Policy either restricts or encourages innovation and growth. Now, more than ever, it is crucial to have leadership in government which recognizes the changing nature of our education system and understands that old models of support and regulation are not sufficient for the new normal in schools. This week, in a new e-book and his first speech, Chairman Tom Wheeler shows that he is a man who understands these realities, praising any time, any pace learning and pointing out the proven benefits of flipped and online instruction.
As we continue to push for the E-rate program to be modernized and reformed, we are excited to have Chairman Wheeler leading the FCC’s deliberations on NPRM process.
In a speech at Ohio State University on Monday, Wheeler talked about how we are living in a time of revolutionary technological change and emphasized the need for the FCC to protect and encourage competition.
“Our goal should be to ask how competition can best serve the public – and what, if any, action (including governmental action) is needed to preserve the future of network competition in wired or wireless networks,” said Wheeler. “Notice that I stressed “if any.” If the facts and data determine that a market is competitive, the need for FCC intervention decreases. I have zero interest in imposing new regulations on a competitive market just because we can.”
Connecting homes to the internet remains a crucial point as 20 percent of Americans cannot get online at home and 15 million Americans live in areas where they can’t get wireline broadband, even if they wanted it. Wheeler builds off of this fact to argue that,
“We also will have failed as a nation if our schools aren’t capable of providing a 21st century education. A recent survey of school teachers and administrators found that 80 percent felt there wasn’t network bandwidth available to them to meet their educational needs.That’s why the Commission is improving our universal service programs, including the eRate program for schools and libraries. We are modernizing a program originally conceived to deliver plain old telephone service into programs to ensure broadband access to all Americans, including American schools.”
Read the rest of his speech here
Concurrently, Wheeler released a first of its kind eBook, titled Net Effects: The Past, Present & Future Impact of Our Networks – History, Challenges and Opportunities. As a historian, Wheeler’s perspective on the past and present state of our networks is fascinating and offers much encouragement for those of us who believe that digital learning offers a tremendous promise for students across America.
Key Points:
- The End of the Tyranny of Place: Today’s networks have turned the tyranny of place inside-out. Wireless distribution of digital information to hand-held computing devices represents the first time in history that the user commands the information he or she needs. Mobile information retrieval empowers the user to order the delivery of whatever information he or she wants to the place where it may be most productively consumed.
- Praises Flipped Learning: “The new networks allow for the old pedagogical approach to be stood on its head. The traditional model used the teacher’s time to uniformly broadcast a uniform lesson to a decidedly non-uniform audience; then the student would struggle alone to apply the lesson to homework. The new networks enable another approach; the student watches the common lecture on a connected device alone and at his/her own pace. They can stop as needed to repeat something that wasn’t clearly understood. Then the student comes to class where the teacher can personalize instruction based upon the student’s comprehension of the lesson and where the irreplaceable stimulation of collegial discussion can be hosted.”
- Recognizes that Next Generation Learning Depends on At-Home Internet Access: “This new educational opportunity, of course, depends on access to the new networks’ capabilities. If a student cannot get access to the Internet at home the new model falls apart.”
- Champions the Efficacy and Access of Blended Learning: “New networks, of course, allow this new education paradigm to operate by delivering lessons to the students’ connected device wherever the student may be and at whatever pace may be appropriate. The process also allows teachers to monitor the students’ activity so as to be able to intervene as necessary. Studies by Carnegie Mellon University’s Open Learning Initiative have shown that such programs blending online learning with in-person instruction can dramatically reduce the time required to learn a subject while greatly increasing course completion rates.”