“We are rallying the full forces of the federal government, academia, entrepreneurs, the technology sector, and researchers … to fundamentally re-imagine learning,” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, as he announced the launch of Digital Promise at the White House on September 16. “There’s no silver bullet when it comes to education,” observed President Obama on the occasion of the launch, “but technology can be a powerful tool, and Digital Promise will help to make the most of it.”
The new nonprofit center, which was created by Congress with bipartisan support in the Higher Education Act, is a unique public-private partnership that will “help America in providing a world-class education for millions of students through learning technologies.”
The new center was incorporated this past spring. Its application for funds was reviewed by a panel of experts, and a grant was awarded by the Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) on September 15. The grant will be monitored by both OII and the Department’s Office of Educational Technology.
Click here to read the White House press release and here for an article by Secretary Duncan and Reed Hastings, chairman and CEO of Netflix.
