From Des Moines to Charlottesville school districts across the country are making sure there is a laptop in the hands of every high school student. California’s e-textbook initiative augurs the nationwide rise of digital course materials. Teachers now use web videos to reinforce the quadratic formula or impart a civics lesson. Technology is moving forward. Our classrooms and our curriculum need to catch up.

We’re joining with the New York City Department of Education tomorrow morning for an event on digital learning in the 21st century. We’ll speak on the promise of wireless and present a roundtable on the future of K – 12 education, as America begins to employ digital learning solutions. This includes the adoption of digital textbooks and the possibilities of wireless technology to enhance learning in the classroom. Wednesday’s event will explore both the benefits and the obstacles to this shift. The event will take place tomorrow, March 9 from 10:30am to 12:15pm at the NYC iSchool at 131 6th Avenue, at Dominick Street.

Sharing the stage with Chairman Genachowski at the roundtable is a handful of the nation’s standouts in education, from both the public and private sectors. This includes Sharon Greenberger, COO of the NYC Department of Education; Alisa Berger, Principal of NYC iSchool, our host; Matthew Small, Chief Business Officer at Blackbord; and other luminaries.

There’s no better school to debut this initiative and hold this roundtable than the NYC iSchool. The iSchool, which introduced its first class in September 2008, looks to set the bar for 21st century learning. The innovative high school incorporates cutting edge technology into students’ everyday learning and both its teachers and students make it a central part of their mission to harness these tools. To learn more about the NYC iSchool, check out this video.


Join us. If you’re in the New York City area tomorrow, the event is free and open to the public – though we’d appreciate your pre-registration. Send an email with your name, organization name (if applicable) and phone number to diglearning [at] fcc [dot] gov.

Tablets and TVs; gadgets and tech-integrated vehicles; tech-enhanced musical instruments and heavily promoted headphones; innovative toys, energy efficient designs and wireless enabled products of all sorts. Sunday concluded a busy span of stunning technology pageantry in Las Vegas. Thousands of booths were set up and over 100,00 interested device enthusiasts arrived from all over the world for the Consumer Electronics Show , known more commonly as CES (or in this ever expanding, 140-character world, #CES).

Chairman Genachowski, all four Commissioners, and a retinue of FCC staff converged on the convention floor. They got a look at technology – from a wide range of companies – on the horizon and a sense of what’s upcoming in the innovation space. Many of the exhibits in sight shouted wireless and they shouted mobile.

On Friday, day two, the Chairman gave a speech on the need for expanded spectrum offerings and then sat down to chat with the host of the event, CEA CEO Gary Shapiro. This is what the Chairman said:

"As evidenced by the trade show floor, the consumer electronics industry is going wireless, and the future success of this industry and our innovation future depends on whether our government acts quickly to unleash more spectrum -- the oxygen that sustains our mobile devices. 

We’re in the early stages of a mobile revolution that is sparking an explosion in wireless traffic.  Without action, demand for spectrum will soon outstrip supply. 

To seize the opportunities of our mobile future, we need to tackle the threats to our invisible infrastructure.  We need to free up more spectrum."

Read the Chairman’s full speech.

As our team makes their way back to Washington, we’ll bring you their takes and some collected insights. For now, enjoy this video from the Washington Post, showing the Chairman touring the CES floor, speaking to the unbounded potential for job growth on display, and managing to get in a quick game of ping-pong using Microsoft’s Kinect.

(Cross posted on the Official FCC Blog.)

(Photo credit: LG Text Ed)

You can find them in the most innocent settings. The dinner table, the classroom, during evening homework hour or an otherwise quiet family walk. Clicking, clacking, beeping, buzzing and whirring. This maneuvering marauder? Mobile phones equipped with text messaging. These devices are exploding in use among the current generation and teens seem programmed to use them constantly.

A happy medium exists. Commonsense and responsible use of technology is within reach. To many parents the mobile culture is unfamiliar. We’re hosting a Generation Mobile forum next Tuesday bringing together teens, parents, educators and experts. During this event we’ll do our best to help parents navigate these challenging issues.

We’ll discuss cyberbullying, sexting, over use, privacy, and texting-while-driving. The Pew Internet and American Life project will present their findings from a landmark study, “Kids and Mobile Phones.”

For the Gleeks in the audience we’re pleased that actress and comedienne Jane Lynch, of LG’s Text Ed campaign, will be joining us remotely. Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees and Wannabes the book upon which the movie Mean Girls was based, will join FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in hosting the first panel “Generation Mobile Speaks” featuring teens, parents and educators. The second panel, “Ask the Experts About Generation Mobile” will feature experts from SafetyWeb, Facebook, Sprint and other major mobile and technology players. A full list of panelists and speakers is below.

This event is about you. We’ve lined up an impressive slate of experts for our sessions on kids, teens and mobile phones. What do you want to know when they take the stage Tuesday? We’ve filled in a couple of starter questions to stimulate ideas. Far more importantly we want to hear from you. Type in your question, wait for User Voice to generate and then click “Create New Idea” below the box. Ask your questions now.

