existing course takes time. And it adds a new set of risks: teachers,

department chairs, and deans must be prepared for negative course evaluations from students

as the faculty experiments with these new approaches.

Faculty must be prepared to be available to their students for online communication—

answering questions and grading online materials promptly and assuring that students stay

connected to the class. Institutions must be prepared to provide faculty with tools and assistance for appropriate online instructional design.

Additionally, faculty that have not yet acquired tenure often shy away from using technology

creatively in their courses because it may be viewed as a distraction from their “primary tasks”

of research, scholarship, and publishing.

Quality of Content

PERCENTAGE OF ALL 

COLLEGE CLASSES USING 

INTERNET RESOURCES AS 

PART OF THE SYLLABUS

15%

40%

1996 1999

76
Rather than “reinventing the wheel,” higher education institutions are

forming collaborative groups to assist faculty in finding and developing

quality online teaching materials for courses. The Multimedia

Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT)13 is

a collection of online learning materials and support resources to help

faculty enhance instruction. Membership is open and free; faculty submit materials to 12 discipline committees responsible for developing evaluation standards, conducting peer reviews of learning materials within a

discipline, and making connections with their professional organizations.

Growth is just as dramatic in courses developed entirely for 

online delivery:14

• Approximately 84 percent of four-year colleges are expected to offer distance learning courses in 2002, up from 62

percent in 1998.

• Today U.S. colleges and universities offer more than 6,000

accredited courses on the Web.

• In 2002, 2.2 million students are expected to enroll in distributed learning courses, up from 710,000 in 1998.

While traditional site-based institutions are adding distance learning

courses to their offerings, new players are exploiting the burgeoning demand for online educational courses and

programs. They realize that the market is no

longer limited to the students who can come

to the campus. With 15 million students

enrolled in higher education in the

United States, and another 84 million

students enrolled in higher education around the world, there is a

substantial market for bringing

courses to the students, rather

than students to the courses.15

Some online providers are offshoots of existing public institutions while others are private

institutions funded through

public companies. Still others

are “born on the Web” virtual

institutions that leverage the

power of the Internet and operate entirely online.

FOUR-YEAR 

COLLEGES 

OFFERING 

DISTANCE 

LEARNING 

COURSES

1998 2002

62%

84%

STUDENTS 

EXPECTED TO ENROLL 

IN DISTRIBUTED 

LEARNING COURSES

77

1998 2002 710,0002.2 million
Assuring High Quality at the

Postsecondary Level

How is the quality of online course and program content to be assured in this arena of new

providers, new pedagogical techniques, and new course designs?

There is widespread agreement that web-based courses should be held to the same high standards required of traditional courses and programs. Public higher education institutions

receive their accreditation from regional accreditation agencies (New England, Middle States,

Southern, North Central, Western, and Northwestern). The Distance Education and

Training Council is one of the major national accrediting associations for a range of public

and private distance education institutions. While program accreditation is voluntary, the

accrediting agencies set high standards and include a comprehensive study aimed at assuring

that a program meets the educational goals it has set for students and faculty.

While voluntary accreditation and self-regulatory agencies are an important quality control

mechanism for web-based learning, there are a number of areas that national, regional, and

specialized accreditors should address in the future, including:16

• Determining whether new accreditation review standards and practices are

needed and developing these tools where appropriate

• Providing assistance to institutions, programs, and new providers to develop

internal quality review procedures for web-based learning

• Exploring whether and how the regional accrediting agencies should expand

beyond their traditional focus on non-profit institutions to include more forprofit institutions

• Developing an improved capacity for course accreditation to accompany

institutional and programmatic accreditation

• Strengthening coordination among accreditors to respond to web-based

learning with agreed upon standards

• Creating partnerships for review of web-based learning where appropriate

with other external quality reviewers

Two major concerns about program accreditation loom above all others. One is measurement: quality assurance has too often measured educational inputs (e.g., number of books in

a library, number of Ph.D.s on the faculty) rather than student outcomes. The other is federal regulation that is tied to funding of students or eligibility for Title IV student financial

assistance based on these input measures. (See following section for a full discussion of these

regulatory issues).

The situation is further confused by a lack of commonly understood criteria of what constitutes accreditation. There are both illegitimate distance education “colleges” and disreputable

Quality of Content

“accrediting” agencies. It is difficult for members of the public to distinguish between these

78
accrediting agencies and the quality control they provide. This suggests developing greater

public awareness through consumer education programs. The U.S. Department of

Education could take the lead by supporting consumer awareness programs that identify recognized accrediting agencies, and by publicizing and explaining their standards. Legislative

language in the 1998 Higher Education Act Amendments confirms congressional support

for a voluntary system of accrediting higher education institutions and programs, but the

range of programs and new providers suggests the need for better clarity in what accreditation means for the consumer in this new era.

The Bottom Line Test: Does it Work?

One question gets to the heart of the content quality issue: Is online learning as effective as

other forms of learning? According to a recent review of contemporary research on the

effectiveness of distance learning in higher education,17 the short answer is “yes.” Distance

learning courses compare favorably with classroom-based instruction and enjoy high student

satisfaction.18 Based on a limited number of studies that take into account student outcomes

(grades and test scores) and satisfaction, students in distance learning courses perform as

well as their counterparts in traditional classroom settings, earn similar grades or test scores,

and display the same attitudes toward the course.

But the caveat with this study is one heard in much educational research: the research base

is limited and has shortcomings both in scope and methodology. Although more research

is needed, the field has begun to develop benchmarks for evaluating effective distance learning programs. For instance, an Institute for Higher Education Policy report recently developed for the National Education Association and Blackboard, Inc. identifies 24 benchmarks

that are necessary to ensure quality in Internet-based distance education. These benchmarks are grouped around the following topics: institutional support; course development;

teaching/learning process; course structure; student support; faculty support; and evaluation and assessment.19

Quality of Content

79
Completing course work and obtaining a degree while you are working and raising a family is

a hard task for anyone. But doing it when your work schedule includes unexpected overnights

on the job is almost impossible!

Telecommunications workers face this problem. Mandatory overtime is common in this

industry; when the system goes down, nobody goes home, or anywhere else. Coming to

terms with this situation, in an industry where upgrading skills is a necessity, requires a

unique partnership.

The Sloan Foundation,1 which had for years provided grants to universities to assist them in

developing online courses, recognized that the telecommunications industry was an obvious

target for web-based learning. In 1998 Sloan gave a grant to the non-profit Center for Adult

and Experiential Learning (CAEL).2 CAEL convened meetings with representatives of the

existing major telecommunications companies (NYNEX, Bell Atlantic, U.S. West, Ameritech,

and SBC) and unions (Communication Workers of America and International Brotherhood

of Electrical Workers). The meetings led to building a curriculum, agreement on a governance structure, and identification of an educational institution—New York's Pace

University—to provide an online Associate of Science (A.S.) degree for industry workers and

those entering the industry.

The result is the National Coalition for Telecommunications Education and Learning(NACTEL).3 The first NACTEL classes were given in 1999, and approximately 2,000 learners have

taken classes so far, with a goal of 5,000 students by the end of 2001. Course completion

rates are over 80 percent, equivalent to on-campus results for the same courses, and learner

satisfaction is high.

Frank Mayadas, the Sloan Program Director, points out that the online learning model has as

much potential for workforce learning as for traditional degree programs. "The workforce

of tomorrow will have to be better trained and better able to access education, training, and

other knowledge resources," he says. "The Internet provides the ideal mechanism for this

access. Some of the necessary courses, certifications, degrees, and other kinds of knowledge

modules are available today, but not many and not enough. Many more are needed."

Pam Tate, President of CAEL, says that if "you can organize industries and unions to coalesce around common goals, then partner with universities and community colleges, this creates a wonderful feeder mechanism to bring adults in and support lifelong learning."

Tate adds that the biggest barriers to adult learning are money, time, and fear. With corporate financial assistance and online, anytime availability, two of the barriers are minimized.

CAEL has organized a mentoring program to help people who have never worked with computers test the waters. Potential students gain computer skills and become part of the peer

network, supporting one another.

"I've been in education for 17 years," says Dr. David Sachs, Assistant Dean of the School of

Computer Science and Information Systems at Pace University. "What intrigues me about

NACTEL is the incredible ability to reach people who normally do not have access to edu80

TELECOM WORKERS: OVERCOMING

EDUCATIONAL "BUSY SIGNALS"
cation." Sachs points out that what NACTEL supplies is not so different "from what the

students would get if they showed up on campus—but they can't show up on campus."

Students work toward an A.S. in Applied Information Technology Telecommunications. It

is equivalent to a two-year program, and the A.S. degree can transfer for credit in a four-year

program at other institutions. Only union members of participating companies are in classes now, but NACTEL expects to expand to a larger audience. Additional financial support

has come from the U.S. Department of Education's Learning Anywhere, Anytime Program,

administered by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education.

Here's what some students say about NACTEL:

“I am thankful for the opportunity to ‘return to school’ as I don't have the time to drive somewhere to take

classes. I drive 50 miles each way to and from my job and any extra time is very limited. In fact, all of my

work has been done on weekends, as that's the only time I have when I am alert enough to study.”

—Lois Westfall, Verizon

“Pace is more than just school for me. It's also more than just school work. We have chat sessions and a

kind of cyber hangout with each other. It's having friends and relationships. I think I can best describe it

as a ‘fraternal’ following or club. I now have had the pleasure of working with two professors, Dr. Barbara

Farrell, who I have dubbed ‘warrior princess,’ and Dr. John Hutton. Both are excellent professors and truly

go above and beyond to teach a course. My only sorrow is I did not find Pace sooner. By the way, warrior

princess is because Barbara is raising a family, earned her Ph.D. and teaches university level classes. Only

a warrior princess can have that much energy.”

—Anthony Chiaia, Sr., Verizon

“This affords me the opportunity I turned down years ago.” —John Underwood, SBC

Given the success of NACTEL, Sloan and CAEL are now talking with the electric utility

industry about developing a similar program. They are also considering online training

opportunities with the airlines, auto, construction, and financial services industries.

Verizon's Chiaia continues:

“I love this program. I work with this lady who is attending [another school] and she has this long sad face

on all the time. She complains about the course work and on and on ... I am not sure what [her school] is

doing or NOT doing, but when I talk about Pace at my work to others I have this big smile and a bright

glow. Sorry, I cannot help it.”

If Anthony Chiaia's response is typical, NACTEL is a model that is likely to bring a lot of

smiles to workers.

1. http://www.sloan.org

2. http://www.cael.org/index2.html

3. http://www.nactel.org

81
Cheryl Vitali, a fifth grade teacher at Alta Elementary School in Reedley, California, has sent

her students off on a quest to solve a mystery: what caused the abandonment of the ancient

Anasazi civilization in the American Southwest around 1300? In this project, her class got a

little help from some virtual friends a little closer to this question.

Ms. Vitali's students worked online with a classroom of students on a Hopi Indian reservation and with experts and scientists who have long sought answers to this ancient mystery.

Interactions like these are made possible by AmericaQuest, part of a unique series of webbased, interactive learning expeditions produced by Classroom Connect as part of The

Quest Channel.1

During the Quests, a team of historical experts, scientists, and adventurers travel to exotic

locations around the world to explore some of the greatest historical, scientific, and natural

mysteries of all time. What adds to the unique learning experience of the Quests is that these

four to six week explorations are directed by the hundreds of thousands of participating students who read daily reports written by the Quest team, and view video clips sent from the

field. They even cast a weekly vote over The Quest Channel Web site about important team

decisions, from ethical dilemmas, to where the Quest team should go next in their journey.

Quests are more than just online adventures that use "cool technology." Quests are learning

programs, complete with a comprehensive curriculum that meets state and national standards

in all core areas, including language arts, math, social studies, and science. Students build

skills in:

Quality of Content

82

VIRTUAL EXPLORERS

TURNING STUDENTS INTO 

VIRTUAL EXPLORERS

© David McLain/Aurora for Classroom Connect
• Finding, recognizing, and evaluating content

AmericaQuest students were given clues about a "mystery photo" and asked to

conduct additional research using the Web and offline resources to develop

their answers.

• Communicating with a broad range of people

Students e-mailed historical experts and scientists to learn about their theories of

the Anasazi abandonment. Students also used the online Message Board to create

discussions with classrooms around the world, exchange ideas, and develop theories to solve the central AmericaQuest mystery.

• Analyzing information critically, weighing differing perspectives, and coming to one's own conclusions

A couple of weeks into AmericaQuest, students were asked to evaluate multiple

theories developed from information and evidence gathered and then recommend

to the Quest team the theories most worthy of further investigation.

• Solving open-ended problems by putting together clues to answer questions

or generating new ideas based on their research efforts

During AmericaQuest students solved ethical dilemmas posed by the Quest team.

For example, after discovering an ancient Anasazi burial site, the team asked students if taking photographs of the human remains and posting them on the Quest

Web site was appropriate, or whether the team should respect the Hopi (and other

Native American) wishes and not photograph them. Students were encouraged to

pose their own alternatives and back them up with logical arguments.

• Developing cultural awareness, getting beyond the surface features of cultures to gain an understanding of how cultures are similar to or different

from each other and why

Students were asked to draw parallels between modern Hopi traditions and their

own family traditions, and then to share their stories on the AmericaQuest

Message Board.

"I have often pondered a vision of the ideal learning situation," says Mary Teague Mason,

Assistant Principal at Trickum Middle School in Lilburn, Georgia. "In this ultimate experience, students would be actively involved in learning content, skills, and attitudes in an integrated setting. Both the teacher and the students would be working together to solve real

problems that genuinely affect the lives of people.

Experts would provide the text and real events, the literature. This vision is now available to students all over

the world. It is Quest."

The Quests are one example of how web-based content

developers are meeting the high expectations of educators like Cheryl Vitali and Mary Mason.

1. http://quest.classroom.com

Quality of Content

83

© David McLain/Aurora for Classroom Connect
ENDNOTES 

1. Moe, Michael and Henry Blodgett. The Knowledge Web. p. 16. Merrill Lynch & Co., Global Securities Research &

Economics Group, Global Fundamental Equity Research Department. 2000.

2. Market Data Retrieval. Technology in Education 1999. Shelton, CN. 1999.

3. For more information, see http://www.thegateway.org

4. bigchalk.com. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 18, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

5. The Children's Partnership. Online Content for Low Income and Underserved Americans: A Strategic Audit of Activities and

Opportunities. 2000. http://www.childrenspartnership.org/pub/low_income/index.html

6. Driscoll, David, Massachusetts Education Commissioner. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission.

September 14, 2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory

7. Ibid.

8. Domenech, Daniel, Fairfax County Public Schools. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. September

14, 2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory For more information, see http://www.fcps.edu/IMS/

9. Rose, Raymond, Concord Consortium. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. June 26, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory. For more information, see http://vhs.concord.org

10. Pennington, Randy, APEX Learning. testimony (for Sally Narodick) to the Web-based Education Commission, June

26, 2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory. For more information see http://www.apex.netu.com

11. Moe and Blodgett. op.cit. endnote 1. p. 172.

12. American Federation of Teachers. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 18, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

13. For more information, see http://www.merlot.org

14. Moe and Blodgett. op.cit. endnote 1. p. 172.

15. United States. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (2000). The Condition of Education

2000, NCES 2000-602. Washington, DC. 2000.

16. Council for Higher Education Accreditation. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. February 2, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory . For more information, see http://www.chea.org/

17. The Institute for Higher Education Policy.. What's the Difference? A Review of Contemporary Research on the Effectiveness of

Distance Learning in Higher Education. Washington, DC. 1999. http://www.ihep.com/PUB.htm

18. Mayadas, Frank, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. September 15,

2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory

19. Institute for Higher Education Policy. Quality on the Line: Benchmarks for Success in Internet-based Distance Education.

Washington, DC. 2000. http://www.ihep.com/PUB.htm

Quality of Content

84
85

The legacy of the one-room schoolhouse is holding

back the potential of the one-world classroom.

The regulations that govern much of education today, from pre-kindergarten to higher education, are focused on supporting the welfare of the educational institution, not the individual learner. They were written for an earlier model, the factory model of education in which

the teacher is the center of all instruction and all learners must advance at the same rate,

despite their varying needs or abilities.

Students in this model are expected to spend 7 years in K-6 schooling, another 6 in secondary schools, 2 years in earning an associate’s degree or 4 for a bachelor’s. Graduate programs

have their own inflexible number of credits, courses, and years at one institution as the

required rite of passage.

Funding follows this progression, and is based on the time a student spends in class (“seat

time”) and the location of that student and that educational program. Estimates for school

construction, educational services, and materials are built on these time-fixed and placebased models of yesterday.

These regulations and requirements no longer match today’s realities.

High school students can take courses offered online, at their own schedule, and complete

them when they pass the appropriate tests. According to some estimates, only 16 percent of

today’s college students meet the old stereotype of attending full-time, enrolling right after

high school, and living on campus.1 Course content comes not just from a textbook or materials passed out in class by the teacher, but from many sources, in many formats, and even

created by the students themselves. Time, institution, and location do not form the defining

elements of education.

