2011 Congressional Briefing
National Release of Speak Up 2010
K-12 Students and Parents Data

The New 3 E’s of Education: Enabled, Engaged and Empowered How Today’s Students are Leveraging Emerging Technologies for Learning

On April 1, 2011 Project Tomorrow released the report “The New 3 E’s of Education: Enabled, Engaged and Empowered – How Today’s Students are Leveraging Emerging Technologies for Learning” at a Congressional Briefing held in Washington, DC. Dr. Julie A.Evans, Project Tomorrow CEO, discussed selected student and parent national findings from the Speak Up 2010 report and moderated a panel discussion with students and parents who shared their insights and experiences.

Key findings:

• 67 percent of parents said they would purchase a mobile device for their child to use for schoolwork if the school allowed it, and 61 percent said they liked the idea of students using mobile devices to access online textbooks.
• 53 percent of middle and high school students reported that the inability to use cell phones, smart phones or MP3 players was the largest obstacle when using technology in school. Additionally, 71 percent of high school students and 62 percent of middle school students said that the number one way schools could make it easier to use technology would be to allow greater access to the digital content and resources that Internet firewalls and school filters blocked.
• Parents are increasingly supportive of online textbooks. Two-thirds of parents view online textbooks as a good investment to enhance student achievement compared to 21 percent in 2008. However, E-textbooks are still a relatively novel concept in the classroom. Slightly over one-third of high school students report they are currently using an online textbook or other online curriculum as part of their regular schoolwork.

Over 100 people attended the Congressional Briefing including congressional staff members, student and staff representatives from some of our Speak up schools, and staff from many of our sponsors, champion outreach partners and non-profit partners.

Project Tomorrow was very pleased to welcome staff from ACT, Aerospace Industries Association, Afterschool Alliance, Alliance for Excellent Education, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, American Association of School Administrators, American Association of State Colleges & Universities, American Youth Policy Forum, Best Buy, Blackboard, CDW-G, Clark & Weinstock, Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), Dutko Worldwide, EDC, ePals, etpro/cyberwatch, Gale/Cengage, INACOL, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Intel Corporation, ISTE, K12, Lactalis American Group, Learning First Alliance, Learning.com, LearniT-TeachiT, Library of Congress, Lowenstein Associates, MD Department of Education, Microsoft, NASA, National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, National Council of Teachers of English, National Art Education Association, National Education Association, National Council for Community and Education Partnerships, National Science Foundation, New America Foundation, One Economy Corporation, Oracle, PBS, P21, Qorvis, Qualcomm, Smithsonian Institution, SparkAction.org, State Ed Tech Directors’ Association , SMART Technologies, Symantec, TechAmerica, The Pearson Foundation, and U.S. Department of Education.

Students and parents from Arlington Public Schools (VA) and Baltimore City Public School District (MD) shared their insights regarding mobile learning, online learning and the use of digital content.