Congress launches the first national research program focused on technology and learning

WASHINGTON DC – Congress has authorized a major new research center, the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies, that will bring the same focused, sustained research funding to technology and learning that the federal government has funded for years in technology for health care at the National Institutes of Health and technology for energy at the Department of Energy.

"This new National Center will help move schools, universities, and training facilities nationwide into the 21st century," said Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, one of the proposal's original sponsors. "America's reputation as an international leader rests in the hands of our youth, and it should be among our top priorities to provide our students with the tools they need to maintain and build upon this standing. The National Center will help future American workers compete in the global marketplace."

"The National Center couldn't come at a more critical time," said Congressman John Yarmuth of Louisville, Kentucky, who spearheaded efforts to move the bill through the House. "American businesses know that they need a well-educated workforce to face growing competition from China, India, and Europe. Americans need to constantly upgrade their skills to keep pace with technology and international competition, and people who are losing their jobs often need to acquire new skills to rejoin the workforce."

Learning scientists and educators have known for years that people learn faster if education can be personalized, and if students are motivated by seeing how their knowledge can help them solve problems they, and their future employers, actually care about. These new technologies can help deliver on this promise. Students in today's schools were born into a digital world -- able to gather information, communicate and collaborate using the constantly expanding tools of the internet and the computers, wireless devices, game devices also attached to it.

"This initiative is built on historical precedents. Once each century, during a time of national crisis, our country has made a transformative investment in education – the Northwest Ordinance brought public education in the 18th century; the Land Grant Colleges Act brought public higher education in the 19th century; and the GI Bill of the 20th century. Creating the National Center will bring learning and skills training into the 21st century," said the co-chairs of the Digital Promise Project, former president of PBS and NBC News Lawrence K. Grossman and former American Arts Alliance president Anne G. Murphy.

This new National Center will do research that is essential for the United States in this digital age. The creativity that developed extraordinary new information technologies has not focused on finding ways to make learning more compelling, more personal, and more productive in our nation's schools. People assumed that the explosion of innovation in information tools in business and service industries would automatically move into classrooms.