If not changed, yesterday’s regulations will inhibit the potential for new learning opportunities for a new generation of students of all ages.

What is needed, in short, is a wholesale rethinking of the regulatory foundations governing our educational institutions. The Internet cannot be ignored in any such effort of regulatory reform.

and e-LearningRegulations 

REMOVING REGULATORY 

RESTRICTIONS TO e-LEARNING

87
Regulation in a Nation of States

In other countries national education ministries set policy. However, our tradition of state

and local control of education, particularly in the elementary and secondary arena, presents

a special challenge in the Internet era.

Each state establishes its own regulatory structure, and therein lies the challenge. The past

physical presence assumed for schooling is no longer a given. Educational content and services at the elementary, secondary, and higher education levels are increasingly delivered across state lines. The regulatory schemes of 56 operational units (states, territories, and Washington, DC) are “dramatically different, ranging from the extremely prescriptive (New

York) to minimal (Delaware) and in isolated cases non-existent (Montana).”2

The PreK-12 Education

Regulatory Environment

The nation’s pre-kindergarten-grade 12 schools face regulation

from the federal and local levels, as well as the states. They are subject to countless administrative procedures implemented in an age that

predated the Web; many of these procedures cannot accommodate the Internet’s agility.

School leaders are increasingly confronted by a desire to innovate but are unable to overcome the timeworn rules that dictate the school day, year, delivery systems, and accounting requirements.

The Commission received testimony on a wide range of specific concerns. Witnesses cited:

Credit policies including the difficulty of transferring and accepting credit across district

and state lines and the problem of aligning curriculum standards from one state to another.

Financing policies involving inflexible state budgeting processes, the inability to redirect

resources to support distance learning on a per student basis, and less than adequate funding

to support the online learning endeavor.

Quality assurance issues that address a need to reform state licensing and approval

processes to better access the educational value of content and courses available online.

Attendance policies that set the number of hours and days in the classroom as defining

measures of achievement alongside other indicators of academic progress.

Teacher certification policies that prohibit the transfer of credentials from state to state,

thereby inhibiting the growth of online delivery of instruction beyond state lines and creating disincentives to develop new online learning models.

preK-12

88
Teacher-student ratio requirements that may not take into account the ability of webbased learning to individualize instruction.

Staff compensation requirements that are formulated around 10-month agrarianmodel contracts.

Accounting procedures that restrict the use of funding to support web-based instruction

based on structural rigidity, rather than academic integrity.

The Postsecondary Education

Regulatory Environment

The amount and type of postsecondary regulatory oversight at both the state and federal levels varies depending upon the type of institution: for-profit institutions (often called “proprietary”) are the most highly regulated, followed by non-profit institutions (“independent”),

and public (state or local) institutions. For the purposes of state law, an out-of-state public

institution is generally treated as an independent or, in some cases, a proprietary institution.

Depending upon where they operate and the kind of programs offered, institutions face a

variety of regulatory requirements. Independent institutions generally are regulated by

regional accrediting agencies while proprietary schools often fall under the purview of other

regulatory bodies. For example, proprietary schools in Texas are regulated by the Texas

Workforce Commission rather than the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.3

Similarly, proprietary schools in California are regulated by the Department of Consumer

Affairs, not the California Department of Education.4

While there are strong reasons for this multifaceted control of education, they often do not

apply in an environment characterized by borderless educational opportunities.

This challenge was recognized in the 1980s when telecommunications technology meant that broadcast and cable television could

be used to deliver “telecourses” across jurisdictional lines. At

that time the State Higher Education Executive Officers

Association and the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation

created Project ALLTEL (Authorization and Licensure of

Learning via Telecommunications). The goal was to create a

national—but not federal—framework for the regulation of

what was that era’s distance learning challenge: a proliferation

of telecourses of varying levels of quality.5 The aim was to set

up a system in which states would accept the review of the

accreditor of the state where the offering institution was located.

The effort failed when states could not agree on a common regulatory

framework.

There are unintended and unanticipated consequences of this complex nest of rules

and regulations:

Regulations and e-Learning

POST

SECONDARY

89
• Some state requirements are mutually exclusive, making it potentially

impossible or impractical to create and adjust web-based programs that meet

varying state requirements.

• A program may be forced to meet the lowest common denominator to

achieve homogeneity requirements.

• Institutions in one state may refuse to accept credentials awarded by institutions in other states.

• Student aid eligibility may be limited for some students involved in technology-mediated learning.

These issues were raised many times by witnesses testifying at our hearings and through eTestimony submissions to the Commission. For instance, some states require no approval

process for establishing online programs; others require a simple letter explaining their program. Yet another was reported to require an institution to provide an all-expense paid visit

to its main location and honoraria to its staff. Fees, reporting requirements, and time required

for approval also varied from immediate permission, to a two-year backlog of applications

followed by a two-year waiting period.6

Beyond these institutional concerns, there are additional barriers for learners. The Internet

now makes it possible for a student to purchase a course from his or her local university

around the corner, or an institution half a world away. But the same course can be priced

very differently. “In-state versus out-of-state tuition rates, non-profit designation, nonprofits spinning out for-profits, and for-profit companies create a web of cost structures

and tuition regulations that prevent students from choosing the curriculum and price that

best meet their needs.”7 This same maze makes it difficult for students to transfer credits

from one institution to another and to create the personalized programs that also best meet

their needs.

The Internet allows for a learner-centered environment, but our legal and regulatory framework has not adjusted to these changes. “Law is by its nature a slow and deliberative process,

and the closer its orbit comes to the development and use of technologies that are changing

rapidly, the more likely its impact will be unintended.”8

Federal Statutory and Regulatory Barriers

The federal government has struggled to establish within statute and regulations a framework

that accommodates the promise of the Internet for postsecondary education while promoting access and ensuring accountability.

The effort has had mixed results.

Three specific federal issues were brought to the Commission’s attention: the “12-hour rule,”

the “50 percent rule,” and the federal prohibition on providing incentive compensation in

Regulations and e-Learning

college admissions.

90
The 12-hour Rule

When Congress amended the Higher Education Act in 1992, it added a specific definition

of an academic year that prescribed at least 30 weeks of instructional time. Full-time undergraduate students in traditional academic programs are expected to complete at least 24

semester hours or trimester hours (or 36 quarter hours, or 900 clock hours) in that time period to be eligible for the maximum amount of financial aid under the Title IV program.

However, the law was silent on establishing an academic workload requirement for students

enrolled in Title IV eligible programs offered in a nontraditional time segment.

To deal with this, the U.S. Department of Education developed regulations to implement the

statutory definition of an academic year, including establishing full-time workload requirements for students enrolled in programs offered in nontraditional time segments. In 1994,

the Department issued formal regulations defining a week of instructional time to mean 12

hours of “regularly scheduled instruction, examinations, or preparation for examination” for

programs that are not offered in standard terms.

The 50 Percent Rule

Likewise, the “50 percent rule” requires Title IV-eligible institutions to offer at least 50 percent of their instruction in a classroom-based environment. The basis of this rule is to

assure that a student is physically participating in an academic course of study for which he

or she is receiving federal student financial assistance. In enacting this provision in the 1992

Higher Education Amendments, Congress sought to address concerns about fraud and

abuse within the correspondence school industry.

While understanding that physical seat time may not be an appropriate measure of quality

for the increasing proliferation of online distance learning programs, the Department views

these two rules as important measures of accountability that should not be eliminated or

replaced unless there is a viable alternative.

In recent months, public, independent, and proprietary colleges

and universities have called for the elimination of the 12-hour

rule and the 50 percent rule or, at minimum, a moratorium on

their enforcement.

These institutions argue that the rules simply don’t make sense in

light of online distance education and the growing use of the

Internet for instructional delivery. As one witness put it: “If we

are to be required to assess educational quality and learning by

virtue of how long a student sits in a seat, we have focused on

the wrong end of the student.”9

Far from creating incentives for students and institutions to

experiment with new distance education methodologies offered

anytime, anyplace, and at any pace, the current student financial

Regulations and e-Learning

91

“If we are to be

required to assess

educational quality

and learning by virtue

of how long a student

sits in a seat, we have

focused on the wrong

end of the student.”

(Laura Palmer Noone, testimony before the Webbased Education Commission, July 19, 2000)
aid regulations discourage innovation. If a student cannot travel to an institution and participate in face-to-face instruction, that student may only qualify for reduced financial aid. The

practical impact is a system of federal student financial assistance that gives substantial preference to the mainstream educational experience.10

In seeking correctly to halt abuse in the student financial aid program, these rules may, in fact,

have the unintended effect of curtailing educational opportunity among thousands who seek

financial aid for college, but who do not otherwise fit into the mainstream definition of a college student. Consider these statistics:

• The span from 1970 to 1993 saw a 235 percent growth in students over age 40.

• Over the same time period, the traditional college student cohort (age 18-24) 

increased by 35 percent.

• Forty percent of these students received financial aid, as opposed to only 17 

percent of undergraduates over the age of 40.11

The U.S. Department of Education is beginning to identify potential alternatives to providing student aid to those enrolled in online programs. In October 2000, it convened dozens of

representatives of traditional and nontraditional postsecondary institutions, higher education

associations, and the student financial aid sector to address alternatives to the 12-hour rule.

The Department’s position has been that a wholesale elimination of these rules would leave

the door wide open for abuse—and the history of the Title IV program has been marked

Regulations and e-Learning

Students over age 40

Traditional student cohort (age 18-24)

1970 1993

300%

200%

100%

0%

GROWTH IN 

NON-TRADITIONAL 

STUDENT POPULATION...

92

235%

35%
with such episodes. Instead, the Department is seeking to identify alternatives to current

regulation, and assess whether or not they may be more appropriate than current seat-time

measures. The Department holds strongly to the belief, however, that rules of some kind

are necessary under any circumstance.

Institutions take a different position. Many question the need for the Department to be

involved on the regulatory side at all since these institutions already are subject to two sets

of quality controls: approval for participation in the Title IV program and accreditation and

licensure. They argue that if the problem is with accrediting agencies that are not organized

to assess quality effectively in an online learning setting, the answer is to reform the accreditation process, not add another enforcement layer upon postsecondary institutions.

The University of Phoenix, among the nation’s oldest distance learning proprietary institutions, offered the following recommendations in support of this view:12

• Rely on the accrediting bodies to make determinations about the quality of

online distance learning programs and encourage that they hold such programs

and providers to the same set of standards that are expected of face-to-face

instruction. No less should be expected from these programs, but indeed no more

should be expected. If there are flaws in the system of accreditation, then the

Department should be directed to review those entities, rather than duplicate the

efforts of accreditation.

• Re-evaluate the criteria for accreditation. By statute, accrediting bodies are

required to evaluate certain elements of an

institution in making accreditation decisions. Most of these factors are inputbased and have little demonstrated relationship to student learning. Accrediting

bodies should be required to focus on outcomes and it is only in this way that any

meaningful evaluation of web-based education can be made.

The Department is hosting several working groups with the higher education community to focus on student aid funding for

online programs, alternative input and

output measures of online quality, and the

role of accreditation in assuring academic

integrity in the Title IV program. A result

could be a statement of the problem and

potential alternatives to be considered by

Congress and/or Department regulators.

Additionally, the Department will analyze

the results of the Distance Education

Demonstration Program authorized by

the Higher Education Act Amendments

Regulations and e-Learning

...HOW MUCH 

FINANCIAL AID 

WAS RECEIVED

Students

Over 

Age 40

Students

Under

Age 40

17%

40%

93
of 1998. This program exempts 15 institutions and consortia of institutions from the different rules and regulations limiting student financial aid for online postsecondary learners.

The goal is to encourage distance education providers to experiment with alternative measurements of online quality and gather data on the success of these alternatives. The results

will be presented to Congress along with any proposed changes the Department recommends in this area.

Ban on Incentive Compensation Plans

In 1992, Congress prohibited colleges and universities that participate in the federal student

financial aid program from paying any commission, bonus, or other incentive payments to

third party entities based directly or indirectly on their success in helping to secure enrollment

of students.

The provision was enacted to protect students against abusive recruiting tactics, although the

law is now being interpreted to apply to the enrollment of students via “Web portals.” These

online “Yellow Pages” are commonly financed through the use of referral fees and tuitionsharing agreements. Although not the original intent, the language of this restriction effectively bars higher education institutions that participate in Title IV from using third-party

Web portals to provide prospective students with access to information about many institutions or provide the same services as institutions offer on their own Web sites—that is,

information and application processing.

Current federal regulations permit an institution to use its own Web site to recruit students.

However, if the institution pays a Web portal to provide the same passive, asynchronous service, and that payment is based on the number of prospective students visiting the site who

ultimately apply or enroll, the institution is at risk of losing its Title IV eligibility. Higher education groups have asked the Department to consider changing regulatory language, reflecting the growing reliance of higher education consumers on Web portals. However, the

Department has concluded that this provision could only be changed through new legislation.

Copyright Protection: Horse and Buggies

on the Information Superhighway

“The primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labour of authors, but [t]o promote the Progress of

Science and useful Arts. To this end, copyright assures authors the right to their original expression, but

encourages others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by a work. This result is neither

unfair nor unfortunate. It is the means by which copyright advances the progress of science and art.”13

“In a digital age, the organization of data and editorial function of summarizing, hyperlinking, and relating diverse sources of data to meet specific ad hoc needs adds value to content, and represents an emerging class

of intellectual capital that goes beyond the concept of ‘derivative works’ or similar earlier classifications . . .

The Internet turns ‘consumption’ of electronic media into a Breeder Reactor scenario for knowledge building.

Effective use of these materials results in additional fuel to power learning in the classroom.”14

94

Regulations and e-Learning
Copyright law serves to balance the legitimate intellectual property rights of authors, publishers, and other copyright owners with society’s right to the free exchange of ideas. The

Copyright Act of 1976 established principles that make it possible for researchers, students, and members of the public to benefit from access to published information. That

access is supported by the concept of “fair use,” the provision to reproduce materials

under certain circumstances.

In the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, Congress requested the U.S. Copyright

Office of the Library of Congress to study the impact that copyright laws might have on

online education. It recognized that changes in copyright law might be necessary to ensure

that fair use of information is equally available to students and researchers in the digital as

well as physical realm.

Congress specifically directed that the law be reviewed “with an eye toward promoting distance education.”15 With input from publishers, higher education, libraries, and other users

and producers, the Copyright Office presented its report, “Copyright and Digital Distance

Education,”16 to Congress in May 1999. The recommendations include clarifying the

meaning of transmission to include digital as well as analog and eliminating the requirement of a physical classroom. Hearings were held on this report, but no legislative action

has been taken.

Copyright remains a major concern to educators, researchers, and librarians as well as publishers, developers, and copyright holders. Current copyright law governing distance education is

over 20 years old and was based on broadcast models of telecourses for distance education.

That law was not established with the virtual classroom in mind, nor does it resolve emerging

issues of multimedia online, or provide a framework for permitting digital transmissions.17

Educators and library representatives maintain that the current pay-per-view business

model used in education bypasses, and

thereby negates, explicit provisions in the

copyright law intended to protect and

encourage educational use of copyrighted

material.18 They maintain that for webbased education to achieve its potential,

students should be able to access remotely

all educational material available to students in a physical classroom, and be able

to do so from any location at any time (e.g.,

from a college student’s dorm room computer on the weekend or from the home of a working adult in the evening).

Educational institutions seek the ability to use copyrighted works in a digital environment

comparable to what the law currently allows in a face-to-face classroom.

This current state of affairs is confusing and frustrating for educators. Many educational

institutions report having difficulty with licensing for digital distance education. Professors

complain about being forced to obtain licenses to use the same works in an online course

that they are allowed to use under fair use provisions in a face-to-face classroom.

Regulations and e-Learning

“The primary objective

of copyright is not to

reward the labour of

authors, but [t]o promote the Progress of

Science and useful Arts.”

(Sandra Day O’Connor, U.S. Supreme Court Justice)

95
After teachers complete the task of determining who the copyright owner is, they often face

delays in locating the owner, obtaining permission, and possibly incurring costs.

The gap between the technology of distance learning and the language of the current copyright statute threatens the element of spontaneity from online instruction that the current

statute affords in the analog world. It may cause online course developers to compromise

their content, and has deterred some educators from entering the world of distance education altogether.

These following examples were offered by the e-Testimony of the American Association of

Community Colleges:19

• A music instructor at Lake Land College in Mattoon, Illinois has the ability

to play songs and other pieces of music in her classroom, but is faced with

the prospect of drafting numerous letters seeking permission from copyright

holders in order to incorporate these works into an online version of the 

same class.

• At Northwest Michigan College in Traverse City, Michigan, a children’s literature instructor routinely displays many illustrations from children’s books

in her traditional class, but when considering an online version of the course

must spend precious time and resources obtaining licenses for each of these

works, or leave illustrations out of altogether.

• Current fair use exemptions allow a professor who comes across a work in

the morning that perfectly illustrates a point to be made in that afternoon’s

lecture to use it for a traditional class. The same professor must wait until

permission is granted to use it in an online version of the class.

