Digital Future of Public Media

In its recent report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, the National Academies concluded what many have long feared to be true -- that the nation's outdated K-12 educational system is inadequately preparing America's youth for the jobs and global competition of the 21st Century. One of the most promising ways to remedy this is by investing in the research and development of advanced learning technologies, a.k.a.

In its recent report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, the National Academies concluded what many have long feared to be true — that the nation's outdated K-12 educational system is inadequately preparing America's youth for the jobs and global competition of the 21st Century. One of the most promising ways to remedy this is by investing in the research and development of advanced learning technologies, a.k.a. “Serious Games.” We all know of the power of video games to captivate and engross.

As the era of broadcasting as a primarily scheduled and one-way service fades to black, public broadcasting both here and abroad will need to transform itself to keep pace with commercial media. As the public becomes accustomed to consuming video anytime and anyplace -- including in bite-size segments on mobile wireless devices 24/7 -- traditional broadcasting will be eclipsed by a wide variety of new digital media formats and distribution platforms.

Business, philanthropic, education and public broadcasting leaders from across the country gather in Washington, DC today for the Digital Future Initiative (DFI) Summit, an invitation-only event where participants will explore the future of America’s public service media.

On July 12, 2005, Michael Calabrese testified before the full Senate Commerce Committee about issues regarding the nation's transition from analog to digital television (DTV) broadcasting. Below is a summary of his testimony. To access the full transcript, refer to the PDF file linked below.

The digital age has drastically reshaped the world that we live in—making communication faster, information more accessible, and our knowledge more expansive than ever before. With even more information at our fingertips, it has become increasingly difficult to keep up with the pace of information output. Knowledge is now the principal source of wealth creation and new jobs in the United States.

Over the past thirty years, by many measures, U.S. student educational performance has not improved. Some measures of educational achievement have actually decreased. This development is coupled with a dramatic decline in the productivity of educational spending: As a nation, we spend more and more to obtain the same level of educational achievement. Other industrialized countries do much better than the U.S. when comparing educational performance and the productivity of educational spending. With respect to educational achievement, the position of the U.S.

Please join the New America Foundation and Digital Promise for an invitation only Congressional Breakfast Briefing to mark the release of two new education papers on America's stagnant educational productivity and the role e-learning R&D could play to increase it. Learn why e-learning R&D is prone to market failure and why it makes sense to fund e-learning R&D the way NSF funds scientific research and NIH funds health research.

This is the second public meeting of the Digital Future Initiative, a distinguished panel whose mission is to develop a vision for the digital future of public broadcasting. At this conference, the nation's most innovative local public stations present their visions for the greatly enhanced programming and community services made possible by digital technologies. This forum previews visions for digital learning services, civic engagement and broad-based community partnerships, as well as the public debate over how to adequately fund America's public service media system in the digital era.