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Just "DO IT"

By Michael Feldstein, Lisa Neal, Ken Korman / September 2006

TYPE: OPINION
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As eLearn Magazine marks its fifth year of publication, we can think of no better way to celebrate the past and ensure a bright future for e-learning than by urging the support and passage of the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust Act. If passed, the act would create a Digital Opportunity Investment Trust (DO IT), generating an estimated $1 billion annually from interest on money acquired from the impending sale of analog television spectrum. The roadmap for the trust's activities, developed by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), offers a number of revolutionary possibilities:

  • Exponential growth of free, high-quality educational content: DO IT will fund the digitization of content in libraries and museums across the United States, as well as the creation of substantial new content. With the level of resources available under the trust, the dream of universally accessible materials for cradle-to-grave education can finally come true.
  • Solving of the hard problems: DO IT will provide the funds necessary to crack some of the critical but elusive goals of educational technology development, including authentic assessment tools, intelligent tutoring systems, and immersive simulation development environments. These developments could have a very substantial impact on the quality of education.
  • Fostering a coherent online educational experience: The DO IT roadmap includes further development of interoperability standards. With these standards, educational tools and content can be combined into a coherent experience for the learners rather than the disjointed jumble of separate tools and resources that it often is today.
  • Elimination of toll roads to education: Content and technologies funded by DO IT will be released into the public domain. Teachers and students all over the world will have access to them at no cost.

Educators DO IT Together

Although the Digital Promise Act is building momentum within Congress, its passage is not yet assured—you can do something about that. If you are a United States citizen, go to Digital Promise's Take Action page. There you will be able to contact your Congressional Representative and Senators in support of the legislation. If you are not a United States citizen, tell your American friends and urge them to write their legislators.

eLearn Magazine has grown to what it is today through your participation. As we look to our collective future, we remain as proud and confident as ever that you will continue to do your part in improving education.



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ADDITIONAL READING

    Michael Feldstein
  1. When Weblogs Can Be Harmful
  2. Informational cascades in online learning
  3. Unbolting the chairs
  4. A call to arms
  5. There's no such thing as a learning object
  6. Designing usable, self-paced e-learning courses
  7. Want better courses?
  8. The digital promise
  9. Don't Just Teach to the Metrics
  10. E-learning basics: essay: developing your e-learning for your learners
  11. Desperately seeking software simulations
  12. Do you really need reusability?
  13. How to design recyclable learning objects
  14. Ill-served
  15. What's important in a learning content management system
  16. Disaster and opportunity
  17. 'E-Moderating' by Gilly Salmon and 'In Good Company The Secrets to Successful Learning Communities' by Don Cohen and Laurence Prusak
  18. In defense of online learning (and veggie burgers)
  19. Back to the future: what's next after learning objects
  20. What is usable e-learning?
  21. Ignore usability at your peril
  22. Ken Korman
  23. Exploring the digital universe
  24. Lisa Neal
  25. "Spot Learning"
  26. Q&A with Saul Carliner
  27. When will e-learning reach a tipping point?
  28. Online learning and fun
  29. In search of simplicity
  30. eLearning and fun
  31. Everything in moderation
  32. The basics of e-learning
  33. Is it live or is it Memorex?
  34. The Value of Voice
  35. Predictions for 2006
  36. Five Questions...for Christopher Dede
  37. Five Questions... for John Seely Brown
  38. Five questions...for Shigeru Miyagawi
  39. "Deep" thoughts
  40. 5 questions... for Richard E. Mayer
  41. Designing usable, self-paced e-learning courses
  42. Want better courses?
  43. Five questions...
  44. Formative evaluation
  45. Senior service
  46. Blogging to learn and learning to blog
  47. My life as a Wikipedian
  48. Five questions...for Elliott Masie
  49. The stripper and the bogus online degree
  50. Five questions...for Lynn Johnston
  51. Five questions...for Tom Carey
  52. Not all the world's a stage
  53. Five questions...for Karl M. Kapp
  54. Five questions...for Larry Prusack
  55. Five questions...for Seb Schmoller
  56. Do distance and location matter in e-learning?
  57. Why do our K-12 schools remain technology-free?
  58. Music lessons
  59. Learn to apologize for fun and profit
  60. Of web hits and Britney Spears
  61. Advertising or education?
  62. Five questions…for Matt DuPlessie
  63. Back to the future
  64. Serious games for serious topics
  65. Five (or six) questions...for Irene McAra-McWilliam
  66. Learner on the Orient Express
  67. Talk to me
  68. Degrees by mail
  69. Predictions for 2004
  70. Q&A with Diana Laurillard
  71. Do it yourself
  72. How to get students to show up and learn
  73. Q&A
  74. Blended conferences
  75. Predictions for 2002
  76. Learning from e-learning
  77. Storytelling at a distance
  78. Q&A with Don Norman
  79. Predictions For 2003