The confusion on digital copyright use can be especially frustrating for K-12 educators who

want to demonstrate appropriate copyright use with their students but are limited in the time

and resources they can devote to acquiring rights to materials. Concern about inadvertent

copyright infringement appears, in many school districts, to limit the effective use of the

Internet as an educational tool. Schools are in a position of potential liability if a teacher or

student fails to understand or appropriately apply copyright law and posts material on a

school Web site. “The only way a school can fully protect against financial liability is to take

a totally hands-off role with respect to the Web pages it posts on a school site, which no

school should do.”20

Proposals to amend the Copyright Act and update fair use provisions are opposed by publishers. They correctly point out that the risks of unauthorized dissemination of copyrighted works are greater in an online environment than in a physical classroom, and maintain that

technological safeguards are not yet widely available to prevent unauthorized uses. Without

adequate safeguards the artists, writers, designers, programmers, and educators who create

new works for instruction may not be appropriately compensated for their creativity.

96

Regulations and e-Learning
One representative of the publishing community stated it this way:

“If [publishers] are not adequately compensated,

our society will suffer from their withdrawing their

work for the public sector, a loss to society as a

whole and education in particular...Since no one

is advocating that Congress should enact legislation

eliminating the need to pay for computers, software,

Internet access, faculty salaries, cost of administrative personnel and processes and tuition in connection with online education programs, why

should the costs of course materials—and, therefore, the copyright owners who create and produce

them—stand alone as exempt from payment of

fair market value in a competitive marketplace?”21

The publishing industry is also concerned

that the confusing landscape and consolidation of non-profits and for-profit

providers of educational content make

policy based on public versus private good

difficult, if not impossible, to define.

Rethinking Regulation

We are entering the 21st Century with antiquated regulations of educational policy and inappropriately restrictive copyright laws. It is as if we tried to manage the interstate highway

system with the rules of the horse and buggy era. Although the federal government has a

legitimate role in monitoring how its funds are used and in protecting intellectual property,

it is clear that a radical rethinking of the relevant body of regulation and law is in order.

Otherwise the Internet will remain more a province of auctions and games, than a place for

genuine learning.

Regulations and e-Learning

97

“Providers may occasionally have problems

with copyright...[but]

these...are the by-product of marketplace

‘growing pains’...There

is ample time and reason

to let the flexibility of the

marketplace... work out

continuing copyright

issues... without government mandates.”

(Patricia Schroeder, Association of American Publishers,

testimony to the Web-based Education Commission, 

July 19, 2000)
The virtual university is a reality. Unique in design but traditional in focus, virtual universities offer learners the opportunity to move beyond the barriers of physical space and time by

taking courses online.

The potential of the virtual university is seen in the offerings of companies like UNext.1

Founded in late 1997, UNext is committed to developing and delivering high-quality higher

education to learners around the globe.

It is this idea that led the company to launch Cardean University, an online university that

delivers postsecondary business, executive, and professional

education, and is authorized to offer a Master’s degree in

Business Administration.

UNext and Cardean University have established a consortium of

elite academic institutions including Columbia University, Stanford

University, the University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon University,

and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

UNext is collaborating with faculty members from these institutions as well as other leading scholars and experts to produce a

unique, state-of-the-art educational experience on the Internet.

UNext focuses on “enhanced learning”—a learning platform that

combines the advantages of a traditional university setting, such

as community and collaboration, with the flexibility and responsiveness of online learning. Its approach is driven by one core

idea: that the Internet fosters real learning because it facilitates

collaborative and productive “learning by doing” activities. In this

way, students, who may otherwise be unable to return for a graduate degree or who need continuing education, may enhance their

skills and knowledge, and receive a chance at extending their

learning prospects.

The Concord University School of Law2 provides another online

model, one focusing on legal education. Because of work and

family obligations, financial or geographic constraints, or even

physical disability, many who want to become attorneys find that

their goal is elusive.

Founded in 1998 by Kaplan, Inc., Concord University School of

Law provides legal education to people unable to attend a fixed

facility program. On average, the Concord student is 40 years old.

Nearly a third of students enrolled hold advanced degrees. Many

Concord students live in communities where there is little or no

access to a law school. Others have a law school in the area, but

still choose Concord for the flexibility and convenience of its

wholly online delivery.

LEARNING AT ‘VIRTUAL U’

98
Concord’s curriculum, casebooks, and textbooks are the same as those found at law school

campuses nationwide. Students access the curriculum through their “Personal Homepage,”

which provides an interactive syllabus for each course. Lectures are viewed on the Internet

with students logging on at their convenience 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Although Concord’s virtual law school is only in its third year, the early reports show good

results. The initial 2 groups of Concord students sitting for the First Year Law Student

Examination in California had first-time pass rates ranging from 20 percent to 33 percent

higher than the state average. They scored 80 percent higher than students from other

American Bar Association-approved programs who have been required to take the exam

during the last five years.

A third approach is OnlineLearning.net,3 one of the largest virtual universities in the U.S.

OnlineLearning.net selects prominent university partners and then helps them produce and

market their fully accredited courses and programs to working professionals. The classes are

small in size, interactive, instructor-led, and highly collaborative. In addition, it provides students with an “online concierge” in every course, and has a unique online faculty and instructor development program. More than 90 percent of the students enrolled in courses complete them, with 85 percent rating the courses “as good or better than face-to-face learning.”

The University of Phoenix Online program4 was started in 1989 and has been providing

complete degree programs for working adult students for over a decade. With 1,200 faculty

members, it currently offers 10 accredited degree programs in business, education, information technology, and nursing. Currently over 15,000 students attend class via the online program. While the University’s enrollments have grown at over 22 percent per year, the Online

campus has routinely grown at over 50

percent per year. The popularity of this

program is proof that there is a

demand for alternative delivery modes

in higher education.

Virtual universities are helping learners

connect with a new world of educational opportunities. Through these

and similar programs students around

the world are accessing the best educational resources—anytime, anywhere,

at any stage in life.

1. http://www.unext.com/

2. http://www.concordlawschool.com/

3. http://www.onlinelearning.net/

4. http://www.phoenix.edu/

Regulations and e-Learning

99
ENDNOTES 

1. Teachers College, Columbia University. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. September 21, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

2. Dow, Lohnes & Albertson. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. September 25, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

3. Ibid.

4. Arkatov, Alan. OnlineLearning.net. personal communication. November 24, 2000.

5. Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, op. cit., endnote 2. 

6. Franklin University. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 17, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

7. SMARTHINKING.com. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. July 20, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

8. Downes, L.. “When Worlds Collide.” Industry Standard. p. 238. November 6, 2000.

9. Palmer Noone, Laura, University of Phoenix. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. July 19, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

10. Heeger, Gerald, University of Maryland, University College. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. July

19, 2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory

11. Regents College. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 22, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

12. Palmer Noone, Laura op. cit. endnote 9. 

13. Quote of United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor by Brigham Young University. e-Testimony to

the Web-based Education Commission. August 21, 2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory

14. Consortium for School Networking. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 18, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

15. Brigham Young University. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 21, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

16. For full report, see http://www.loc.gov/copyright/disted

17. International Society for Technology in Education and National School Boards Association. e-Testimony to the Webbased Education Commission. August 16, 2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory

18. American Library Association, et. al.. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 25, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

19. American Association of Community Colleges. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 24,

2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory

20. Willard, Nancy. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 21, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

21. Association of American Publishers. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 16, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

Regulations and e-Learning

100
101

The Internet carries with it danger as well as promise.

Advertising can interfere with the learning process

and take advantage of a captive audience of learners—of all types and ages. Privacy can be endangered when data is collected on users of online materials. Students, especially young children, need protections from harmful or inappropriate intrusions in

their learning environments.

We all have a responsibility to assure that they do not find themselves in the “dark places”

of the World Wide Web.

Online Advertising and

Marketing in Schools

While many consider materials on the Web to

be free, “banner ads” and other forms of

online advertising support much of the material. Some maintain that schools should consider this as a non-intrusive tradeoff for high quality online content. They argue that commercialism is a part of society, has been a part of

the school environment for years, and that students largely ignore product advertisements.2

Yet, where some see corporate support, others

see exploitation.

Critics decry the extension of advertisers into

the school, and their added power in the online

environment. They counter that, if students

are expected to ignore ads, then why are companies spending millions to “capture the eyeballs” of the youth market? Advertisers are

ProtectionPrivacy and

“You’ll look up and

down streets. Look

‘em over with care.

About some you will

say, ‘I don’t choose to

go there.’ 

With your head full of

brains and your shoes

full of feet, 

You’re too smart to go

down any not-so-good

streets.”1

(From OH, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss.

TM & copyright © by Dr. Seuss Enterprises,

L.P. 1990.)

PRIVACY, PROTECTION 

AND "SAFE STREETS"

103
aware that children spend or influence $500 billion worth

of purchases. Children, not their parents, are increasingly the focal point for advertising.4

Some companies have gone further by providing whole

systems to schools, including computer labs, online

access, and software, in return for advertising that appears

when the Internet is accessed from these facilities. The

ZapMe Netspace was one such effort. It offered a 2 x 4

inch banner ad window that presented multimedia ads to

students at all times, with the ads changing every 15 seconds, exposing students to approximately 200 ads in a 50-

minute class period.5

Some schools and districts have gone the opposite direction, banning advertising altogether. In 1998, the

National Association of State Boards of Education developed a set of principles to guide

state boards in the development of policy regarding corporate involvement in schools.6

Among the principles for “positive school-business relationships” were the following:

• Corporate involvement shall not require students to observe, listen to, or read commercial advertising.

• Selling or providing access to a captive audience in the classroom for commercial

purposes is exploitation and a violation of public trust.

Online Profiling

Online profiling is the collection of information from and about an individual as

he or she uses the Internet. This can be accomplished either through the collection of personal data a user provides or through the use of screen name or identifier “cookies” placed on a hard drive by the Web site or third-party delivering ads

to a Web site.7

Many consumers are unaware when they are being profiled or that profiling is in

fact a sophisticated form of personalized marketing. A recent BusinessWeek/Harris Poll found that only 40 percent of those surveyed had even heard of

cookies, and only 75 percent of those who had knew what they were.8

This lack of understanding is a special concern for students and young children, unsophisticated as they are in the importance of protecting information privacy. Children,

and even teenagers (currently not covered by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection

Act—COPPA), may not have yet developed the sophisticated skills to understand why they

should not provide information to others online.

A recent study by the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that, although young people

Privacy and Protection

“We look for

education to

become the

‘stealth’ portal

to over 65 

million students

and their 50 

million parents.”

(Thomas Weisel Partners, in “.com

Meets .edu.”)3

YOUTHS

104
expressed concerns about protecting privacy and information that may be collected about

them on Web sites, when offered a free gift in exchange for personal or family information,

many more children than parents were willing to provide this information.9

Young People and the “Dark Streets”

A more direct threat is children’s exposure to violence, pornography, and predators on the

Web. A recent study entitled Online Victimization: A Report on the Nation’s Youth,10 conducted interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,500 youths ages 10-17 who

use the Internet. The study found that large numbers of youths are encountering offensive

experiences on the Internet. Twenty percent were sexually solicited. Six percent were

harassed. The offenses and offenders are diverse, not just men trolling for sex. Much of

the offending behavior comes from other youth, and some from women. Teenagers are the

primary targets, creating a different sort of challenge than would be the case if younger

children, over whom parents have more control, were the primary targets. Although most

solicitations fail, the sheer numbers are alarming. Several

million young people, ages 10 to 17, are sexually

propositioned on the Internet every year.

Furthermore, sexual material is

intrusive on the Internet. One in

4 youths surveyed had an

unwanted exposure to pictures that included nudity

or even more graphic

sexual scenes.

Although all these

offenses are troubling, most youths

do not tell parents, teachers, or

even their friends

about them.

Even when parents are aware of

the offenses,

they, like their

children, do not

know where to

report them.

The authors of the

study emphasize that

Internet friendships

between teens and adults

are not uncommon and are

generally benign. In fact, the

opportunity for people of all ages

Privacy and Protection

NUMBERS OF YOUTHS

ENCOUNTERING 

OFFENSIVE EXPERIENCES

ON THE INTERNET

One in five 

were sexually

solicited

One in four 

were exposed 

to unwanted 

sexual material

105
to congregate and chat online about common interests is one of the great strengths of the

Internet, and one of the reasons it can be so useful for young people as they reach out to

individuals who can be positive role models and mentors. The authors also state: “We need

to learn more about the signs and symptoms of potentially exploitative adult-youth relationships, not just on the Internet, but in face-to-face relationships too.”11

The study makes another important point: that the Internet is far from the only, or the greatest, threat to young people in our society.

Among respondents in the study, 30 percent had been attacked in real life by other youths in

the last year. Other studies on school violence make it clear that child victimization in the

online world is dwarfed by what they experience in the real world. Wherever such threats

occur, society must work to address the many “not so nice streets” that can lead to the victimization of America’s youth.

Potential Solutions

Protection comes in many forms and levels of control ranging from legislation to voluntary

acceptable-use policies, to technical solutions like filters, monitoring systems, and portals, to

consumer empowerment systems like ratings and consumer and learner education. No one

“solution” is perfect—each has benefits, each has limitations. Their potential utility depends

on personal and community preferences as well as the setting (home, preK-12 education

provider, library, higher education, or training environment).

Legislation has been one response. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

went into effect April 2000. It regulates the collection of personal information from children

under the age of 13. It requires commercial Web sites targeted at children under 13 to secure

parental permission before collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children. These sites must also post a privacy policy detailing what personal information is being

collected, how it is to be used, and if it will be given to third parties. While most witnesses

who testified before the Commission support the underlying intent of COPPA, several concerns were raised:

• COPPA does not cover teens, an especially vulnerable group for online victimization as noted above. Teens are also major targets for online profiling

and marketing.12

• Current “opt-in” requirements for “verifiable parental consent” may unduly

restrict children’s access to valuable online educational resources in schools.

One witness expressed the concern that if “a single child fails to obtain

parental consent, this could compromise or preclude an entire class from

using an online learning program.”13

• COPPA’s administrative and record-keeping burdens for schools are substantial and may be enough to discourage full usage of the Internet. The

National School Boards Association and American Association of School

Administrators predict “the drastic increase of schools’ administrative

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106
responsibilities prior to engaging their students in online activity would have

a ‘chilling’ effect on the positive, productive collaborations of educational

businesses and schools.”14

• Of equal concern is the dampening effect COPPA requirements could have

on innovative uses of the Internet for delivering personalized content and

assessment materials. The regular collection of student data is necessary

for these systems to function.15 One proposal suggested throughout the

Commission’s hearings would allow parents of young children to “opt-out”

of their child’s participation in an online activity or service.

Filtering or blocking software (also known as “firewalls”) is an approach advocated by many.

Legislation has been proposed that would prevent schools from receiving E-rate funding for

discounted Internet use unless they filter Web content. Witnesses voiced concern with this

approach for both practical and philosophical reasons. On the practical side, filters are not

foolproof. Often unwanted material gets through.

Other times valid content may be screened out inappropriately (e.g., students doing research

on breast cancer found that their filter does not accept sites containing the word “breast”).

Filters can create a false sense of security, and have been called ill-advised solutions since

Internet sites can appear, shift, and relocate overnight.16

One-third of the families surveyed in the online victimization study report that they currently use filters. However, 5 percent say they have stopped using them, suggesting some

level of dissatisfaction.17

There is also the philosophical concern about filters in public institutions like libraries, raising freedom of information issues.

One witness suggested that purveyors of objectionable material could be required to check

a database of those who opt out of receiving this material (like those who opt out of receiving telephone or mail advertising or other solicitations). Those who receive objectionable

material online against their stated wishes could then have legal recourse.18

Monitoring systems are software solutions that provide a record of the sites a person has visited on the Internet. Most browsers keep at least a short-term record, and more complex

monitoring systems can collect past visits by viewer. This is a relatively simple, low-cost solution for parents and schools, who can link accountability with education efforts and attach

consequences for inappropriate or unauthorized activity.

Approximately three-fifths of households surveyed in the online victimization study reported that parents or guardians checked the computer history function to see where their children had been travelling on the Internet. Obviously, monitoring systems are only as good as

the amount of attention they are given by those supervising students’ Internet use.

Ratings systems put the power of choice back on the user, school, parent, or other authority

figure supervising students’ use of the Internet. Like ratings for movies, television, software,

and now video games and music, the rationale is to give the consumer a choice. The Internet

Content Rating Association (ICRA) is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes

Privacy and Protection

107
Privacy and Protection

108

PROTECTING THE STUDENT ON THE INTERNET · Ease of use. · Automatically block material that

has been identified as unacceptable.

· Many allow authorized users to

override default lists or add

approved sites.

Monitoring

Systems

Monitoring systems keep a record of which

sites have been accessed, how much time is

spent on them, and to whom e-mail messages

have been sent.

Limits the amount of time students are online,

or the specific times of day it is possible to go

online.

