The FCC’s Director of Education, Steve Midgely, was the first guest of honor at yesterday’s Broadband Breakfast.  Midgely began by sharing the details of how education falls into the FCC agenda, explaining that it is one of the major national purposes, side by side with public safety, health, and energy.   And like other aspects of the national broadband plan, Midgely is considering stakeholder data from academics, nonprofits, corporations, and any other relevant research.

Midgely expressed a strong focus on broadband adoption.  “Non-adopters are at an educational disadvantage,” he stated pointing out that 78% of students regularly use the Internet for classroom assignments and 80% of parents say that the Internet helps their children with schoolwork.  He also believes that in addition to benefiting educators and students, increasing technology use would be a good driver for innovation transparency in education.  Some of the technology uses he highlighted include:

• Online learning
• Distance learning
• Digital resource repositories (i.e. online textbooks)
• Electronic education records
• Content sharing and peer production

A panel of experts followed, all echoing the importance of broadband adoption both at home and in schools.  Greg Barlow, Chief Information Officer of Anne Arundel County said that he would like to have a 1:1 computer to student ratio.  Frank Gallagher of Cable in the Classroom stated that 40% of high schools don’t offer AP courses, urging for online learning to fill that gap to keep students competitive in our global economy. Matthew Ohlson, Instructional Leader at Florida Virtual School has the following education goal: “Reach any student, any place, any pace.”

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