Technology Administration
For Immediate Release     September 18, 2002	Contacts:	Cheryl Mendonsa, Technology Administration Telephone: 202 482-8321 Email: cheryl.mendonsa@technology.gov, or Marjorie Weisskohl, Technology Administration Telephone: 202 482-0149 Email: Mweisskohl@technology.gov

Administration Officials Underscore Importance of Advanced Educational Technology to Future Success of Students, Workers at Release of 2020 Visions Report

Secretary of Commerce Don Evans was joined yesterday by National Science Foundation Director Rita R. Colwell, and Under Secretary of Education Eugene W. Hickok for the release of 2020 Visions: Transforming Education and Training Through Advanced Technologies, a compilation of visions prepared by leaders in the fields of education and technology.

Ten of the vision authors were on-hand to present their visions and discuss the opportunities and challenges of harnessing the power of emerging technologies to revolutionize the education and training landscape. The visions, solicited by the Commerce Department, are part of an effort among the three federal agencies to bring together key stakeholders to accelerate and enable the development and deployment of these technologies.

"Today, R&D is underway in industry, government and university labs on new technologies for a wide range of applications that may revolutionize entire industries in the years ahead," said Secretary Evans. "Unfortunately, the education and training sectors have historically been among the last to benefit from emerging technologies. We must ensure that the power of these technologies is put in the hands of students, parents, and teachers to ensure that no child is left behind."

In lauding the visions, Education Under Secretary Hickok noted that the visions were as striking for what they didn't mention, as much as for what they did. "These visions challenge us to question our assumptions of education-grades, classes, physical buildings-and instead provide us with a glimpse of how technology can allow us to think of new ways of achieving the same goal - but through different means," said Hickok. "We still educate students based on an agricultural timetable, in an industrial setting, but tell students they live in a digital age. Our nation needs a revolution in the way we educate students in order to meet the expectations of excellence set forth by President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. These visions help paint a picture of that future."

"As we learn more about the science of learning, technology will be able to address the individual needs of each student endeavoring to learn. It will help us supply each learner with the means to enhance his or her individual learning process," said NSF Director Colwell. "The ultimate goal is truly to serve all students well, and to do whatever is needed to ensure that today's and tomorrow's workers are well prepared for their future. Educational technology can help us build that future."

The 2020 Visions report is available at www.technology.gov/reports. Art developed to illustrate the visions is available for use in reporting on the publication at http://www.technology.gov/PRel/2020Visions-Art.htm.

Vision authors participating in the release event included:

• Chris Dede, Wirth Professor of Learning Technologies, Harvard Graduate School of Education
• Gerald A. Higgins, SimQuest International, LLC and the Federation of American Scientists
• Randy Hinrichs, Group Research Manager, Learning Science and Technology, Microsoft Research
• Henry Kelly, Executive Secretary, The Learning Federation
• Caleb Schutz, President, Marco Polo Foundation, President, WorldCom Foundation, Vice President, WorldCom
• Diana Walczak, Artistic Director and Cofounder, Kleiser-Walczak
• R. Stanley Williams, Director, Quantum Science Research, Hewlett-Packard
• John I. Wilson, Executive Director, National Education Association
• Michael Zyda, Director, The MOVES Institute, Naval Postgraduate School, and
• Douglas H. Bennett, Study Director, National Research Council's Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board

Other paper authors and contributors include:

• Ruzena Bajcsy, Director, Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society, University of California at Berkeley
• Vinton Cerf, Senior Vice President for Internet Architecture and Technology, WorldCom
• Milton Chen, Executive Director, and Stephen D. Arnold, Vice Chair, George Lucas Educational Foundation
• Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation
• Randy Pausch, Co-Director, Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University
• Ulrich Neumann and Chris Kyriakakis, Integrated Media Systems Center, University of Southern California
• Will Wright, Chief Designer and Co-Founder, Maxis