Search engines designed to locate only information approved for children.

Recreational Software Advisory Council on the

Internet, managed by the Internet Content

Rating Association, provides consumers

information about the level of sex, nudity,

violence, and offensive language in Web sites.

APPROACH TO

PROTECTING

STUDENTS

DESCRIPTION ADVANTAGES

Ratings

Systems

Timemonitoring

Systems

Kid Search

Engines

Although they differ in form, all filters allow

access to a restricted collection of Web sites.

Access may be either provided to approved

sites or blocked to sites that are considered

off-limits.

Filters,

Firewalls, and

Blocking

Software

· Provides useful information for 

parents and schools.

· More appropriate for home use.

· Schools and parents can respond if

students are spending too much 

time off-task or accessing 

inappropriate sites.

· Can provide commercial free zones. · Often includes filters and blocking

systems.

Closed collections of Web sites that have been

pre-selected. This approach is analogous to a

playpen where the occupant can play with

anything inside, but not access anything

outside.

Portals/

Greenspaces

· Security to let students explore 

the approved space.

· Content quality control for 

educational purposes.

Contracts signed by students and parents setting guidelines for use of the Internet.

Schools, libraries, and community centers

often create their own policies based on their

local contexts.

Acceptable

Use and

Privacy

Statements

· A local solution.

Courses and informal training in how to be a

responsible, safe "Netcitizen"

Education of

Students,

Parents,

Teachers,

Administrators

· Long-term empowerment. · Necessary to impact out-of-school

online access.

· Opportunity to provide important

moral and character-building lessons 

on respect, nondiscrimination,

social and academic responsibility.
Privacy and Protection

109

(NOTE: MANY OF THE FOLLOWING ITEMS ARE USED IN TANDEM, OR OVERLAP EACH OTHER. THERE IS A DISTINCTION

BETWEEN PROTECTING STUDENTS FROM INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT AND PROTECTING STUDENTS FROM PRIVACY VIOLATIONS. THIS CHART ADDRESSES INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT, ALTHOUGH SOME SOLUTIONS ADDRESS BOTH ISSUES) · False sense of security. · May exclude valid sites with critical information. · Restricts freedom of speech. · Server-based filters are not easily, if at all, modifiable. · Lack of clarity regarding criteria for filtered sites.

Internet Watch Dog

http://www.charlesriver.com/WD.html/

FamilyCAM

www.silverstone.net

CYBERsitter

http://www.cybersitter.com

ZeekSafe

http://www.zeeks.com

SMARTPARENT.COM

http://www.smartparent.com

· Many parents found to ignore ratings. · Not well developed. · Sites are self-rated. · Perceived infringement on free-speech rights. · Few incentives for sites to rate themselves.

Internet Content Rating Association

http://www.icra.org

ConnectLink

http://www.cloh.net

Smart Guardian for Public Libraries and Schools

http://www.smartguardian.com

Yahooligans

http://www.yahooligans.com

Ask Jeeves

http://www.askjeeves.com

DISADVANTAGES EXAMPLES

· Concerns with violation of privacy rights. · Similar problems as with filters above. · No local control/override option.

ALFY: The Web Portal for Kids

http://www.lightspan.com

Blue Web'n

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/bluewebn

· May block access to necessary sites. · Criteria for site inclusion determined by portal

creators.

Nancy Willard, Information Technology Consultant

Eugene, Oregon

http://ion.erehwon.com/k12aup/

Hazleton Area School District in Pennsylvania

http://hinet1.hasd.k12.pa.us/aup.shtml

· Difficult to enforce and monitor.

Bertelsmann Foundation

http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/english/

projekte/bereiche/index.htm

Media Workshop NY

http://www.mediaworkshop.org

The Children's Partnership

http://www.childrenspartnership.org

Internet Education Foundation

http://www.getnetwise.org

· Unwanted exposure to "dark places" may still occur.

· Only addresses one aspect of issue.
a voluntary content-based ratings system built around Web operators’ responses to questions

about violence, nudity, sex, and offensive language.19

The value of ICRA ratings has been debated, especially as the self-assessment aspect of the

system may not correspond with judgments a parent or teacher might make regarding the

level of intensity of questionable content. Furthermore, as Web sites change rapidly, keeping a rating system up to date is nearly impossible.

Portals offer a gateway to pre-selected, screened sites around a particular area of interest.

They often combine the features of a firewall and a ratings system by assuring that offensive

materials or those inappropriate for children will not be included. Portals provide a way for

parents and educators to guide students not only to sites that have been deemed of value, but

also to those that do not present negative online experiences.

Acceptable use policies and education are solutions supported by all witnesses before the

Commission. Educators, parents, and those who work with young people need to be aware

of the dangers the Internet can pose to the privacy and safety of all users. Families need to

know about various strategies and tools they can use to guide and protect themselves.

Communities—including schools and libraries—must develop standards for what they consider appropriate monitoring of Internet usage for various age groups. These communities

of users, from community to classroom to family, must develop and abide by acceptable use

policies they feel comfortable with, along with appropriate sanctions for irresponsible behavior. Educators and parents must teach young people what it means to be safe and responsible online citizens.20

Learning that there are dark streets on the Web and in real life is a necessary lesson in the

education of today’s modern student. Regrettable as is it may be, this lesson is an integral

part of becoming a learner in today’s society.

110

Privacy and Protection
Neme Alperstein, a fifth grade teacher at Harry

Eichler School in Richmond Hill, Queens, has

a gift for teaching on the Web like Garrison

Keeler has a gift for story telling. She is a master. She already had her fifth graders going

online for Stock Market Games and corresponding with NASA sites when a friend told her

that ThinkQuest,1 an international organization

encouraging student learning through technology, had opened a junior competition.

Alperstein immediately went online to check

out this rumor and discovered that there was

exactly half an hour left to register and file for

the 1999 junior competition. Knowing what

this could mean for her students, and what they could do, she filed. The race was on.

Harry Eichler (Public School 56 in New York City) is a school long on challenges (it must

educate students from more than 35 countries) and short on resources (it has no library, only

a rolling cart of books).

Part of the compelling draw of ThinkQuest for students and teachers alike is that kids form

their own teams for the competition, and can choose any topic they wish as the basis for participating. Motivation comes from pursuing what truly interests them. Fifth grade student

Madeline Gesslein wanted to lead a team. She was about to get orthodontic braces and

thought others kids would like to know about this daunting procedure. Alperstein’s son was

also about to have oral surgery, and she realized the kids could learn about medicine and

health on the project. These opportunities and interests gave birth to, “Yo, It’s Time for

Braces,”2 a ThinkQuest Junior platinum winner in the sports and health category for 1999,

and a finalist (with the Mayo Clinic) for the Global International Infrastructure (GII) Award.

The Web site is now a worldwide resource for children who must get braces, one that greets

children with this opening banner:

“Warning: This site contains a great many teeth.”

The site offers three major pages: Deciding to Get Braces, What Happens at the

Orthodontist’s Office, and Living with Braces. The students interviewed an oral surgeon

and surveyed fourteen orthodontists. Madeline, the team captain, chose her friends Svetlana

and Val as her principal colleagues. Alperstein encouraged students with different kinds of

skills to participate. Svetlana translated five of these surveys, as well as a “Picture Glossary”

into Russian.

On the site there is a cartoon drawn by the team members called “Sandy Gets Braces.”

Madeline’s Journal, about her experiences with braces, includes original artwork. There is a

page about celebrities who had braces. Visitors are encouraged to write about their own

“YO, IT’S TIME FOR BRACES”

Privacy and Protection

111
experiences in the guest book. “We think that if kids know more about braces, then they

won’t be afraid of them,” say Madeline and her friends.

Because the site is carried on the ThinkQuest server, kids from around the world continue to click in to learn about braces and leave letters sharing their own experiences in the

guest book.

But the story doesn’t end there. After Alperstein’s class won its ThinkQuest award, the students had another idea. One student had bought a Pokemon card that turned out to be a

fake. The class decided it was important to learn more about copyright issues. Students

worked with webmasters at several government agencies, including the Patent and Trademark

Office’s special Kid’s Page, the staff at the National Digital Library, and the Art Museum

Image Consortium. They launched “Art Rights,”3 their newest Web site containing among

the most sophisticated information available on copyright and the Internet—written by and

for kids.

“These are 10-year-olds,” Neme Alperstein says. “They do things I don’t know how to do—

my main directive is ‘make it work.’ They work intuitively; they find a way. We are not into

failure.” She also observes that “The kids have no fear, they don’t know that 10-year-old kids

don’t usually get responses from adults.”

Despite the challenges of their educational surroundings, these kids—and their teacher—are

real winners.

1. http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org

2. http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/5029/

3. http://library.thinkquest.org/J001570/

Privacy and Protection

112

Privacy and Protection
ENDNOTES

1. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.

2. Consumers Union. Captive Kids: A Report on Commercial Pressures on Kids at School. 1995.

http://www.consumersunion.org/other/captivekids

3. Gray, R. Keith, Fred McCrea, and Russell Bacon. e-Education: “.com Meets .edu.” A White Paper on the Internet and

Education. Thomas Weisel Partners. 1999. http://www.tweisel.com

4. National Institute on Media and the Family. Children and Advertising Fact Sheet.

http://www.mediafamily.org/research/fact/childadv.shtml

5. Willard, Nancy. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 21, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

6. Ibid.

7. United States. Federal Trade Commission. Online Profiling: A Federal Trade Commission Report to Congress.

http://www.ftc.gov/os/2000/06/index.htm#13

8. Business Week Online. Business Week/Harris Poll: A Growing Threat. March 20, 2000.

9. Turow, Joseph and Lilach Nir. The Internet and the Family 2000. Annenberg Center for Public Policy of the University

of Pennsylvania. 2000. http://www.appcpenn.org/finalrepor_fam.pdf

10. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Online Victimization: A Report on the Nation's Youth. 2000.

http://www.ncmec.org/download/nc62.pdf

11. Ibid p. 35.

12. Aidman, Amy, Center for Media Education. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. September 14,

2000. http://www.webcommission.org/directory. See also Aidman, Amy. “Children's Online Privacy” Educational

Leadership. October 2000. http://www.cme.org/children/privacy/amy_comments.html

13. Christie, Robert S., Thomson Learning. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. September 14, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

14. Association of American Publishers. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 16, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

15. Ibid.

16. SAS in School. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 19, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

17. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 2000. op cit. endnote 10.

18. NetSchools Corporation. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 24, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

19. For more information, see http://www.icra.org

20. For related information, see http://stiftung.bertlesmann.de/english/projekte/bereiche/index.htm

Privacy and Protection

113

115

Technology is expensive, and web-based learning is

no exception. Technology expenditures do not

end with the wiring of a school or campus, the purchase of computers, or the establishment of a local

area network.

They represent just the beginning.

We must therefore respond to these realities by addressing head-on how best to finance technology-based, student-centered learning environments that will enable success in the digital era.

Total Cost of

Ownership

In some ways, school Internet capital expenses

are equivalent to the expenditures a district

makes in purchasing a fleet of school buses.

After the initial cost of the purchase, the

school buses require fuel, maintenance, trained

drivers, parking lots to house them, insurance,

and upgrades to keep the fleet current.

It is the same with technology. The continuing

operational costs of maintaining and using the

technology dwarf initial purchase and installation costs. These costs include: payments to

utility and Internet service providers; technical

support; instructional content; renovations to

the physical plant; trained educators and

administrators; and upgrades as newer equipment comes on line.

Too often educational institutions have

focused on startup costs without planning for

the substantial and continuing costs of operaFunding

FUNDING FOR e-LEARNING: 

A CONTINUING CHALLENGE 
tion. When this occurs, technology, like unused buses, is relegated to the “garage” and has

little value to anyone.

Schools and colleges are beginning to adopt “total cost of ownership” (TCO) models that

have been used for years by the business community.1 This approach breaks down into component parts each of the expenses involved in using technology so they can be more clearly

analyzed. For example, Quality Education Data (QED) reports that K-12 schools spent an

average of $122 per student on technology support during the 1998-99 school year. QED

broke down the average TCO in the figure shown on the following page.2

Local Budgets Vary, but

Patterns are Consistent

The amount that K-12 districts spend on school technology and Internet access varies. A

1998 survey3 of 29 large urban school districts found that technology budgets ranged from

$22 per student to $584 per student. The average hovered in the $120 to $130 range per student. Most financing models indicate that the initial costs of hardware purchases and installation, along with retrofitting of old buildings to support an upgraded infrastructure, represent the bulk of costs when amortized over five years. It is assumed that costs then shift to

non-capital, or operating expenses. But in reality, K-12 technology expenditures skew heavily on the side of hardware. A survey of 400 district and school level officials found that

schools were spending 55 percent of total costs on hardware, 16 percent on networking, 9

percent on software, and only 6 percent on training, with another 6 percent on service and

support, 5 percent on supplies, and 1 percent on online services.4

What seems clear is that schools are under-investing in the personnel and support needed to

make their technology investments most useful. In some ways this is a result of the way

technology is funded in schools and colleges. Technology startup costs have often been

funded with capital dollars raised by bond issues and special grants that may be easier to

raise than the continuing operating funds required for ongoing costs. Yet it is these continuing service and personnel costs that are often most critical to technology integration in an

educational environment.

Patterns of Education Funding

Education for America’s elementary and secondary schools is primarily the responsibility of

states and localities. The funding follows this pattern.

States provide approximately 44 percent and localities close to 40 percent of the nation’s

expenditures for elementary and secondary education, while foundations, in-kind activities

and others sources provide 10.2 percent of funding. The federal government currently contributes only 6.1 percent of all elementary and secondary education funds.5

Funding

116
The federal share of education funding overall has declined, from 13.9 percent in fiscal 1980

to 6.1 percent in fiscal 1998. This declining federal funding share is also true for higher education, where the federal share was 18 percent in fiscal 1980 and dropped to 12.1 percent in

fiscal 1998.6

Nonetheless, there are areas where federal dollars have a major impact.

The federal government has made a large-scale investment in the future through its support

of technology at the K-12 level. Estimates place the current federal share of education technology investment at about $1.5 billion, or between 20 percent7 and 35 percent8 of all elementary and secondary technology outlays.

117

Funding

TOTAL COST OF

OWNERSHIP (TCO)

computers

networks

software

supplies

peripherals

Internet 

service

training

service 

and 

support

miscellaneous
Federal Funding for Technology—

Targeted and General9

The $1.5 billion federal funding for education technology comes from

both targeted programs for technology as well as via core or “traditional” federal programs. In the former category of direct

education technology programs are the Technology

Literacy Challenge Fund funded at $425 million in fiscal 2000 as well as the Technology Innovation

Challenge Grant program for stimulating technology-supported high performance learning environments, funded at $146 million in fiscal 2000.

Other specialized technology programs

include:

• Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers

to Use Technology (PT3)—funded

at $75 million in fiscal 2000

• Community-based Technology 

Programs—$32.5 million

• Stars School Program—$50.5 million

• Learning Anytime, Anywhere

Partnerships—$23.3 million

• Technology and Media Services—

$36 million 

• Assistive Technology for the disabled learner—$34 million

An even greater portion of federal education technology funding support comes through

core federal programs which have made school hardware and software acquisition, as well

as staff development for technology, a greater priority in recent years.

These include:

• Title I grants for basic and advanced skills—Approximately $500 million of

this $8 billion annual program is used by schools to support technology

investment. Title I provides almost a third of all software and hardware used

in basic skills instruction in schools.

118

Funding

FEDERAL SHARE OF

EXPENDITURES ON

TECHNOLOGY AT 

THE K-12 LEVEL 

Approx. 

$7 billion 

Overall

Approx. 

$1.5 billion from 

federal sources

(excluding 

E-rate 

discount)
• Title VI Innovative Education Strategies—Approximately $125 million to

$150 million a year is spent on upgrading technology in schools.

• Title II Eisenhower Professional Development—With total funding in fiscal

2000 of $335 million, this program places a priority on teacher training with

technology, and allows low-income schools to use all Eisenhower funds for

hardware and software purchases.

• Goals 2000 Educate America Act—Fiscal 2000 funding is $491 million. A

large portion of these funds is spent by states and school districts on 

technology planning.

• Vocational and Adult Education—School districts use approximately $250

million for technological capacity building.

In addition to the federal investment in education technology, states and school districts contribute another $5.4 billion for instructional technology via a myriad of district-wide programs and competitive grants.10

Telecommunications Funding: Intersecting

State and Federal Responsibility

Missing from these amounts, however, is funding for telecommunications access made possible through the E-rate program.

Enacted as a part of the Universal Service Program of the Telecommunications Act of 1996,

the E-rate program provides discounts to public and private schools, libraries, and consortia

on the costs of telecommunications services, internal access, and internal networking. In the

program’s first two years, tens of thousands of public and private elementary and secondary

schools, and thousands more libraries received a total of $3.66 billion in discounts on connectivity and telecommunications services.11 In the Spring of 2000, the Federal

Communications Commission announced that the third year of the program would be funded at $2.25 billion, the maximum allowed, based on requests submitted by schools and

libraries around the country.