We’re honored to be hosted by DC’s own, cutting edge McKinley Technology High School (151 T Street Northeast). The event will take place on Tuesday December 14th from 10am to 1pm ET. If you’re able to join us – free of charge – please RVSP to generationmobile [at] fcc [dot] gov. Since most of you are outside of the DC area we’ll be live streaming this exciting event online at fcc.gov/live. Participate through Twitter using #genmobile.

Stay tuned. We’ll post updates to the agenda and the speaker list as they become available.

Speakers and Panelists Include:

• Julius Genachowski, FCC Chairman
• Jane Lynch, Emmy Winning Actress and Spokesperson for the LG Text Ed Council
• Rosalind Wiseman, Author of Queen Bees and Wannabes, basis for Mean Girls the movie
• Tim Sparapani, Director of Public Policy, Facebook
• Parry Aftab, Kids Technology Expert and Creator of Stopcyberbullying.org
• Amanda Lenhart, Senior Research Specialist, Pew Research Center
• Marsali Hancock, President, Internet Keep Safe Coalition
• Michael Clark, Co-Founder, SafetyWeb
• Dr. Michael Levine, Executive Director, Joan Ganz Cooney Center
• Maureen Cooney, Privacy Officer, Sprint
• Stephen Balkam, CEO, Family Online Safety Institute
• K. Dane Snowden, Vice President, CTIA
• Alan Simpson, Vice President, Common Sense Media
• Lanita Preston, Author and mother of Frank Preston
• Stacey A. Kopnitsky, Assistant Principal, Cabin John Middle School
• Dwan Jordan, Principal, Sousa Middle School, Washington, DC
• And we’ll hear from a panel of teens about how they use mobile technology

(Cross posted on the Official FCC Blog.)

This morning Chairman Genachowski, Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett and a collection of FCC staff visited a state-of-the-art response facility at the Arlington County Emergency Communications Center in Arlington, Virginia. Following the vision laid out in the National Broadband Plan, the event marks the announcement of steps to revolutionize America’s 9-1-1 system by harnessing the potential of text, photo, and video in emergencies.



Our communications needs are increasingly reliant on mobile devices. In fact, 70% of 9-1-1 calls originate from mobile phones and users rely regularly on texts and multimedia messages. While a subsequent evolution of our 9-1-1 system seems a natural -- and obvious -- step for digitally aware citizen, our current 9-1-1 system doesn’t utilize the superb, possibly life-saving potential within our existing mobile devices. With videos, pictures, texts -- and other untold mobile innovations surely on the horrizon -- next-generation 9-1-1 will position public safety officials a step ahead with critical real-time, on-the-ground information.

After a tour of the high-tech operations room, Chairman Genachowski and Admiral Barnett spoke to the promise of next-generation 9-1-1. Here's an excerpt from Chairman Genachowski's speech.

"Even though mobile phones are the device of choice for most 9-1-1 callers, and we primarily use our phones to text, right now, you can’t text 9-1-1. Let me reiterate that point. If you find yourself in an emergency situation and want to send a text for help, you can pretty much text anyone EXCEPT a 9-1-1 call center.

"...It’s time to bring 9-1-1 into the digital age."

Read the rest of the Chairmans’s speech, view more photos and see the benefits of Next Generation 9-1-1 after the jump.

(This is cross-posted on The FCC Official Blog.)

Senior Advisor to the Chairman on Broadband Phoebe Yang delivered these remarks to county commissioners and staff from rural California counties last week in Napa, CA.

Like each of you, I understand that the health of America as a nation is inextricably dependent on the health of rural America. My hometown was an agricultural, railroad town in the rural plains of Arkansas, where farmers made their living raising cotton, rice, and soybeans. Just as my hometown farmers realized in the 1920s and 1930s that electricity was essential for them to compete, Americans today realize that broadband is no longer a luxury but a necessity to participate in the modern economy.

Phoebe Yang, Senior Advisor to the Chairman on Broadband, gave this speech about the intersection between communications technology and health care at a conference sponsored by the American Telemedicine Association on Monday, Sept. 27.

Over a century ago, Alexander Graham Bell met with the President of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, to demonstrate a new invention: the telephone. After Bell finished his demonstration, the President turned to him and said, “That’s an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?”

As it turned out, the answer to the President’s question was simple: doctors.

As the eminent sociologist Dr. Paul Starr notes, the first recorded telephone exchange connected 21 Connecticut doctors with the Capital Avenue Drugstore in Hartford. The first phone line in Rochester, Minnesota, connected a doctor by the name of Mayo with his local drugstore. By 1923, use of the telephone was so widespread in the medical profession that a Philadelphia doctor’s manual on medical practice remarked that it had become as necessary to the physician as the stethoscope.

Our era is perhaps an even more transformative time for medicine. As all of you know firsthand, we’ve seen tremendous innovation and investment in telemedicine over the last decade.

Read More

Tomorrow at 12:00PM (9:00AM PT), FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will appear at a public forum in Silicon Valley to discuss E-rate modernization and innovation in education.  The Chairman will also announce the launch of the FCC’s Parents’ Place page.  The public forum is hosted by Common Sense Media, and is about creating digital opportunity for families through innovation in education and by empowering both parents and kids online.

