Big Idea 2014: Let's Close the Digital Learning Gap

This post is part of a series in which LinkedIn Influencers pick one big idea that will shape 2014. See all the ideas here.

We are facing a digital learning gap in America – yet another divide between the haves and have nots. One that we must close as decisively and quickly as possible so the opportunity to learn in school and throughout life is open to everyone, not just a few.

Few Americans would disagree that education is an urgent national priority. Yet despite efforts over the last 20 years to improve the performance of our schools, teachers and students, the U.S. education system as a whole stands in the middle of international rankings.

But let’s be clear: the problem with education in America is not lack of excellence; there are pockets of excellence that outshine the best of the best around the world. All across the country, students are designing, coding, composing, animating and publishing. They are experimenting and solving problems of water and energy, creating guides to local treasures and developing global competence through virtual exchanges that connect students across cultural and national borders.

And all across the country, innovative education leaders and classroom teachers are engaging, motivating and nurturing students to develop mindsets for lifelong learning.

The problem with our schools is not lack of excellence. It’s lack of equity.

Huge gaps exist between the learning outcomes, graduation rates and college readiness of students based on race, class and where they live. Gaps also exist between high-performing and under-performing schools based on differences in the willingness of school leaders to innovate, access to funding and resources, and community commitment.

To close these gaps, since 2001 we have stressed accountability based on annual testing. But now we know that standardized tests to the near-exclusion of all other measures do not improve performance, but rather give rise to uninspired “teaching to the test.”

All of this could be about to change. Just as the printing press and free public libraries caused literacy rates among European adults to soar by making books readily available to all – not just the wealthy – technology represents a huge new opportunity for all Americans to learn.

Technology, and especially the Internet and mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones, has become ubiquitous in our daily lives and affordable even to our public schools.

With the Internet, students can access primary source documents, do research on just about anything and listen to explanations over and over. Huge numbers of education-focused websites help people learn – people of all ages and stages of life, from students to professionals to leisure-time learners.

With mobile devices and wireless access, teachers and students can do what they naturally want to do – move around the classroom or the campus, work one-on-one with each other or team up in small groups. Few students want to learn in isolation, tethered to headphones plugged into computers in a lab down the hall.

Now, after decades of experimenting with various technologies in classrooms, we are on the brink of a revolution in learning made possible by the Internet and mobile devices. As I wrote in a previous LinkedIn post, education is having its Internet moment.

Still, we face a challenge with learning technology similar to challenges we have grappled with in all transformative learning strategies and resources. Not everyone has the vision; not everyone is comfortable using technology for learning; and not all districts and schools choose to use their resources to purchase technology and the professional development and support teachers need to transform their print-based learning environments to a print-plus-digital.

As a result, we have a digital learning gap in America. Some students have access to technology for learning; many don’t.

How can we close this gap? There are three parts to the problem, each with its own solutions.

1. Lack of access: Not all teachers and students have 24 x 7 access to high-speed Internet and a mobile device for learning.

Over the past 15 years, the FCC through its E-Rate program has achieved the goal of connecting just about every U.S. school and library to the Internet. However, as technology has advanced and adoption has increased, many of these connected schools and libraries no longer have adequate bandwidth to support demand.

To address this problem, the FCC is working to modernize the E-Rate program to make it more affordable for schools and libraries to upgrade their Internet connection speeds. This is an effort all Americans should support.

2. Lack of participation: Nearly 98 percent of Americans have access to the Internet, but there are still about 60 million Americans who choose not to go online.

Already, access to jobs, federal benefits, healthcare through public health insurance exchanges and increasingly, educational opportunities require high-speed Internet access. Over time, the reality of living in a digital world will resolve the participation issue. But we can’t wait.

Our public schools must begin now to educate students and their families about the importance of digital technology to their futures. They also must ensure that all students are digitally literate – that they understand online information, media and how to be competent digital citizens before they reach adulthood.

3. Lack of empowering use: Many teachers and students do not yet have the knowledge and skills to apply technology to learning in completely new and meaningful ways.

In the old model of education, the job of schools was to teach students everything they needed to know for life and work. But in a rapidly changing world powered by technology, we can no longer learn everything there is to know. Instead, students must acquire the knowledge, competencies and skills that prepare them to continually learn new skills for a future we cannot predict. This can only be achieved by leveraging technology in learning.

So my big idea for education in 2014 is to close the digital learning gap, so all Americans have the opportunity to learn now and throughout their lifetimes.

Join me in my cause.


Karen Cator is President and CEO of Digital Promise, a non-profit whose mission is to vastly improve the opportunity for all Americans to learn by accelerating innovation in education through technology and research. From 2009-2013, Karen was Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education.