Reading Online - From the Editors: There's No Turning Back

Harnessing the Power of the Internet:
The U.S. Web-Based Education Commission Issues a Call to Action

A friend recently told me that she had stopped reading a particular technology magazine because it was “stressing her out.” There was simply too much information about all the latest developments, and she couldn’t possibly keep up with it all. Now she uses an online news service that e-mails her technology-related headlines, giving her the latest news at a glance, with the option of reading the complete article if she chooses. She’s reading less, but feeling more informed!

This editorial is intended to function somewhat like a headline highlighter, drawing your attention to an important report released online in January 2001, The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice, by the Web-based Education Commission to the President and the Congress of the United States. The commission, chaired by Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska and with Representative Johnny Isakson of Georgia as vice-chair, spent a year learning how the Internet is changing the delivery of education in the United States. Their conclusion is unequivocal: Despite serious barriers in our laws and usual ways of “doing school,” the Internet has awe-inspiring potential to expand the learning horizons for students of all ages. The report opens and closes with a clarion call to action, asking that policy makers at the federal, state, and local levels, students and educators, parents, communities, and the private sector work together to take a giant step forward into an educational future that reflects the reality and potential of an Internet-based society.

The report and executive summary are available at the Web-based Education Commission’s Web site. The report is designed to be a policy road map and offers findings and recommendations in each chapter. It also makes the reality and promise of these new ways of learning come alive in the many illustrative stories included.

In addition to the report, the Web site provides summaries of the hearings and e-testimonies that formed the basis of the final document. I found the testimonies a wonderful resource. They allow the reader to sample the diverse viewpoints and experiences of educators, parents, students, researchers, and members of the business, technology, and military communities.

The table of contents of the report is presented below, with active links to the online version (note that PDF and Microsoft Word versions are also available for viewing and downloading from the commission’s Web site, and site visitors can also place online orders for printed copies).

Foreword and Executive Summary

Section 1: The Power of the Internet for Learning

   Illustrative Stories:
      Arming Soldier with Laptops
      West Virginia: Turning the Campus into a Computer Lab

Section 2: Seizing the Opportunity

   Access to Broadband Technologies: Bridges Across the Digital Divide
      Illustrative Stories:
         Digitizing Dakota!
         Breaching Canyon Walls: Bringing the World to Isolated Reservations

   Professional Development: How Technology Can Enhance Teaching
      Illustrative Stories:
         Helping Isolated Teacher Make New Connections
         Co-Authors in Cyberspace

   Correcting a Paucity of Research and Development
      Illustrative Stories:
         Making the Web Accessible for Students with Disabilities
         e-Learning: The Medical Model

   Compelling Online Content
      Illustrative Stories:
         Telecom Workers: Overcoming Educational “Busy Signals”
         Turning Students into Virtual Explorers

   Removing Regulatory Restrictions to E-Learning
      Illustrative Stories:
         Learning at “Virtual U”

   Privacy, Protection, and “Safe Streets”
      Illustrative Stories:
         “YO, It’s Time for Braces”

   Funding for e-Learning: A Continuing Challenge
      Illustrative Stories:
         A Classroom That Keeps Up with Migrant Kids

Section 3: A Call to Action: Moving from Promise to Practice

Appendices

Reading this report (well, reading some sections and skimming others) was a heartening experience for me. I am encouraged by the strong and urgent recommendation of the commission that we in the United States “embrace an ‘e-learning’ agenda as a centerpiece of our federal education policy” (p. 127). The commission also urges the incoming administration and Congress to develop an agenda that will act quickly to remove barriers such as lack of broad-band access and copyright laws that constrain the pedagogical potential of Web-based content, and to make a major and sustained investment in teachers’ professional development and preservice training, hardware and software development and resources, and educational research. I appreciated the recognition of teachers who are leading the way in innovative Internet teaching and the clear statement that Web sites and content must be designed to ensure access for all individuals, including those with disabilities. The report does not side-step critical issues such as the digital divide and the widening gap between poor and more affluent schools and families.

As literacy educators, we value teaching children to be lifelong readers and learners. The Internet is, and will continue to be, an important vehicle for making that happen. Whether we are well positioned to shape and direct how the Internet and future technologies are designed and used in education is our challenge, and our opportunity. (Don Leu, an expert on the Internet and new literacies, eloquently speaks to this issue in his article “Our Children’s Future: Changing the Focus of Literacy and Literacy Instruction”).

For many teachers and schools there is an immediate need to obtain financial and community support for the hardware, software, professional development, and technical assistance that are essential to successful technology integration. The information in this report can be used to help make a compelling case for this kind of major investment in our schools and teachers. As the report concludes, “The question is no longer if the Internet can be used to transform learning in new and powerful ways...it can.... It is time we collectively move the power of the Internet for learning from promise to practice.”

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Citation: Dalton, B. (2001, March). Harnessing the power of the Internet: The U.S. Web-based Education Commission issues a call to action. Reading Online, 4(8). Available: http://www.readingonline.org/editorial/edit_index.asp?HREF=/editorial/march2001/index.html