Telecommunications and education policy present an intersection of state and federal

responsibility. The federal telecommunications funding mechanism that provides universal

service offers a basic level of service to individuals regardless of where they live. This subsidy is in effect an “equal opportunity access guarantee” that applies equally to individuals

wherever they live.

The E-rate sits at the intersection of this juncture, as it was developed on the belief that the

Internet should provide a place where all learners can find information and opportunities for

anytime, anyplace learning. The funding subsidy it provides is leveling the Internet playing

field for education.

119

Funding
Technology Investments Can Lead to

Economies of Scale and Real Productivity Gains

In this new environment, two things are clear: funding must be sustained, and new approaches must be considered. Old models do not meet new realities. It makes little sense to use 30-

year bonds to purchase equipment that should be replaced in 3 years.

Schools should examine how technology costs in one area can be offset by efficiencies in

other areas. The productivity gains found in business through investments in technology

took 3 decades to emerge. Today these investments are considered a foundation of the U.S.

economy, accounting for a third of our growth.12

Similar growth in educational productivity might be derived through technology, but only if

other changes are adopted that support more productive educational environments.

Streamlining administrative procedures is an obvious example. Web-based test administration could bring significant cost savings in assessment expenditures.13 Likewise, savings in

textbook and instructional materials budgets may be achieved if the licensing, distribution,

and updating of these are made less expensive online. Teacher training online may be a more

efficient use of time and resources than paying for substitutes when teachers are pulled away

from their classrooms.

But if technology is used

as an add-on to existing

activities, rather than as a

means to reshape education, then it will simply

add to the total cost of

operations and few savings will be realized.

Business has learned that

productivity gains and

cost savings come only

when old ways of doing

business are abandoned

and technological solutions replace them. For example, when universities can reach students through online courses, they can reevaluate their budgets for building more “bricks and mortar” campuses.

There is nothing magical about traditional classroom practice. Educationally, students require

a mix of pedagogical support, guidance, and supervision, which can be provided in a myriad

of ways. The U.S. classroom is a 150 year-old, relatively low-cost technology, worn out by

time and changed conditions for meeting these requirements.14

Perhaps the much sought after Internet “killer” application for education is not an application at all, but the potential for reorganizing education and for connecting communities of

students, teachers, parents, and highly qualified volunteer experts.15

120

Funding

“The U.S. classroom is a 150

year-old, relatively low-cost

technology, worn out by time

and changed conditions for

meeting these requirements.”

(e-Testimony, Arthur Melmud, August 21, 2000)
While we do not suggest replacing the classroom teacher with technology, we should consider how we could do more with the teachers we have. Investing in the development and

support of skilled teachers, and supplementing the expertise of a given teacher with the distributed expertise of the broader education community, offers great promise. The possibility of making “the best and the brightest” of the teaching profession available to learners in

places where accidents of geography and economics have led to lower quality educational

experiences suggests that the Internet can impact the economics of education in ways we

have only just begun to imagine.

A number of witnesses16 offered a range of funding model proposals that might address the

continuing technology requirements of the education sector. These suggestions fall into the

following categories:

• Tax incentives to encourage educational investments in areas of high cost

and high need

• User taxes on corporate technology purchases

• Public and private partnerships in building and renovating schools to provide high tech centers an entire community can use during non-school

hours, supported through user fees

• Increased federal and state appropriations for technology and web-based

learning opportunities

• A learning technology trust fund that could combine these models to help

sustain long-term school technology investment momentum

Good Education is Good Business

Business should play a much larger role in helping schools make technology support their

educational needs. Business depends upon the graduates of our nation’s educational system.

We should not have to rely so strongly on annual increases in the number of visas granted

to highly skilled technology workers to supply the U.S. workforce. All businesses—not just

high tech companies—have a substantial stake in this area. Banks and retailers, food and

beverage companies, and clothing manufacturers all need employees with greater technical

capabilities than our schools are currently providing to fill the high-skilled jobs necessary in

today’s economy. Isolated donations of hardware or software, while potentially helpful, are

simply not enough.

Aggregating the e-learning Market17

Content, equipment, and services costs associated with web-based technologies can be

brought down in several ways. Aggregated purchasing would enable suppliers to lower their

per unit prices. Many states already purchase technology by aggregating demand, and some

state and district education systems are joining in. (See, for example, the Digital Dakota network

121

Funding
Funding

122

described earlier in this report.) But more could be done to capture potential economies of

scale throughout the education sector.

The development of standardized education technology packages (e.g., hardware, software,

training, service support, online content, and Internet services) helps build significant volume

to purchases. By making these packages modular and scalable, schools could select appropriate technology and network components at the lowest cost and most effective price point.

Other costs include time spent in planning, installing, managing, and upgrading systems.

Some institutions have found that hardware, software, and services integrated into packages

suitable for different needs and circumstances takes much of the complexity out of planning

multimedia network computing installations. Remote management of local school networks

can ultimately remove the need for expensive onsite technical personnel, as well as provide

higher quality service.

The use of existing internationally recognized standards such as Internet protocols, and the

development of additional standards, have the potential of creating packages with enormous

market demand, attracting suppliers to the education market, and promoting competition in

price and capabilities. This type of standardization, quite common in other areas served by

technology, could help lower prices and improve performance in education as well.

The development of an efficient network architecture can also help build economies of

scale. Designing multi-user/use platforms means that more value can be obtained from

hardware and service configurations. Careful network and communications backbone architecture is critical to lowering communications costs. The backbone architecture issues go

beyond the design and management capabilities of any school district, but collaborations

could be as cost-effective for education as such networks are in other areas. State networks

that are in place and ready to link to the Internet2 backbone could offer the most technology access for the dollar.

Meeting the Challenge

In many cases, the use of networked computing will enable schools to significantly revamp

and modernize their educational programs. Opportunities to expand individualized learning,

provide access to a much broader and richer set of educational materials and human

resources, and promote “learning-to-learn” skills will often require changes in how our educational institutions are organized and funded. If schools and universities are to be held

accountable for improving educational outcomes based on the investments made using technology, they will need help from government, business, and public sector partners at all levels.

There are no technical reasons why we cannot make the benefits of web-based education

available to everyone; it is simply a matter of our will. The choices we make in terms of

organizing and funding will determine who benefits and how quickly. As a nation, we must

set goals of making web-based education networks quickly and universally available, affordable, practical, and effective in improving educational outcomes.
Funding

123

Maria Martinez, Deysi Salazar, and

Anabel Salazar, 16-year-old cousins,

worked last summer thinning and hoeing sugar beets in Sidney, Montana.

After the work was finished in Montana,

they and their families headed to

Kittitas, Washington, where they harvested potatoes until mid-November.

Sidney and Kittitas are a long way from

Del Rio and Eagle Pass, Texas, where

the girls are enrolled in school. And the

grind of working in the fields from 6

a.m. to 4 p.m. is a long way from the

summer and daily school activities of

many of their classmates.

Still, against all odds, Maria, Deysi, and Anabel expect to graduate from high school, and to

have a life that is vastly different from that of their parents.

They have this chance because they can work toward high school diplomas on laptop computers provided by ★ESTRELLA,1 an ambitious effort that unites the power of the Internet,

the commitment of educators and parents, and the desire of students to reach academic goals

while contributing to their family as workers. (Estrella is the Spanish word for star. The

acronym stands for Encourage Students Through Technology to Reach High Expectations

in Learning, Lifeskills, and Achievement.)

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Migrant Education and strengthened by a strong network of collaborating partners, ★ESTRELLA is focused on expanding

opportunities for migrant students. “The purpose is to get kids graduated,” says Robert

Lynch, coordinator for the New York State component of the project. By the end of the

1999-2000 school year, 90 students had completed 148 courses and earned credit, and 17 had

graduated. An additional 11 graduates are anticipated by summer of 2001. The overall

dropout rate for kids in migrant families is over 50 percent in traditional school programs.

Students in the project are enrolled in a Texas high school or middle school and travel with

their families to one of the three “receiving” states: Illinois, Montana, or New York

(Minnesota is being added this year). Students sign a contract to devote at least 7 hours a

week to their classes. Their parents commit to support the students and to try to create an

environment conducive to studying. Because traveling families live in crowded and ramshackle housing, usually in migrant camps, finding a good place to study is not easy. Project

staff members help kids find locations to connect their laptops, perhaps a school or library,

or sometimes a phone line in their camp.

With the laptops, students are able to access courses from the Texas High School curriculum,

available through NovaNET. All NovaNET work is monitored via modem by the project

A CLASSROOM THAT KEEPS UP 

WITH MIGRANT KIDS
Interstate Student Coordinator and NovaNET lab teachers. The system tracks each student’s

work and maintains data on lessons attempted and completed, as well as assessments taken.

Satisfactory course completion means credit for each student in their home-base school

district. Prior to graduation, each student also must pass the Texas Assessment of

Academic Skills (TAAS). The TAAS preparation and practice tests are also available on the

NovaNET system.

An Internet connection and an individual Yahoo account enable students to e-mail teachers,

mentors, friends, and the ★ESTRELLA Interstate Student Coordinator. They can also visit

many Internet learning sites. The laptops have become the focal point of many families, giving the older children a way to earn credit, younger children exposure to technology in their

home, and parents a way to learn English, acquire basic skills, and study for general education diplomas.

Educators and migrant worker support staff in each state provide support and encouragement for students participating in ★ESTRELLA. Additionally, “cyber mentors,” college students enrolled at the University of Texas-Pan American, provide encouragement and guidance about entering college. Cyber mentors come from a background much like the ★ESTRELLA students they work with. They also serve as role models, offering reminders about

the importance of completing course work and passing on tips about planning ahead.

Cyber mentors share their own experience of leaving the extended family for the first time and

taking the big step to higher education. One weekend each year, ★ESTRELLA students

travel to the university campus to meet their cyber mentors in person and experience the

world of college life.

In addition to NovaNET, ★ESTRELLA has a private-sector partnership with the Polaroid

Education Program, which has developed a Visual Learning program. Students use both

instant and digital cameras, learn to define and refine images, and then use the images as a

basis for improving language and communication skills. Students contribute to a newsletter,

strengthening their language capability and sharing experiences.

★ESTRELLA’s annual budget is $400,000. The level of investment has been criticized by

some, questioning the dollars spent on technology versus increased instruction by teachers.

The project leaders, all veteran migrant educators, refute this criticism. True, technology is

the link, but most of the budget goes towards assuring that children receive considerable oneon-one support, including work with their parents. “It costs money, but it changes their

lives,” says Angela Branz-Spall, Montana Director of Migrant Education. “We decided to

make a real difference, one child at a time.”

Brenda Pessin, Project Director, has seen this project work for migrant children and is committed to the vastly expanded opportunities it creates for them. “Maria, Deysi, and Anabel,

and the other ★ESTRELLA students are stars in the eyes of the project,” she says. “More

importantly, they are stars in their own eyes.”

1. http:/www.estrella.org/

Funding

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125

ENDNOTES

1. Consortium for School Networking. Taking TCO to the Classroom: A School Administrators Guide to Planning or the Total Cost

of New Technology. Washington, D.C. 1999. http://www.cosn.org/tco

2. Ibid., p. 10.

3. Ibid.

4. International Data Corporation. Understanding the Total Cost and Value of Integrating Technology in Schools: an IDC White

Paper Sponsored by Apple Computer, Inc.. 1997. http://www.apple.com/education/k12/leadership/LSWTF/IDC1.html

5. Committee for Education Funding. Education Budget Alert for Fiscal Year 2000. Pons, Michael ed. p.9.

Washington, D.C. 1999.

6. Ibid, p. 9.

7. Ibid, p. 152. This report states: "At present, federal education funding accounts for roughly 20 percent of school 

technology funding, or approximately 5 billion a year."

8. This report uses an estimate of "between 25 percent and 35 percent." Software & Information Industry Association.

1999 Education Market Report: K-12. p. 84. Washington, DC. 1999.

9. United States. Department of Education. Fiscal Year 2000 Budget. 2000. http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/budget.html

10. Committee for Education Funding. op. cit. endnote 5, p. 152.

11. Education and Libraries Network Coalition. E-rate: Keeping the Promise to Connect Kids and Communities to the Future.

2000.

12. United States. Department of Commerce (1999). The Emerging Digital Economy II. By Henry, David, Patricia Buckley,

Gurmukh Gill, Sandra Cooke, Jess Dumagan, Dennis Pastore, and Susan LaPorte. Washington, D.C. 1999.

http://www.ecommerce.gov/ede/ede2.pdf

13. Bennett, Randy. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. July 24, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

14. Melmed, Arthur. e-Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. August 21, 2000.

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

15. Ibid.

16. See, for example, Roberts, Linda. Testimony to the Web-based Education Commission. United States. Department of

Education. September 14, 2000; Gary Beach, CIO Magazine. September 14, 2000; L. Dennis Smith, University of

Nebraska. July 19, 2000; Nitza Hernandez-Lopez, Hispanic Educational Telecommunications System. July 19, 2000; Brian

Hawkins, EDUCAUSE. July 20, 2000; and Gerald Odening, Chase H&Q. July 20, 2000; see also e-testimony of Frank

Withrow. August 18, 2000; Georgia Tech Research Institute. August 14, 2000; Software & Information Industry

Association. September 7, 2000; Sun Microcsystems, Inc. August 25, 2000. All found at 

http://www.webcommission.org/directory

17. Buhler, Warren. CEO, EdNetSat. Personal communication. November 2, 2000.

Funding

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The question is no longer if the Internet can be used

to transform learning in new and powerful ways.

The Commission has found that it can. Nor is the

question should we invest the time, the energy, and

the money necessary to fulfill its promise in defining

and shaping new learning opportunity. The

Commission believes that we should.

The issue before us now is how to make good

on the Internet’s promise for learning. It is

time we support education’s new trailblazing

heroes. It is time we collectively move from

promise to practice.

Based on the findings of this report, the Webbased Commission believes a national mobilization is necessary, one that evokes a

response similar in scope to other great

American opportunities—or crises: Sputnik

and the race to the moon, bringing electricity

and phone service to all corners of the nation,

finding a vaccine for polio.

The very idea of the World Wide Web is one

of connections. Our ability to use the Internet

to reshape learning requires actions that are

also interrelated and interconnected. The

Commission saw first-hand the policies that

most influence technology use in education

derive from bottom-up, interconnected grassroots efforts far more than from top-down

dictates. The nation needs to tap into this

energy and use it to shape education policy for

the Internet age.

MOVING FROM PROMISE TO PRACTICE

A CALL TO ACTION

127

The nation should

embrace an “eLearning” agenda 

as a centerpiece 

of our federal 

education policy.
The idea of connectedness also applies to the reality of our current learning environment.

The core barriers to effective Internet use identified by the Commission cannot be addressed

in isolation. They are inextricably linked. As such, they pose an even greater challenge that

can be resolved only through a widespread mobilization effort.

That effort, therefore, must work to assure:

• Universal broadband access at home, at school, and at work in support of

learner-centered, anytime, anywhere, any pace educational opportunity

• High quality, on-demand, and continuous professional development and

support for educators and administrators at all levels

• A new education research agenda that is well-funded and focused on how

people learn in the Internet age

• Online educational content that is widely available, affordable, and meets

the highest standards of educational excellence

• Relief from regulatory and administrative requirements that do not accommodate innovations in learning

• Reliable safeguards to protect online learners and ensure their privacy

• Sustained funding—via traditional and new sources—that meets the challenge of learning transformation

These are difficult challenges, but working together, we can overcome them.

The Congress and Administration can seed the field, taking the lead by reviewing and

adapting education and telecommunications law and regulations to reflect, incorporate, and

support new designs and advances in web-based education and innovation.

States, which traditionally have the most considerable impact on the conduct of education

at all levels, can initiate a new era of collaboration with each other and their educational institutions and local districts.

Communities and the Private Sector can build new powerful partnerships leading to innovative designs in learning services and applications that meet high standards for quality, ease

of use, and cost efficiency.

128
A National Call to Action

The bipartisan, congressional Web-based Education Commission calls on the new

Congress and Administration to embrace an “e-learning” agenda as a centerpiece of

our nation’s federal education policy.

This e-learning agenda should be aimed at assisting local communities, state education agencies, institutions of higher education, and the private sector to maximize

the power of the Internet for learning.

In the next two years, the 107th Congress and new Administration are required to revise the

major laws guiding federal involvement in K-12 education. The reauthorization of the

Elementary and Secondary Education Act will, in large part, determine federal education priorities and the tens of billions of spending that go with them for the next five years.

Congress and the Administration will also consider new funding authority for education

research. They are likely to revisit the issues of safeguarding children online, copyright law

in the digital age, advertising in education, and other “rules of the road” issues related to the

Internet. Finally, Congress and the Administration will begin preparations for revising the

student financial assistance laws as part of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

The opportunity has never been better for establishing meaningful public policy aimed at

maximizing the power of the Internet for learning as a fundamental element of education at

all levels. We urge the Congress and President to seize this opportunity and to focus on ways

in which these public laws can be modified and changed to support, rather than undermine,

the technology that is so dramatically changing education.

