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