Transform Learning in the 21st Century, FAS

Please sign our petition seeking co- sponsors for the legislation. If your Senator or House member is already listed as a co-sponsor - - thank them for taking a leadership position on this issue.

Our emerging knowledge-based economy makes the people's access to knowledge and learning-across-a-lifetime in the sciences and humanities a national imperative. DO IT will do for education what NIH does for health, NSF does for science, and DARPA does for national defense. It is the 21st century counterpart of the 19th century's Land-Grant Colleges Act and the 20th century's GI Bill.

DO IT's charge will be to unlock the potential of the Internet and other new information technologies for education in the broadest sense; to stimulate public and private sector research into the development and use of new learning techniques, and to encourage public and private sector partnerships and alliances in education, science, the humanities, the arts, civic affairs and government. For example, DO IT will commission research and fund the development of models and prototypes to:

• Digitize America's collected memory stored in our nation's universities, libraries, and museums to make these materials available for use at home, school, and work.
• Develop learning models and simulations that invite the learner to explore a virtual solar system, an authentic three-dimensional model of the human body, a realistic trip to Mars, or an historic recreation of Mark Twain's America.
• Create voice sensitive computer programs to teach language to new immigrants as well as fourth graders.

To send a message to your Congressman or Senator, visit: http://www.fas.org/main/content.jsp?formAction=297&contentId=551