As the Federation of American Scientist's Kay Howell has written recently in e-learn, "When we talk about technology for learning, we're talking about much more than using email to communicate with students, Google for doing homework research, and Powerpoint slides to support distance learning. We're talking about sophisticated information technologies tightly integrated into daily learning activities. We know that such software tools are possible because of the way information technology has been used in other service sector industries: powerful simulations and visualization tools used in computer games and movies; sophisticated help systems to provide accurate answers to questions; websites to undertake continuous evaluations of the individuals who use them, often tailoring offerings to interests and preferences revealed by the user. These technologies can be adapted to learning and will make it practical to adopt approaches to education that learning scientists have been advocating for years. New communication tools could enable learners to collaborate in complex projects and ask for help from teachers and experts from around the world. Learning systems could adapt to differences in student interests, backgrounds, learning styles and aptitudes. They could provide continuous measures of competence, integral to the learning process that can help teachers work more effectively with individuals and leave a record of competence that is compelling to students and to employers. And new tools could allow continuous evaluation and improvement of the learning systems themselves."

IMS Global: The R&D that is being conducted in other countries - is that being subsidized by their governments?

LG: Substantially. Other nations, ranging from Great Britain, to India, Singapore, and Italy are setting aside substantial amounts of money to bring their students up to speed. And we, alarmingly, and ironically, are falling way behind in comparison with just about all developed nations in how our students are progressing in math, science, reading and other basics.

And keep in mind that when we talk about the need for DO IT to invest in technology, we're not talking about buying computers and hardware as much as we are focusing on content and software. We have great precedents in American history for farsighted, transformative legislation that improved and expanded public education and higher education. One of the very first actions of Congress, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, required every new state to reserve public land to pay for public education, which started public education in the young nation, and indeed, in the world. In 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, Congress passed and Lincoln signed the Land Grant Colleges Act, called by historian Alan Nevins the most farsighted legislation in the nation's history. That act also required public land to be set aside in every state to help finance public higher education that would increase our nation's competitiveness with Europe by developing more productive agriculture and advanced manufacturing. The result is today's remarkable network of 105 outstanding public research universities serving every state. That act did provide no funds for buildings; it was assumed that the states would pay for that. The money from the federal legislation was to pay for teacher salaries, textbooks, and content. And in the 20th century, Congress passed the GI Bill of 1944, which opened higher education to millions of veterans and helped bring unprecedented post-war prosperity to the nation. In that spirit, we believe America needs once again to act and to provide a transformative education initiative for the 21st century