We call on federal and state governments to make the extension of

broadband access for all learners a central goal of telecommunications policy.

We urge federal and state policymakers to adopt a policy framework that will help accelerate

broadband deployment in education quickly and effectively. The E-rate program, which has

brought 21st Century telecommunications into the nation’s schools and libraries, has provided a dramatic boost. Individual state efforts have shown promise and success.

Policymakers in state and local jurisdictions should consider complementary efforts focused

on educational applications of broadband access.

Federal and state policymakers should also consider legislative changes designed to achieve

speedy deployment of broadband technologies at our nation’s educational institutions, particularly for those communities of learners on the other side of the “Digital Divide.” Better

collection of data on current access levels, costs, and availability of broadband services

around the nation will facilitate this goal.

Greater Internet access for education enables the private sector to build the base of skilled

workers it needs to operate in the global economy and to expand its market for enhanced

telecommunications goods and services. This opportunity brings with it responsibilities for

129
helping to build and support this capacity. Policymakers should seek out new partnership

opportunities focused on high quality services, affordable rates, and sustained upgrades and

improvement in access.

We call on policymakers at all levels to work with educational

institutions and the private sector to support the continuous

growth of educators through the use of technology.

Educators are the ultimate knowledge workers. We know that more and different training

will be necessary if teachers, administrators, and faculty members are to integrate the

advances of technology into the curriculum and into their teaching. To do so will require a

major new direction and commitment from policymakers, from the private sector, and from

educators themselves.

Congress has begun to focus on building the institutional capacity to assure that the next generation of teachers uses technology as effortlessly and effectively as workers in other industries. We encourage continuing support for these efforts, along with initiatives and models

that make just-in-time, just-what’s-needed training and support available to educators. The

reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act offers the opportunity to

make this happen and to incorporate the best thinking and practices identified by this

Commission. In addition, the Higher Education Act reauthorization down the line will provide another vehicle to articulate the federal role in professional development.

Partnerships that bring together the federal government, state and local agencies, the private sector, and educational institutions offer the promise of assuring continuing teacher empowerment

and growth with technology. Federal funding through such important efforts as the Preparing

Tomorrow’s Teachers for Technology program primes the pump for these collaborations.

States can share in the development and distribution of e-learning courses, programs, and

materials for teacher education and professional development. They can also work together

to adopt common frameworks for building the competencies and performance assessments

of new teacher expertise and build policies that allow for cross-state teacher certification.

The nation’s universities, and the colleges of education within them, should make the development of highly skilled 21st Century educators their most important priority; and they

should fund and support teacher and administrator preparation programs accordingly.

We call upon the Federal government to create a comprehensive research, development, and innovation framework for

learning technology.

A commission appointed in 1997 by President Clinton (the President’s Commission of

Advisors on Science and Technology) called for a rigorous empirical research program at a

level equal to at least 0.5 percent of the nation’s aggregate spending on K-12 education. This

has not happened and with the passage of time the urgency of this goal is even more critical.

130
To achieve this goal, the Commission recommends:

• Establishing a benchmark goal for federal R & D investment in web-based learning, consistent with similar benchmarks in other industry segments. A possible

approach could be the creation of a “Synergy Superfund,” a continuous funding

source to advance necessary public-private partnerships to build the fast turnaround of technological breakthroughs with applications for learning.

• Focusing on high payback targets of educational opportunity where present links

between learning theory and technological innovation appear particularly promising. These include such areas as new forms of assessment of learning, early

reading content, and the conceptual stumbling blocks that impact understanding

and achievement in mathematics and the sciences.

• Supporting the creation of learning communities and tools for collaborative

knowledge building and dissemination among researchers, teachers, and developers. Funding and regulatory support for public-private partnerships, and crossinstitution and cross-agency collaboration in R & D could make it possible to

bring promising ideas to practice quickly and efficiently by using the Internet as a

research and dissemination tool.

• Supporting a sustained effort to track the use of the Internet in education and

how the Web is transforming learning. A particular focus should be on the effectiveness of the policy actions implemented to address the key barriers to webbased education.

We call upon the public and private sectors to join forces in developing high quality content and applications for online learning. 

There is an increasing body of good content for e-learning, but it presents only a small glimmer of what is possible. And it is difficult for the consumer to sort the wheat from the chaff,

to make sense of all the “clutter” on the Web. Compounding this problem is a risky private

capital market for development, particularly at the preK-12 level.

At the federal level, the Commission recommends that:

• Congress articulate content development priorities and seed funding for development of web-based content and applications in high need areas (e.g.; adult literacy;

English as a second language; and teacher preparation). It should also encourage collaboration and partnerships between the public and private sectors in the development and distribution of high quality online courses, learning tools, and materials.

• Federal agencies and programs should adopt technical standards for the design of

online courses and the meta-tagging of digital content. These should include universal design standards for access for those with disabilities.

131
For the education community, the Commission recommends:

• Continuing the current voluntary system of accrediting higher education institutions and programs. However, the range of programs and new providers suggests

the need for better clarity for the consumer regarding what accreditation means.

The joint development of a “consumer’s guide to accreditation” by the federal government and the higher education community would be an important contribution.

• Creating mechanisms for users to share their commercial and noncommercial

resources and experiences regarding online courses and programs.

Experimentation with online user reviews for content similar to that found on commercial sites (e.g., Amazon.com) could empower the informed choice of educators.

• Articulating frameworks for what constitutes good online courses and encouraging

private sector education providers to develop their courseware in concert with 

these frameworks.

For the states, the Commission recommends convening state and regional education accreditors and organizations to build common frameworks and requirements for online learning

programs, courses, and certifications comparable to those required for onsite programs.

We call on Congress, the U.S. Department of Education, and state

and regional education funding and regulatory authorities to remove

barriers that block full learner access to online learning resources,

courses, and programs while ensuring accountability of taxpayer dollars. 

Witnesses spoke forcefully and effectively about how federal, state, and local education regulations written for an earlier education system no longer work in today’s borderless, timeless

“anywhere, anyplace” learning environment.

There are some areas where federal action may be appropriate. The Commission recommends a full review and, if necessary, a revision of the 12-hour rule, 50 percent rule, and

incentive compensation requirements that are creating barriers to students enrolling in online

and distance education courses. We call on the Department of Education, Congress, the

higher education community, and the private sector to continue to work together in devising

alternatives for measuring student financial assistance eligibility to accommodate online learning opportunity.

The Commission also encourages states to:

• Work with organizations such as the National Governors’ Association, the National

Conference of State Legislatures, the Education Commission of the States, the

Council of Chief State School Officers, the State Higher Education Executive

Officers, and the National Association of State Boards of Education to convene

and provide incentives for collaboration among educators, content providers, and

regulators that span state or regional boundaries.

132
• Recognize and support efforts to increase cross-state regulatory and administrative

cooperation modeled after the Southern Regional Education Board and the

Western Interstate Cooperative in Higher Education. Such efforts should be

encouraged to develop policies that address the transfer and awarding of academic credit earned online; faculty workload, compensation, and online content ownership issues; financing of distance learning; quality assurance in distance learning;

online student services (e.g.; library resources, admissions, advising); and programs

that reach underrepresented student populations.

The Commission endorses the U.S. Copyright Office proposal to convene education representatives and publisher stakeholders in order to build greater consensus and understanding

of the “fair use” doctrine and its application in web-based education. The goal should be

agreement on guidelines for the appropriate digital uses of information and consensus on

the licensing of content not covered by the fair use doctrine.

We call upon the education community and parents, working with

the private sector, to develop and adopt appropriate privacy and

protection safeguards to assure that learners of all ages are not

exploited while participating in learning activities. 

Because of the open nature of the online learning environment, there will always be some

risk. To minimize this risk, efforts should be made to help schools, districts, and parents

come to reasonable solutions that protect vulnerable individuals while encouraging the positive exploration the Web makes possible.

The Commission believes that filtering and blocking software alone is of limited value in this

regard. Instead, the Commission recommends:

• Encouraging developers and educators to collaborate in creating noncommercial,

high quality educational zones that could be easily accessed by educators, parents,

and children.

• Promoting efforts involving states, districts, and schools that will result in education programs that empower students to use the Internet safely, wisely and ethically. Educational programs should be built around appropriate use policies that set

clearly understood and locally derived standards. These programs should reach out

beyond students and include parents, teachers, and administrators.

The Commission believes that the Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA)

provides important protections for young children. Nevertheless, all students, especially

teenagers not covered by COPPA, need to understand threats to privacy and the implications

of inappropriate disclosure of information. The education market should speak with one

voice in demanding that young people and their families have access to information already

collected and the opportunity to correct, prevent, or curtail the use of their personal information.

We also have seen that, if the Web is to be used to its fullest powers for personalized, interactive learning, the collection of some identifiable student information online may be nec133
essary. Parental permission may be better directed as an “opt-out” rather than “opt-in”

requirement for student participation in online learning activities. This suggests that some

adjustments to COPPA may be necessary to allow educational exemptions from current verifiable parental consent requirements.

Finally, we call on the federal government, states, localities, and the

private sector to adequately fund web-based learning opportunity.

The Commission encourages the Congress and Administration to consider several options

brought before us that could provide sustained funding for web-based education. These

could include: tax incentives to encourage educational investments in areas of high need and

high cost in order to provide affordable capacity; additional public-private partnerships

between education institutions, the public sector, and business; increased federal and state

appropriations; and the creation of a learning technology trust fund to sustain momentum in

web-based learning opportunity over the long-term.

The Commission encourages local and state education agencies to aggregate their market

strength in order to bring advanced broadband technologies to preK-12, postsecondary, and

adult education at considerably lower costs. We also believe that states can encourage deployment of broadband access through their support of similar tax incentives and targeting of

funding in high-need areas.

In addition, states have a special opportunity to create and fund networks that can be

linked to the Internet2 backbone and bring state-of-the-art technology applications to

educational institutions.

The question is no longer if the Internet can be used

to transform learning in new and powerful ways. The

Commission has found that it can. Nor is the question should we invest the time, the energy, and the

money necessary to fulfill its promise in defining and

shaping new learning opportunity. The Commission

believes that we should. We all have a role to play. It

is time we collectively move the power of the

Internet for learning from promise to practice.

134
135
136
Appendices

A. Commission Legislative Authority 

B. Commission Meetings 

C. Commission Hearings and Witnesses

· February 2-3, 2000, Washington, DC

· April 7, 2000, Palo Alto, California

· June 26, 2000, Atlanta, Georgia

· July 19-20, 2000, Washington, DC

· September 14-15, 2000, Washington, DC

D. e-Testimony Submissions to the Commission

E. Commission Speeches and Presentations

F. Stakeholder Meetings with Commissioners and Staff

G. Individuals and Groups Providing Services to the Commission 

· Contributors

· Contractors

H. Commission Staff

137
138
COMMISSION LEGISLATIVE AUTHORITY

AUTHORITY

The Web-based Education Commission (Commission) is established by Section 852 of the Higher

Education Amendments Act of 1998 (P. L. 105-244), as amended by the Departments of Labor,

Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2000 (P.

L. 106-113). The Commission is governed by the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act

(FACA) (P. L. 92-463, as amended; 5 U.S.C.A. Appendix 2).

PURPOSE AND FUNCTIONS 

Pursuant to section 852 of the Higher Education Amendments Act of 1998, the Web-based

Education Commission is established in the Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary

Education, Office of Policy, Planning and Innovation. The Commission is established for the purpose of conducting a thorough study to assess the educational software available in retail markets for

secondary and postsecondary students who choose to use such software. The Commission shall conduct public hearings in each region of the United States and prepare a report to the President and

the Congress that contains recommendations regarding legislation and administrative actions, including those regarding the appropriate Federal role in determining quality educational software products.

Specifically, the duties of the Commission are:

1. The Commission shall conduct a through study to access the educational software available in

retail markets for secondary and postsecondary students who choose to use such software.

2. As part of the study conducted under this subsection, the Commission shall hold public hearings

in each region of the United States concerning the assessment.

3. To the extent practicable, in carrying out the study under this subsection, the Commission shall

identify and use existing information related to the assessment.

STRUCTURE 

The Commission is composed of sixteen members of which:

1. three members shall be appointed by the President, from among individuals representing the

Internet technology industry;

2. three members shall be appointed by the Secretary, from among individuals with expertise in

accreditation, establishing statewide curricula, and establishing information technology networks

pertaining to education curricula;

3. two members shall be appointed by the Majority Leader of the Senate;

4. two members shall be appointed by the Minority Leader of the Senate;

5. two members shall be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives;

6. two members shall be appointed by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives;

7. one member shall be appointed by the Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and

Pensions Committee; and

Appendix A

139
8. one member shall be appointed by the Chairman of the House Education Workforce Committee.

Members shall be appointed for the life of the Commission. Any vacancy in the Commission shall

not affect its powers, but shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment. The

Commission shall select a chairperson and vice chairperson from among the members of the

Commission.

The Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education names the Designated Federal Official (DFO)

to the Commission.

MEETINGS 

Not later than 30 days after the date on which all members of the Commission have been appointed, the Commission shall hold its first meeting. Commission members shall meet at the call of the

Chairperson, with the approval of the Designated Federal Official or designee who is present at all

meetings. Meetings are open to the public except as may be determined otherwise by the Assistant

Secretary of Postsecondary Education in accordance with Section 10(d) of the FACA. Adequate

public notification is given in advance of each meeting. Meetings are conducted and records of the

proceedings kept as required by applicable laws.

A quorum of the Commission consists of eight members. A lesser number of members may hold

hearings.

ESTIMATED ANNUAL COST 

Members will serve without compensation. However, members may each receive reimbursement for

travel expenses incident to attending Commission meetings, including per diem in lieu of subsistence,

as authorized by the Federal travel regulations. There is authorized to be appropriated $450,000 for

fiscal year 1999 to the Commission. Any sums appropriated under the authorization shall remain

available, without fiscal year limitation, until expended. The estimated annual person-years of staff

support are two (2) FTE.

REPORTS 

Not later than one year after the first meeting of the Commission, the Commission shall submit a

report to the President and Congress, which shall contain a detailed statement of the findings and

conclusions of the Commission resulting from the study, together with the Commission's recommendations:

1. for such legislation and administrative actions as the Commission considers to be appropriate;

and 

2. regarding the appropriate Federal role in determining quality educational software products.

The recommendations of the Commission may be submitted to the Secretary for comment prior to

submission to Congress, but are not subject to review or approval by any offices in the Executive

Branch.

Appendix A

140
FOLLOW-UP REQUIREMENT 

A report to the Congress one year after the Commission has made its final report, required by Section

6(b) of FACA, concerning the disposition of recommendations to the President contained in the

report, will be prepared by the Office of Postsecondary Education.

TERMINATION 

The Commission shall terminate on the date that is 90 days after the date on which the Commission

submits the Commission's report to the President and Congress.

Appendix A

141
142
COMMISSION MEETINGS

Commission Organizational Meeting, Washington, DC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .November 16-17, 1999

Commission Conference Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .January 6, 2000

Commission Conference Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .March 2, 2000

K-12 Working Group Conference Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .March 22, 2000

Higher Education Working Group Conference Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .March 23, 2000

Adult Education/Training Working Group Conference Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .March 24, 2000

Commission Conference Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .March 27, 2000

Web Site Design Meeting, Washington, DC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .April 12, 2000

K-12 Working Group Conference Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .May 3, 2000

Higher Education Working Group Conference Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .May 4, 2000

Adult Education/Training Working Group Conference Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .May 5, 2000

Commission Conference Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .May 25, 2000

Commission Briefing at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA . . . . . . . . . . .June 26, 2000

Final Commission Meeting, Washington, DC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .September 27, 2000

Appendix B

143
144
COMMISSION HEARINGS AND WITNESSES

February 2-3, 2000

The Internet and Education

Senate Dirksen Office Building

Washington, DC

Michael F. Adams, President, University of Georgia

Velma Cobb, Director of Education, Research and Policy, National Urban League

Honorable William M. Daley, U.S. Secretary of Commerce

Martha Dean, Superintendent, Wetzel County Schools, New Martinsville, West Virginia

Judith Eaton, President, Council for Higher Education Accreditation

Kathleen Fulton, Associate Director, Center for Learning and Educational Technology,

University of Maryland

Doug Gorton, Student, Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Flemington, New Jersey

Larry Irving, President and CEO, UrbanMagic.com

Emily Judson, Student, Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Flemington, New Jersey

Neela Mookerjee, Student, Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Flemington, New Jersey

Sujay Pandit, Student, Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Flemington, New Jersey

Honorable Richard W. Riley, U.S. Secretary of Education

April 7, 2000

The Promise of the Internet to Empower Learners: Capturing the Perspectives of Technology Leaders, Policymakers,

and Educational Experts

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Menlo Park, California

Pauline Albert, Manager, Web Education Programs, Intel Corporation 

Sheryle Bolton, CEO, Scientific Learning Corporation

John Brandon, CEO, Academic Systems/The Lightspan Partnership

Milton Chen, Executive Director, the George Lucas Educational Foundation 

Toby Corey, CEO & Co-founder, Intend Change

Appendix C

145
Honorable Delaine Eastin, Superintendent of Public Instruction, California

Warren Fox, Executive Director, California Postsecondary Education Commission

James Gibbons, Founder, SERA Learning Technologies

Tom Greaves, Co-founder & Vice Chair, NetSchools Corporation

Kenneth C. Green, Founder & Director, Campus Computing Project

Judith Hamilton, CEO, Classroom Connect

Robert Iskander, Director, Global K-12 Market, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Kim Jones, Vice President, Global Education, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Martha Kanter, President, De Anza College, California

Tony Lee, Senior Director, Worldwide Markets, Apple Computer, Inc.

