Image courtesy of WhiteHouse.gov; taken by Lawrence Jackson
The government, as part of President Obama’s American Jobs Act, is putting a greater focus on education. One very important measure that was announced at the end of last week is the Digital Promise Initiative. It is a partnership between the government and private sector businesses with the expressed purpose of bringing American K-12 classrooms into the forefront of the digital age.
Within this initiative are a number of items seeking to improve the technological presence in schools across America. It encourages rapid testing of new technologies, as well as a hefty increase in spending for research and development in the K-12 setting. The government states that of all the money spent on K-12, only 0.2% goes towards R&D. It hopes by creating a demand for innovation and technological development in education, we can improve learning conditions for all students in America.
Other impressive projects highlighted include augmented reality for students with learning disabilities, online tutoring, educational games, and even vocabulary building robots (Which reminds me of the South Korean Engkey robots, but we’ll save that discussion for another week).
A full list of details can be found on the Digital Promise Fact Sheet.
Adam Garnica 