President's Information Technology Advisory Committee
|
February 9, 2001
|
Co-Chairs:
Raj Reddy
Irving Wladawsky-Berger
Members:
Eric A. Benhamou
Vinton Cerf
Ching-chih Chen
David Cooper
Steven D. Dorfman
David Dorman
Robert Ewald
Sherrilynne S. Fuller
Hector Garcia-Molina
Susan L. Graham
James N. Gray
W. Daniel Hillis
Robert E. Kahn
Ken Kennedy
John P. Miller
David C. Nagel
Edward H. Shortliffe
Larry Smarr
Joe F. Thompson
Leslie Vadasz
Steven J. Wallach |
The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
The President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC)
applauds your new initiative on education, one of the Nation's most
fundamental concerns. We share your vision of a more efficient,
effective, accountable, and equitable education and training environment,
and we believe that information technology will play an increasing
role in realizing that vision. Our 1999 report, Information Technology
Research: Investing in Our Future, identified learning for all
citizens throughout their lives as one of the vital areas where
information technology offers the potential to dramatically transform
current practices in ways that will greatly benefit all Americans.
Thus, we are pleased to
enclose Using Information Technology to Transform the Way
We Learn, part of a series of studies following up on the
1999 report. This report highlights our findings and recommendations
on how the Federal government can provide the leadership needed
to solve key information technology challenges and to improve the
quality of, and public access to, distant, knowledge-intensive,
and otherwise unaffordable educational and training experiences.
Our goal is to define a long-range program that will provide all
citizens with full and easy electronic access to education and training
resources enhanced by new technologies and used by properly prepared
teachers and trainers. This combination of technology and teachers
using new teaching and evaluation methods has the potential to provide
enormous leverage in the pursuit of more effective and less costly
education and training.
Based on our findings,
information technology promises to help improve learning in very
exciting new ways, provided that the educational infrastructure
and technologies are improved. The overarching recommendation
is that the Federal government set as a national priority the effective
integration of information technology with education and training.
This must be at the core of any far-reaching education initiative.
Four subordinate recommendations urge that the Federal government:
- Establish and coordinate
a major research initiative for information technology in
education and training, including learning technologies
and sciences, information technologies for education and
training, and requirements for learning and teaching information
technology fluency;
- Establish focused
government-industry-foundation partnerships to aggressively
pursue the information technology research program;
- Develop programs
that enable educators and related professionals to use information
technology effectively; and
- Work with industry
and academia to develop technical standards for extendable
component-based technologies and infrastructures that can
be widely used in online education and training.
|
We believe that adopting
these recommendations will allow the Nation to make significant
strides towards realizing our shared vision. The Committee looks
forward to working with you and the Congress to empower American
citizens by providing them with lifelong access to dramatically
improved educational experiences enhanced by information technology.
Thank you for the continuing opportunity to advise you on these
and other important issues.
|
Sincerely,
Raj Reddy, Ph.D.
PITAC, Co-Chair |
Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Ph.D.
PITAC, Co-Chair |
Enclosure
|
|