Cheryl Lemke, CEO, Metiri Group (hearing facilitator)

Barbara Means, Co-director, Center for Interactive Technology in Learning, SRI International

Aaron Osmond, Director, Education Markets, Novell

Lou Pugliese, CEO, Blackboard, Inc.

Stuart Skorman, Founder & CEO, Hungry Minds

June 26, 2000

The Promise of the Internet to Empower K-12 Learners

National Educational Computing Conference

Atlanta, Georgia

Sasha Barab, Assistant Professor, Instructional Systems Technology, School of Education,

Indiana University

Terry Crane, Vice President, Education Products, America Online, Inc.

Chris Dede, Professor & Head of the Education and Information Technology Department,

Graduate School of Education, George Mason University

Elwood Addison (Buzz) Ellis III, President, McGraw-Hill Educational Publishing Group,

The McGraw-Hill Companies

Carlene M. Ellis, Vice President & Director, Worldwide Education Programs, Intel Corporation

Appendix C

146
Dara Feldman, Early Childhood Instructional Technology Specialist, Montgomery County Public

Schools, Maryland

Joan Fenwick, Director, AT&T Learning Network

Cari Ladd, Director, OnLine Education, PBS

Cheryl Lemke, CEO, Metiri Group (hearing facilitator)

Randy Pennington, Vice President of Sales, APEX Online Learning

Ken Reed, Technology Director, Alexandria City Public Schools, Virginia

John Richards, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Turner Learning, Inc.

Raymond Rose, Vice President, Concord Consortium

William L. Rukeyser, President, Learning in the Real World

Lynne Schrum, Associate Professor, Department of Instructional Technology, University of

Georgia

Skip Stahl, Director, Professional Development, Center for Applied Special Technology

William Thomas, Director, Educational Technology, Southern Regional Education Board

John Vaille, CEO, International Society for Technology Education

Julie Young, Principal, The Florida High School

July 19-20, 2000

The Promise of the Internet to Empower Higher Education Learners

Senate Dirksen Office Building

Washington, DC

Donald Babcock, Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs, Harcourt Higher Education,

Harcourt Learning Direct

Mary A. Burgan, General Secretary, American Association of University Professors

Honorable Louis Caldera, U.S. Secretary of the Army

Judy Duffield, Program Coordinator of the Information and Learning Technologies Leadership

Area of the Initial Teacher Education Program, University of Colorado-Denver

Honorable A. Lee Fritschler, Assistant Secretary of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department

of Education

Ellen Futter, President, American Museum of Natural History

Appendix C

147
Honorable William Goodling, U.S. Representative, Pennsylvania & Chairman, House Education

and the Workforce Committee

Brian Hawkins, President, EDUCAUSE

Gerald Heeger, President, University of Maryland, University College

Nitza Hernandez-Lopez, Executive Director, Hispanic Educational Telecommunications System

Robert Manuel, Chief Information and Technology Officer, School of Continuing and

Professional Studies, New York University

Jack McManus, Interim Dean, Graduate School of Education and Psychology,

Pepperdine University

Jamie Merisotis, President, Institute for Higher Education Policy

Michael T. Moe, Director, Global Growth Research, Merrill Lynch

Laura Palmer Noone, Provost, University of Phoenix

Gerald R. Odening, Managing Director, Chase H&Q

Mary Beth Peters, Register of Copyrights, U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress

Pamela K. Quinn, Assistant Chancellor for Educational Telecommunications, Dallas County

Community College District

Andrew Rosen, Chief Operating Officer, Kaplan, Inc.

Andrew Rosenfield, CEO, UNext.com

Patricia Schroeder, President & CEO, Association of American Publishers

L. Dennis Smith, President, University of Nebraska

Dorothy Cowser Yancy, President, Johnson C. Smith University

September 14-15, 2000

The Promise of the Internet to Empower Adult Learners

Senate Dirksen Office Building

Washington, DC

Amy Aidman, Research Director, Center for Media Education

Jane Baumgarten, Member, Board of Directors, AARP

Gary Beach, Group Publisher, CIO Magazine & Founder, Tech Corps

Appendix C

148
Jodie Bernstein, Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission

Bruce Bower, General Manager, LearningGate.com

John D. Bransford, Centennial Professor, Department of Psychology & Human Development,

and Co-director, Learning Technology Center, Vanderbilt University

Hans Brisch, Chancellor, Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education and Past President, State

Higher Education Executive Officers

Honorable Conrad Burns, U.S. Senator, Montana and Co-chair, Congressional Internet Caucus

Gregory Cappelli, Director & Senior Analyst, Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation

Robert S. Christie, President & CEO, Thomson Learning

Katherine K. Clark, President & CEO, Landmark Systems Corporation and Vice Chair, 21st

Century Workforce Commission

Daniel A. Domenech, Superintendent, Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia

Honorable Calvin Dooley, U.S. Representative, California and Co-chair,

House New Democrat Coalition

Honorable David P. Driscoll, Commissioner of Education, Massachusetts

Carolyn Elgin, President, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Ira Fishman, CEO, HiFusion, Inc.

Larry Goldberg, Director, Media Access Group, WGBH Educational Foundation

Elizabeth L. Hacking, Senior Vice President, Strategic Development, Houghton Mifflin Company

Andy Hartman, Director, National Institute for Literacy

Randy J. Hinrichs, Group Program Manager, Learning Sciences & Technology Initiatives,

Microsoft Research

Honorable William Janklow, Governor, South Dakota

Sally M. Johnstone, Director, Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications

Peter Jovanovich, CEO, Pearson Education

Honorable William Kennard, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission

Honorable Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Washington State Senate & Chair, Committee on Higher

Education

Appendix C

149
Robert S. Lapiner, Dean of Continuing Education and University Extension, UCLA

Elliott Masie, President, The MASIE Center and Member, Advisory Commission on Training and

Opportunities

Frank Mayadas, Program Director, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

Jeanne C. Meister, President, Corporate University Xchange, Inc.

Jeff Munks, Chief Strategist, DigitalThink, Inc.

Joel Pate, Director, Eastern New Mexico Educational Resource Center

Linda Roberts, Special Advisor for Technology to the Secretary of Education and Director of the

Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education

David Shaw, Chairman, D. E. Shaw and Co, Inc. and Juno Online Services, L.P., and Chairman,

Panel on Educational Technology, President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology

Albert Siu, Chief Learning Officer, AT&T Corporation and Member, American Society of

Training and Development and National Governors' Association Commission on Technology and

Adult Learning

Judith S. Sunley, Interim Assistant Director for Education and Human Resources, National

Science Foundation

Honorable Anthony Williams, Mayor, Washington, DC

Robin Willner, Director of Corporate Community Relations, IBM Corporation

Carol Vallone, CEO, WebCT

Appendix C

150
e-TESTIMONY SUBMISSIONS TO THE COMMISSION

Academy for Educational Development 

AIM Lab, University of Illinois

Allegany Hope Welfare-to-Work Program, Allegany County, New York

Alliance for Childhood

Alyeska Central School, Juneau, Alaska

AMERICA 2000 Technology Innovation Challenge Grant Consortium

American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education 

American Association of Community Colleges

American Association of Law Libraries

American Association of Museums

American Federation of Teachers

American Foundation for the Blind

American Library Association

America's Public Television Stations 

Apple Computer, Inc.

Sousan Arafeh, American Institutes for Research

Arizona Learning Technology Partnership

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Association of American Publishers

Association of Educational Publishers 

Association of Research Libraries

Association of Tech Act Projects

Austin Independent School District

Thomas Barnwell, Georgia Institute of Technology

Donna Baumbach, University of Central Florida

Cheryl Bennett, International Ergonomics Association

Randy Bennett, Educational Testing Service

bigchalk.com

BlackCollege.com

Gina Boltz

Bonnie Bracey

Brigham Young University

Broward Community College

Dion Burn

Career College Association

Walter Carlson, Jr.

Robert T. Carter, Montville High School, Connecticut

CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media

Center for Scientific Visualization

Central High School, Little Rock School District, Arkansas

class.com

Classroom Connect

Jon M. Clausen

Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium

Consortium for School Networking

Consumer Bankers Association

Convergence Mediagroup

Appendix D

151
Cornell University

Corporate Vision Consulting

Council of Organizational Representatives on National Issues Concerning Deaf and Hard of

Hearing Persons

CXO Media, Inc.

Distance Education and Training Council

Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, PLLC

DrPhysics.com

Eastern Catholic Alliance of Schools for Excellence

D. Eckert, Technology Education, Web-based Education

Education TurnKey Systems, Inc.

Educational Approval Board, Wisconsin

Educational Software Institute

Educational Support Systems

EduPoint, Inc.

eLearners.com, Inc.

Electronic Learning Communities, Georgia Institute of Technology

FamiliarTales, Inc.

Florida Gulf Coast University

Florida High School

Franklin University

FreeEdu.com

George Mason University

Georgia Institute of Technology Center for Distance Learning

Georgia Tech Research Institute

Georgia Youth Science & Technology Centers, Inc.

Madeline Gesslein

Allen Glenn, University of Washington

Global Schoolhouse at Lightspan.com

Global University System

Charles Grammick

Mary Halnon, Public Broadcasting Service

Hartford Gunn Institute

Higher Education Alliance for Information Technology

Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities 

John H. Huth

IBM Corporation

IBM Corporation Institute for Electronic Government

IBM Global Education Industry

Idaho State Board of Education

Ilisgavik College

Innovative Technology Center

Instructional Telecommunications Council

Integrated Technology Education Group, LLC

International Center for Advanced Internet Research

International Society for Technology in Education 

Joel Jackson, Georgia Institute of Technology

Francis W. James, Sacred Heart College Senior School, Australia

JASON Foundation for Education

Appendix D

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

152
Johns Hopkins University Center for Technology in Education

Richard Kahlenberg, Los Angeles Times

Theodore C. Kariotis

Kelly Services, Inc.

Kentucky Virtual University

Kindred-souls.org, Inc.

Learning and Information Networking for Community via Technology Coalition

Learning Anytime, Anywhere, Partnerships, U.S. Department of Education

Jeff LeMieux

Alan Lesgold, University of Pittsburgh

Douglas A. Levin, American Institutes for Research

Lightspan Partnership, Inc.

Charles F. Lindgren

Rob Lippincott, Family Education Network

Edward S. Lowry

Macromedia, The Fielding Institute

Macromedia

Markle Foundation

Maryland Virtual High School

Mass Networks Education Partnership/Virtual Education Space

Medical Library Association

Gerald W. Meisner, University North Carolina, Greensboro

Arthur Melmed, George Mason University

MENC: The National Association for Music Education

MentorMail of America

Metropolitan College, Boston University

MGT of America, Inc.

Monroe County Women's Disability Network

Margo Nanny, Tech Access Grant 

Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc.

National Association for College Admission Counseling

National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators

National Association of the Deaf

National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education

National Council on Disability

National Education Association

National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship 

National Job Corps Association, Inc.

National Network to End Domestic Violence

Nation School Boards Association

National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce

Nebraska Information Network

Shirish Netke

NetSchools Corporation

Ohio Learning Network

Ohio State University & Ohio Academic Resources Network

OnlineLearning, Training, and Research Association

Karl Pajo, Massey University

Sarah S. Pearson, American Youth Policy Forum

Kyle L. Peck, Penn State University

Appendix D

153
Marilyn M. Pickens, Huntington-Surrey School, Texas

PLATO Learning, Inc.

Portland Community College

Poway Unified School District, San Diego, California

PowerSchool, Inc.

Janet Price, International High School, New York

Public Broadcasting Service

Regents College

Janet Price, International High School, New York

Rider University, English Department

Margaret Riel, Center for Collaborative Research in Education, University of California

Roger Kaufman and Associates

SAS in School

Mark Schlager, SRI International

School of Health Management, Division of Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine

SchoolTone Alliance

Scientific Learning Corporation

Leonard Shedletsky, University of Southern Maine

SMARTHINKING

Marshall S. Smith, Stanford University

Software & Information Industry Association

Bruce O. Solheim, CitrusCollege.com

Special Libraries Association

SRI International

Barbara Slater Stern, James Madison University

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

TaskStream, LLC

Teachers College, Columbia University

Teaching, Learning, and Technology Group

Tech Access Grant

TECH CORPS

Texas Council for the Humanities

ThinkWave, Inc.

U.S. Department of Education

U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division

United Negro College Fund

University of Wisconsin

University of Wisconsin System

Utah Education Network

Utah System of Higher Education

Verizon

Emily H. Vickery, Southwest Colorado Institute of Technology

Videodiscovery, Inc.

Virtual Learn, Inc.

Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications

Nancy Willard, Center for Advanced Technology in Education, University of Oregon

Frank B. Withrow, ABLE Company

WHYY Education Connection Project

Jacqueline E. Woods, Office of Vocational & Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education

Jim Woolen

Appendix D

World Association for Online Education 

154
COMMISSION SPEECHES AND PRESENTATIONS

Consortium for School Networking Annual Conference

Washington, DC February 23, 2000 

Software & Information Industry Association Annual Conference

San Diego, CA March 12, 2000 

Senate Education Technology Working Group Briefing

Washington, DC March 17, 2000 

Information Technology Industry Council Board Meeting

Washington, DC March 17, 2000 

The Blackboard Summit

Washington, DC March 21, 2000

Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) Agenda Project Briefing

Washington, DC March 30, 2000

Higher Education Secretariat Meeting

Washington, DC April 4, 2000 

Association of Tech Act Projects Annual Meeting

Austin, TX April 28, 2000 

McGraw-Hill Summit

Washington, DC May 2, 2000 

Office of Postsecondary Education Agenda Project Meeting

Denver, CO May 9, 2000

Senior Leadership Group, U.S. Department of Education Meeting

Washington, DC May 15, 2000

The Association of Educational Publishers Annual Meeting

Washington, DC June 8, 2000

Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf, Inc.

Rockville, MD June 13, 2000

Office of Postsecondary Education/Brown Bag Luncheon

Washington, DC June 14, 2000

National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training (NCTET) Legislative Meeting

Washington, DC June 20, 2000 

Council for Higher Education Accreditation Annual Meeting

Washington, DC June 22, 2000 

IBM Corporation Technology Briefing

Palisades, NY June 23, 2000

National Education Association Annual Meeting

Chicago, IL July 2, 2000 

Appendix E

155
NCTET Summit on Assessment and Technology

Lake Tahoe, NV July 6-7, 2000

Education Commission of the States Annual Meeting

Minneapolis, MN July 12, 2000

Council on Law in Higher Education Annual Meeting

Washington, DC July 16, 2000

U.S. Department of Education Briefing for Associations

Washington, DC July 26, 2000

Minority Serving Institutions "Digital Divide" Meeting

Washington, DC August 4, 2000

International Council for Open and Distance Education Annual Conference

Sao Paulo, Brazil August 11-15, 2000

U.S. Department of Education International Conference on Technology

Washington, DC September 13, 2000

Southern Regional Education Board Technology Cooperative Meeting

Pt. Clear, AL September 20-22, 2000

InterAmerican Development Bank Meeting

Washington, DC September 21, 2000 

Netherlands Delegation to the U.S. Department of Education Meeting

Washington, DC October 9, 2000 

NCTET Legislative Coalition Meeting

Washington, DC October 10, 2000

Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Briefing

Washington, DC October 13, 2000

Classroom of the Future Meeting

University of Maryland, College Park, MD October 14, 2000 

Virtual High School Symposium

Louisville, KY October 17, 2000 

OPE/Higher Education Association Meeting

Washington, DC October 19, 2000

America Online Education Foundation Briefing

Washington, DC October 19, 2000 

Bertelsmann Foundation German-American Dialogue

Gütersloh, Germany October 22-25, 2000

American Educational Research Association Briefing

Washington, DC October 23, 2000

Digital Education Marketplace 2000 Conference

Boston, MA October 24, 2000

Appendix E

156
Center for Innovative Learning Technologies 2000 Meeting

McLean, VA October 24, 2000

National School Boards Association Technology and Learning Conference

Denver, CO October 25, 2000 

Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications Annual Conference

Albuquerque, NM November 1, 2000 

The Center on Education Policy Briefing

Washington, DC November 2, 2000 

National Association for the Education of Young Children Annual Conference

Atlanta, GA November 8, 2000 

eSchool News Business to Education Conference

Vienna, VA November 10, 2000

US Department of Education Title V Directors Meeting

Arlington, VA November 12, 2000

TechLearn 2000, e-Learning Congress

Orlando, FL November 12, 2000 

National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges

San Antonio, TX November 14, 2000

IBM Corporation Technology Briefing

Washington, DC November 15, 2000

Online Student Assessment: The Future of State Testing Meeting

Washington, DC November 20, 2000 

UCLA Center for Communication Policy/The Freedom Forum,

Surveying the Digital Future Conference

Arlington, VA November 30, 2000

Maryland Technology Showcase

Baltimore, MD December 6, 2000

Virginia Community Colleges Association Meeting

Richmond, VA December 12, 2000

National Conference of State Legislatures Assembly on Federal Issues and

Assembly on State Issues Joint Meeting

Washington, DC December 14, 2000

Appendix E

157
158
Section one

159

Alan Adler, Association of American Publishers

Thomas Barnwell, Georgia Institute of Technology 

Patricia Bartlett, Georgia Institute of Technology 

Kim Bayliss, The Dutko Group 

Christine Beichel, Belview University

Julie Bell, National Conference of State Legislatures 

Linda Benning, National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges 

Jon Bernstein, Federal Communications Commission

Charles Blaschke, Education TurnKey Systems, Inc.

