Dive Summary:
- President Barack Obama will announce on Thursday an initiative to encourage more laptops with high-speed Internet connections in American schools during a tour of a Mooresville, N.C., middle school that has used digital learning to improve its test scores and graduation rates.
- Many schools have slower Internet connections than the average home, and the administration wants students to have access to high-speed broadband and wireless Internet from their desks within five years.
- To facilitate the push, the Federal Communications commission would make changes to the $2.3 billion-per-year E-Rate program that gives discounted Internet service rates to schools and libraries, paying for the one-time, multi-billion investment with a home phone bill fee of less than $5 per year per home that would last for a few years.
From the article:
... This approach would allow students to explore the ocean floor from their desks, collaborate in groups, learn at their own pace, and "help them overcome what is actually a great challenge in the American classroom today, which is boredom," the official said.
The program also would create a huge market for devices and software, another official told reporters. ...
