The Internet is perhaps the most transformative technology in history, reshaping business, media, entertainment, and society in astonishing ways. But for all its power, it is just now being tapped to transform education.

The good news is that the Internet is bringing us closer than we ever thought possible to make learning- of all kinds, at all levels, any time, any place, any pace-a practical reality for every man, woman, and child.

The bad news? Millions still cannot access the Internet and do not understand how to use it to harness the global web of knowledge.

They do not know how to deal in information, the basic currency of the knowledge economy. They do not know how to find information, how to handle it, how to trade in it, how to invest it for their futures.

These individuals, already at risk, will become increasingly marginal in the emerging knowledge economy-unless we change current law, current regulations, and current practices.

The World Wide Web is a tool that empowers society to school the illiterate, bring job training to the unskilled, open a universe of wondrous images and knowledge to all students, and enrich the understanding of the lifelong learner.

The opportunity is at hand. The power and the promise are here. It is now time to move from promise to practice.

Age-Old Dreams,
Down-to-Earth Problems

Amidst all of the hype about the Internet is the reality of its inevitability. Forged by the competitive struggles of the private sector, it will soon surpass today's expectations like a Ferrari overtaking the Model-T.

Web-based education is just beginning, with something of far greater promise emerging in the middle distance. Yet technology, even in its current stage of development, can already allow us to realistically dream of achieving age-old goals in education-

To center learning around the student
instead of the classroom

To focus on the strengths and
needs of individual learners

To make lifelong learning a reality

Blazing Trails

The bipartisan, congressional Web-based Education Commission set out to discover how the Internet is being used to enhance learning opportunity, and to identify ways that Congress and the President can help local schools, state education agencies, and postsecondary institutions overcome barriers.

Our work began with face-to-face hearings across America and in virtual hearings on the Web. The Commission listened to hundreds of people eager to show how the Internet and learning are coming together to meet the needs of their communities and schools. From the Head Start teacher on an Indian reservation, to the governor of South Dakota, to the superintendent of a challenged inner-city school district, to the Secretary of the U.S. Army, they gave us a vision of the tremendous promise of the Internet, and they demonstrated its power.1

And we listened to those who are concerned about preserving the most valuable elements of traditional education delivery as we move ahead in developing web-based courses and models.

What did they tell us? They told us that the Internet offers education in places where there is none and extends resources where few exist. They told us that the Internet connects people, communities, and resources to support learning. They told us that it extends the learning day and the learning place. They showed us how it adds graphics, sound, video, and interaction to give teachers and learners multiple paths for understanding. And they told us the Web is a media today's kids expect to use for expression and communication-the world into which they were born.

We also learned that the most important ingredient is not money. It is the presence of a local hero or heroes with the vision, courage, and stamina to challenge the status quo. Absent this ingredient, more money will be of little benefit.

The Commission listened to people facing problems as varied as all of America. The solutions they created were no less diverse. Every person who testified before us had one thing in common: each was an Internet trailblazer who heard the cries of need in their communities, and responded-crafting solutions that best fit local outlooks and expectations.

Each saw an opportunity and took it. Each accepted risk. Each embraced a challenge. For these reasons, we believe these Internet trailblazers are among the new heroes of education.

A Call to Action
These leaders identified distinct barriers to web-based education, and urged us to remove them. They told us the promise of the Internet could not be fully realized unless there is:
· Greater access to broadband connectivity
· Guidance in the best uses of the Web for learning
· Understanding of how people learn differently with the Internet
· Content that leverages the powerful capabilities of the Web
We also heard their frustrations. They informed us that yesterday's regulations stymie innovation. They warned us that the Internet is still uncharted territory and urged us to assure that appropriate protections are put in place. And they emphasized that without new sources of funding the promise of the Internet for learning may not be met.
Above all, they asked us to issue a national call to action to remove these barriers.

What Are We
Waiting For?

Against this backdrop of opportunity, there are some that have called on us to hold back. In essence, they seek a moratorium on the educational use of digital technologies, including the Internet, until clear evidence of their effectiveness and shortcomings are better understood.

We believe that this call, if heeded, would squander a momentous opportunity in education. This Commission believes that we have sufficient evidence to know that the Internet-if used wisely -enhances education.
We know it works. It is an empirical success in schools, and an empirical success in the private sector.

Imagine what would have happened if the nation's corporate leaders had imposed a similar moratorium in 1990, before they were able to measure objectively any positive impact of technology investment in productivity. It took years for these technological investments to bear fruit. Fortunately, business made these investments in technology. As vast as those investments were, they are dwarfed by their results-a one-third increase in real U.S. economic growth.2

We live in a global market, one in which a strained U.S. labor market has to import brainpower and high-skilled workers, or rent it over the Internet from people living in Dublin or Mumbai. In such a rapidly changing environment, standing still is not an option.

Those in the educational sector who would have us wait fail to grasp what has been obvious to the private sector for half-a-decade. The Internet is not a fad. It is not just another in a long line of technologies that have promised a "quick fix" for education. Its reach and impact on all aspects of society are unprecedented. The interactivity of this new technology makes it different from anything that came before. It elicits participation, not passive interest. It gives learners a place for communication, not isolation.

It is not a new form of television. It is the beginning of a new way of learning.

In one sense, however, those who urge education to hold back have nothing to worry about. A de facto moratorium already exists in most American schools. On average, U.S. firms spend between $3,500 and $5,500 per worker in technology and technological support each year,3 compared to per student spending on technology that rarely exceeds a couple hundred dollars in the best of circumstances.4
At the beginning of the 21st Century, the most cutting edge tool to be found in many American classrooms-including our institutions of higher education-is still an overhead projector.

No Turning Back

The Commission has found:

The need for a new design in learning is there. Today's education is built on an agrarian model that worked in the years when we were a nation of farmers, foresters, and fishermen. Schooling changed to take on elements of the industrial revolution (factory-line classes, assembly-line curriculum, and teacher-foremen) that worked for the needs of the Industrial Age. New designs are needed to create the "knowledge workers" who will define the Information Age.

The market is there. Business is poised to support education with powerful Internet solutions. We know that education itself can be a strong market that drives the innovation of continuing products, tools, and applications to benefit learners across the spectrum.

The global economy is there. If this era of globalization has proven anything, it is that a growing world economy can create a strong and lasting demand for skilled knowledge workers and a technologically savvy workforce.

But we haven't made the connection to education. We must seize the opportunities and complete these connections-technological and human.

And we must advance with constant assessment and reflection. There is still much about learning and the impact of technology we do not know. We must continue to research what is not known, analyze what is proposed or underway, and then examine the results. We also must combine our belief in the great value of these advances with appreciation for the difficulties that we face: the inequality of access and the lack of teacher preparedness for web-based learning.

To make the most of learning with the Internet, we will have to address serious issues. Many of these issues are not new. They have been facing education for decades, and some are reaching a crisis point.

We cannot talk about effective use of the Internet in education without understanding the parts of the system that are already strained: teacher shortages and the need for better preparation and retraining; teacher compensation and the need to provide a more professional work environment; inequalities in school funding; aging school buildings; and poor student performance. We heard how these strains are slowing the full deployment of the Web for learning. Addressing these issues is essential.

In short, the Internet is not a panacea for every problem in education. We need to be realistic. But we also must realize that the Internet is a tool that can help us empower every student and elevate each individual to new levels of intellectual capacity and skill. That is the great opportunity of this new technology.

Such a promise is easily made. It will take a greater commitment to keep.