Katherine Boswell, Education Commission of the States 

Cynthia Braddon, The McGraw-Hill Companies

Carolyn Breedlove, National Education Association

Molly Broad, University of North Carolina

Amy Bruckman, Georgia Institute of Technology 

Warren Buhler, EdNetSat 

Jim Burger, Esq., Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, PLLC 

Neil Bush, Ignite.com 

Tom Butts, Council for Higher Education Accreditation 

J.B. Buxton, Domestic Policy Council, Office of the President 

Mark Cannon, National Association for College Admissions Counseling

Thomas Carroll, Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology Program, U.S. Department

of Education

Rob Caruano, College Board

Grace Caulfield, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Joseph Clark, Videodiscovery, Inc.

David Crane, Autodesk 

Jeff Creighton, EduPoint.com

Christopher Cross, Council on Basic Education

Ed Crowe, Teacher Quality Programs, U.S. Department of Education

Yuri Dashko, Canadian Multimedia Learning Group

Neil Didriksen, Advance Network & Services 

Joseph DiGregorio, Georgia Institute of Technology 

Steve Donahue, Broward County Community College, Florida

Thomas Duffy, UNext.com

Aura Dunn, Convergence Services, Inc.

Judith Eaton, Council for Higher Education Accreditation 

Julie Evans, NetDay 

Joan Fenwick, AT&T Learning Network 

Peter Findley, Cybercamps 

Brian Fitzgerald, National Advisory Commission on Student Financial Assistance 

Geoffrey Fletcher, T.H.E. Institute 

Robert Foust, Office of Senator Kent Conrad 

A. Lee Fritschler, Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of

Education

Susan Frost, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education 

Melinda George, Software & Information Industry Association

Bridget Gonzales, Issue Dynamics, Inc.

Mary Gonzales, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education 

STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS WITH COMMISSIONERS AND STAFF

Appendix F
Section one

160

Appendix F

Larry Gold, American Federation of Teachers 

Michael Gold, Esq., Patton, Boggs, LLP 

Michael Goldstein, Esq., Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, PLLC 

Rod Gramm, Office of the State of Washington

Thomas Greaves, NetSchools Corporation

Kenneth C. Green, Campus Computing Project

Shawn Gross, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Wadi Haddad, Knowledge Enterprise, Inc.

Irving S. Hamer, New York City Public Schools 

Sue Hanson, Techies' Day

Leslie Harris, Leslie Harris and Associates 

Susan Hattan, Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee 

Lawrence Hecht, Internet Public Policy Network

Rich Hershman, National Education Knowledge Industry Association

Frank Holleman, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Education 

Jennifer House, Classroom Connect, Inc.

James Houton, Microsoft Corporation

Joan Huffer, Office of Senator Tom Daschle

Alicia Hurley, New York University

Kathy Hurley, NetSchools Corporation

Cathy Hutchinson, Apple Computer, Inc.

Robert Iskander, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Joel Jackson, Georgia Institute of Technology 

Patrick Jeffries, SchoolCity.com

Sally Johnstone, Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications 

Thomas Kalil, National Economic Council, Office of the President 

Kenneth Kay, Infotech Strategies

Lisa Kinard, Corporation for Public Broadcasting 

Victor Klatt, House Education and the Workforce Committee 

Molly Knott, TechNet

Jim Kohlenberger, Office of the Vice President 

Jim Kohlmoos, The Implementation Group

Stephen Kohn, Verizon 

Anita Kopac, Ignite.com 

Keith Krueger, Consortium for School Networking 

Michael Lampert, Distance Education and Training Council 

Jee Hang Lee, Leslie Harris and Associates

Brian Lekander, Learning Anytime, Anyplace Partnership Program, U.S. Department of

Education

Douglas Levin, American Institutes for Research 

Arthur Levine, Teachers College, Columbia University 

Rob Lippincott, Learning Network 

Bethany Little, Domestic Policy Council, The White House 

David Longanecker, Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education

Doug Lynch, New York University

Gina Mahony, Office of Representative Calvin Dooley 

Sha-Chelle Manning, Winstar

Rob Manuel, New York University

Frank Mayadas, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation 

Mary McCain, American Society for Training and Development 
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161

Joe McCormick, Apollo Group, Inc., University of Phoenix 

Shirley McCune, Office of the State of Washington 

C. Peter Magrath, National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges 

Ken McInerny, Net Capital 

Maureen McLaughlin, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education 

Don Medley, ZapMe Corporation 

Hans Meeder, 21st Century Workforce Commission 

Arthur Melmed, George Mason University

Jamie Merisotis, The Institute for Higher Education Policy 

Richard Methia, EFS Foundation & Discovery Lab 

Lee Myers, Educational Software Institute 

Gregory Nadeau, Massachusetts Department of Education 

Sally Narodick, APEX Learning

Edward Neelley, Blackboard, Inc.

Larry Nelson, SchoolCity.com 

Michael Nugent, Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of

Education 

Jane Oates, Office of Senator Edward M. Kennedy 

Chad Osborne, Chancery Software 

Robert Palaich, Education Commission of the States

Jody Pozo-Olano, NetDay

Ray Perez, Office of the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Department of Defense

Marianne Phelps, Distance Learning Demonstration Project, U.S. Department of Education 

Diana Phillips, Office of the Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Education

Jake Phillips, Empower America 

Matthew Pittinsky, Blackboard, Inc.

Barbara Pryor, Office of Senator Jay Rockefeller 

Lou Pugliese, Blackboard, Inc.

Barbara Raimondo, Conference of Educational Administrators of School & Programs for the Deaf, Inc.

Lee Rainie, Internet and American Life Project, PEW Foundation

Rafael Ramirez, GEAR-UP Program, U.S. Department of Education

Scott Redd, NetSchools Corporation 

John Richards, Turner Learning 

Jill Riemer, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education 

Sue Riley, Distance Education and Training Council 

Linda Roberts, Office of Education Technology, U.S. Department of Education 

Esther Rodriguez, State Higher Education Executive Officers

Kathy Rodi, CEO Forum on Education and Technology 

Terry Rogers, Advance Network & Services 

Mark Root, eChalk 

Howard Rosen, Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress 

Ilene Rosenthal, Ilene Rosenthal and Associates 

Kenneth Saloman, Esq., Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, PLLC

Joe Schneider, American Association of School Administrators

Mark Schneidermann, Software & Industry Information Association 

Patricia Schroeder, Association of American Publishers 

Sally Shake, Education Legislative Services, Inc.

Lynne Silver, Apple Computer, Inc.

Mark Silzer, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Burck Smith, SMARTHINKING.com 

Appendix F
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Appendix F

Jennifer Smulson, Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee

Barbara Stein, National Education Association 

Sheldon Steinbach, American Council on Education 

Merrily Sterns, American Museum of Natural History

Jill Stephens, America Online, Inc.

Bill Symonds, BusinessWeek 

Josh Tenuta, Apple Computer, Inc.

William Thomas, Southern Regional Education Board

Leslie Thornton Esq., Patton, Boggs, LLP 

Spud Van de Water, Education Commission of the States 

Kathy Walsh, IBM Corporation 

Ariel Weiss, Yad Hanadiv, Israel

Patrick White, Triangle Coalition on Science and Technology

Cheryl Williams, National School Boards Association 

Kirk Winters, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education 

Frank Withrow, ABLE Company 

Barbara Yentzer, National Education Association
Section one

163

CONTRIBUTORS

Bernadette Adams-Yates, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education 

Shakti Agarwal, Mississippi State University

Eric Aplyn, University of Missouri at St. Louis

Gary Bachala, Internet2

Corey Bagwell, Mississippi State University

Eva Baker, UCLA

Humphrey Barnes, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

Patricia Bartlett, Georgia Institute of Technology

Gary Beach, CIO Magazine

Vickie Bender, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Randy Bennett, Educational Testing Service

Boris Berenfeld, Concord Consortium

Amy Bilskie, Office of Representative Johnny Isakson

Michele Blair, Compaq Computer Corporation 

Carolyn Breedlove, National Education Association

Eleanor Briscoe, Budget Service, U.S. Department of Education

Anne Bryant, National School Boards Association

Warren Buhler, EdNetSat

Honorable Bill Campbell, Mayor of Atlanta, GA

Thomas Carroll, Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology Program,

U.S. Department of Education

Grace Caulfield, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Zuanarda Causey, Mississippi State University

Lynn D. Churchill, University of Montana

Russ Colbert, VTEL Corporation

Brent Crocker, Mississippi State University

Kristie Davis, Mississippi State University

Chris Dede, George Mason University

Michelle Dees, Mississippi State University

Gerry DeMauro, New York State Department of Education

Jim Demmers, Georgia Institute of Technology

Cindy Dwyer, Office of Senator Bob Kerrey

Fritz Edelstein, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education

Carolyn Elgin, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

John Emelki, Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of Education

Susan Erdeky, Office of General Counsel, U.S. Department of Education

Vincent Fain, National Educational Computing Association

Emmett Farrar, Mississippi State University

Joan Fenwick, AT&T Learning Network

Michael Feuer, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences

Tricia Fitzgerald, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Geoffrey Fletcher, T.H.E. Institute

Rose Fletcher, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

A. Lee Fritschler, Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education,

U.S. Department of Education 

Raissa Geary, Office of Senator Michael B. Enzi

Drew Gitomer, Educational Testing Service

Allen Glenn, University of Washington

INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS PROVIDING SERVICES TO THE COMMISSION

Appendix G
Section one

164

Appendix G

Larry Goldberg, CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media

Brad Goodman, Mississippi State University

Doug Gorton, Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Flemington, New Jersey

Lisa Grantham, Classroom Connect, Inc.

Kenneth C. Green, Campus Computing Project

Shawn Gross, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Peter Grunwald, Grunwald and Associates

Sandy Hagans, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

June Herndon, Mississippi State University

Anna Hillman, Mississippi State University

Adam Holder, Mississippi State University

Tom Horton, Georgia Institute of Technology

Jennifer House, Classroom Connect, Inc.

James Houton, Microsoft Corporation

Robert Hoyle, Mississippi State University 

Claudia Huff, Georgia Institute of Technology

Kathy Hurley, NetSchools Corporation

Donella Ingham, National Educational Computing Association 

Robert Iskander, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Scott Jaschik, The Chronicle of Higher Education

John Jennings, Office of Senator Jeff Bingaman

Chris Johnson, The New School University

Stephanie Jones, Office of Representative Johnny Isakson

Teresa Jones, Mississippi State University

Emily Judson, Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Flemington, New Jersey

Craig Juneau, Mississippi State University

Julie Kaminkow, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education

Jennifer Karras, UNext.com

Jennifer Kelly, Office of Senator Bob Kerrey

Contessa Kellogg, Office of Senator Bob Kerrey

Adriana Kezar, ERIC Clearinghouse

Cecila King, Mississippi State University

Kanita King, Mississippi State University

Molly Knott, TechNet

Keith Krueger, Consortium for School Networking

Cheryl Lemke, Metiri Group

Kristina Letourneau, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

Douglas Levin, American Institutes for Research

Liz Lindley, Kaplan, Inc.

Karen Marrow, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

Carmel Martin, Office of Senator Jeff Bingaman

Matthew Martin, Office of Senator Bob Kerrey

Elliott Masie, The MASIE Center

Maureen McLaughlin, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Postsecondary Education,

U.S. Department of Education

Barbara Means, SRI International

Ericka Miller, Office of Senator Bob Kerrey 

Janet Mills, Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs,

U.S. Department of Education

Debbie Montano, Qwest Communications International, Inc.
Section one

165

Neela Mookerjee, Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Flemington, New Jersey

Diane Morgan, Mississippi State University

Jane Morrisset, Qwest Communications International, Inc.

Gloria Mounts, Office of Committee Management, U.S. Department of Education

Yvonne Navalaney, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

Nisha Nair, Office of Senator Bob Kerrey

Shiresh Netke, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Wayne Neuburger, Oregon State Department of Education

Terri Nissen, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Jay Noell, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

Paulette Palladino, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Sujay Pandit, Hunterdon Central Regional High School, Flemington, New Jersey

Ronald Pare, Hunterdon Central Regional High School, New Jersey

Vicki Payne, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

Claudia Pharis-Weiss, Office of Representative Chaka Fattah

Emily Pierce, Office of Senator Bob Kerrey

Roy Pea, SRI International

Bernard Percy, Converge Magazine

Marianne Phelps, U.S. Department of Education

Bob Polaski, University of Nebraska at Omaha

Capri Posey, Mississippi State University

Tonya Redwine, Mississippi State University

Larry Ridgeway, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

Linda Roberts, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education

Jody Ryan, Office of Senator Bob Kerrey

P.J. Sanders, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

Nora Sabelli, National Science Foundation

Philip Schulz, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

Carol Shookhoff, EDC Center for Children and Technology

Mark Silzer, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Burck Smith, SMARTHINKING.com

Glee Smith, Office of Representative Johnny Isakson

Laterry Smith, Mississippi State University

Julie Smoragiewicz, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Mary Helen Stewart, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

Will Tanner, Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs, U.S. Department of Education

Pam Tate, Council for Adult and Experiential Learning 

Gina Tindall, Mississippi State University

Robert Tinker, Concord Consortium

Bernadette Toomey, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

Andrew Trotter, Education Week

Margie Tucker, Mississippi State University

Carole Wacey, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education

Jenny Waterbury, Mississippi State University

Jim Weynand, Compaq Computer Corporation

Yola Wilson, Mississippi State University

Kirk Winters, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education

Greg Wood, Internet2

Sandra Wood, Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

Wai-Soon Yang, Mississippi State University

Appendix G
Section one

166

Appendix G

CONTRACTORS

ACE - Federal Reporters, Inc.

Nancy Carson, Nancy Carson Associates

Mark Davis, M & R Davis, Inc.

DTI Associates, Inc.

Michael Goldstein, Esq., Dow, Lohnes & Albertson, PLLC

Jeanne Hayes, Quality Education Data

Glenn Hoptman, Lightbeam Interactive 

The Implementation Group/Lipman Hearne

David Merkowitz, Strategic Communications

Jerry Rosenbusch, 7th Wave Consulting

The Widmeyer Baker Group, Inc.
COMMISSION STAFF

David S. Byer, Executive Director

Kathleen P. Fulton, Project Director

Irene K. Spero, External Relations Director

Georgia (Russell) Trujillo, Operations Manager

Dara Feldman, Expert Consultant

Michelle Riconscente, Research Specialist

Shivani Reddy, Intern

Emily Dallara, Part-time Office Assistant

Section one

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Appendix H
December 2000

The text of this document is in the public domain. It is permissable to photocopy or

reprint this document.

To order copies of this report, write:

ED PUBS

Education Publications Center

U.S. Department of Education

P.O. Box 1398

Jessup, MD 20794-1398

Fax: (301) 470-1244

E-mail: edpubs@inet.ed.gov

You may also order toll-free: 1-877-433-7827 (1-877-4-ED-PUBS). If 877 service is not

yet available in your area, call 1-800-872-5327 (1-800-USA-LEARN). Those who use a

telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) or a teletypewriter (TTY) should call 1-800-

437-0833.

To order online, point your Internet browser to:

www.ed.gov/pubs/edpubs.html

This report is also available on the Commission's Web site at:

www.webcommission.org

On request, this publication is available in alternative formats, such as Braille, large print,

audiotape, or computer diskette. For more information, please contact the Department's

Alternate Format Center at

202-205-8113.

For more information, please contact us at:

U.S. Department of Education

The Web-based Education Commission

1990 K Street, NW

Washington, DC 20006-8533

E-mail: web_commission@ed.gov

Telephone: (202) 219- 7045 

NOTICE:

This document contains examples of programs created by public and private organizations.

They are provided for the reader's information and their inclusion is not intended as an

endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education.

Section one

168
Web-based Education Commission

www.webcommission.org

December 2000