ConnectED: Here Comes E-rate 2.0

President Barack Obama’s unveiled ConnectED, an initiative aimed at connecting 99 percent of America’s students to the Internet through high-speed broadband and high-speed wireless within 5 years. “This is not connectivity for connectivity’s sake,” noted Cecilia Muñoz, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, and Gene Sperling, the Director of the National Economic Council. “It is laying the foundation for a vision of classrooms where students are engaged in individualized digital learning and where teachers can assess progress lesson by lesson and day by day. It’s about creating learning environments where students can both succeed and struggle without embarrassment, where barriers for children with disabilities are removed, and where we can bring the most modern, innovative, and up-to-date content into the classroom.”