The forum is open to the public and can also be watched live via webcast.  You can also send questions to ask the Chairman and co-panelists via email (livequestions@fcc.gov) or through Twitter using the hashtag #kidstech.
 

TITLE:           Back to School: Learning and Growing in a Digital Age

HOSTS:          Hosted by Common Sense Media; co-hosted by PBS, The Children’s Partnership, and the USC Annenberg Center for Communication Leadership & Policy

WHAT:           A public forum for leaders from Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C., to discuss the best strategies for bringing technology innovations to our schools -- and other learning settings -- and bringing the benefits of the digital revolution to parents and kids while addressing online risks.

WHEN:           Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010

8:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m (Pacific Time)

WHERE:        Computer History Museum

1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.

Mountain View, CA

AGENDA:      8:15 – 9 a.m.  (Pacific Time)

Interactive Technology Showcase and continental breakfast

9 – 9:20 a.m. (Pacific Time)

Introductory Remarks by James P. Steyer, CEO and Founder, Common Sense Media

Opening Remarks by Julius Genachowski, Chairman, FCC

9:20 – 10:30 a.m. (Pacific Time)

Panel 1: Innovation in Education

Panelists:
Julius Genachowski, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
Karen Cator, Director of Education Technology, U.S. Dept of Education
Shawn Covell, Vice President, Government Affairs, Qualcomm
Patrick Gaston, President, Verizon Foundation

Murugan Pal, Co-Founder & President, CK-12 Foundation

Moderator: Geoffrey Cowan, Dean Emeritus, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

10:50 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (Pacific Time)

Panel 2: Empowering Parents and Kids with Technology

Panelists:
Sara DeWitt, Vice President, PBS KIDS Interactive,
Mandeep Dhillon, CEO and Co-founder, Togetherville
Joe Sullivan, Chief Security Officer, Facebook

Catherine Teitelbaum, Director of Child Safety and Product Policy, Yahoo!
Marian Merritt, Internet Safety Advocate, Symantec

Moderator: Wendy Lazarus, Founder and Co-President, The Children’s Partnership

This morning I attended a forum on empowering small businesses with broadband hosted by John Donahoe, eBay CEO, and featuring remarks by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.  The event highlighted “eBay top sellers” who are owners of small businesses on eBay from around the country that all rely on broadband as a critical technology to run their business.

We at the FCC are aware of the statistics proving the importance of entrepreneurs, empowered by broadband, to our economy.  Together they create jobs and wealth and drive the country forward through innovation and ingenuity.  And we know that supporting these businesses with cutting edge connectivity is not just a good idea, but a vital national purpose.

However, no statistic or policy paper on small businesses could illustrate broadband’s power to spur job creation better than the remarkable stories I heard today from eBay sellers.  These entrepreneurs are creating jobs, boosting exports, and greening the economy through the use of broadband.  Here are just a few of their stories:

·         Using broadband and eBay, a Cleveland area seller of gaming equipment has added 37 jobs in the past year alone and recently expanded into a 200K Sq Ft closed auto plant.

·         A South Dakota seller of recycled electronics hired 30% more workers in the past year and says broadband is the only way he can run his businesses from a rural area.

·         A seller of recycled laptops, a green small business in Nevada, has 50 employees, adding 25 within the past year.

·         An auto parts seller from Massachusetts started his businesses from his garage in 1999 and now uses broadband for over 1,000 sales a day and has hired 40% more workers this year alone.

·         A Michigan seller of recycled cell phones has hired 20 people in the past 18 months and prides himself on running a green business.

·         A Massachusetts golf ball and sports equipment recycler with 75 employees, including 25 added in the past year, uses broadband to reach its customers and green the economy.

These incredible stories are just a few examples of how broadband and the Internet enable anyone with an idea to start a business from their garage and reach global markets.  Rebuilding our economy with the best broadband infrastructure and the right policies in place will allow American creativity and ingenuity to lead our country to a revitalized economy.

President Obama’s “Educate to Innovate” campaign aims to improve the performance of America’s students in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

The FCC, building on the President’s call to action, has proposed a series of recommendations in the National Broadband Plan that recognize broadband as an important tool to help educators, parents and students meet major challenges in education, including those in the STEM fields.  The Broadband Plan recognizes that investment in broadband and STEM education will help us lead the world in 21st century educational innovation.

Discovery Communications, as part of the “Educate to Innovate” initiative, has launched a new, commercial-free science education programming block that is airing Monday-Friday (4:00 to 5:00 PM ET/PT) and Saturdays (7:00-9:00 AM ET/PT) on Science Channel.  In place of commercial advertising, Science Channel is running PSAs highlighting notable “cool jobs” in the STEM fields.

Over the last two days we’ve partnered with the Food and Drug Administration to host a wireless medical technology showcase. With over twenty exhibitors displaying their cutting edge devices and six superb panels it has been an eventful meeting. We’ve put together a video blog looking at some of the latest devices in the medical arena. Join Chairman Genachowski, FDA Commissioner Peggy Hamburg and Federal Chief Technology Officer Annesh Chopra as we have a look.