>> next, "the communicators," with tom vander ark. after that, ed royce talking about foreign policy. c-span, created by america's cable companies and brought to as a public service. >> the name of the book is "getting smart." the author, tom vander ark. how do you define digital learning? >> it is a blend of learning. a combination of the best of face-to-face and online learning. connotesarning usually teachers at a distance.

>> what are the components? >> in a formal setting, when it credit, there is usually online content and a teacher you interact with. ofis usually done as a group students that you are engaging .ith, but it is at a distance some students attend full-time online classes, and some part-time. a high school student may take three classes at their high school, and two classes online. >> how extensive right now is online digital learning? case-12 -- in k-12, there

is probably 5 million students that took online classes. it is a significant percentage u.s. k-12million students that are out there. it is growing rapidly. most districts reported having or planning to add an online program. inis becoming the norm higher education. most students take at least a portion of their course load online. book thatte in your we can improve the quality of education in the u.s. without a big increase in investment. >> we do spend more than just about anybody in the world. i'm confident that by incorporating new tools that leverage great teaching, we can dramatically increase achievement levels in the country that will require some capital investment. sure thated to make

schools and homes have good access to broadband. we need to make sure every student has a connect did take home learning advice. we need to create learning opportunities for teachers as well. after we have made those one-time investments to change the nature of the learning environment, there's no question we can operate schools for similar budgets that we have today but with much better outcomes for kids and working conditions for teachers. >> how did you get interested in online education? >> i was a business executive until 1993. i have the opportunity to become a school superintendent in the seattle area in 1994. that was the year the wikipedia was launched. i was visiting my daughter's classroom in 1994, she had a

teacher that understood the shift from 1993-1994 from information scarcity to information abundance. he created a rich project-based learning environment where kids could take advantage of the research tools and they could produce really high-quality learning products. just watching the environment was inspiring to me. it led my district to adopt one-to-one technology in all of our secondary schools and launch the first k-12 online school in the country in 1995. >> what is personal digital learning? >> it is the promise of being able to create an individual learning trajectory for every student. we can increasingly help kids their learning level but also in the best learning modality, the best style.

some are going to learn with the games, and some in a cooperative learning experience. getting to know our kids, being able to customize the experience, that level of customization is -- will mean that most invisible learn more per hour and will improve motivation of high engagement activities, and more hours per day. you put those together, more hours per day and per year, and i think that is the formula for real breakthroughs in the achievement levels. >> what is the reaction of school districts across the country? maybe a couple of examples to wave thate learning is happening? >> let's take houston. it was just called the best urban school district in america . houston has taken a thoughtful approach to improvement based on

although we have learnt in the last 20 years about high achieving schools. they have added a component of blended learning. they are combining improvement and innovation to create an exciting school environment. all of their high schools are becoming one-to-one. every student will have a laptop to take him. engaging anding an extended learning environment for every student in houston i also love many of the charter school networks that are custom designed around the new learning opportunities that exist. some public schools in the bay area, there's a great example of a network of high schools that combine playlists, which we think of as use it tom about playlists of learning experiences that prepare kids for really interesting products. -- projects.

that learning environment allows teachers instead of just a sole focus on basic skills, they can work on groups of students with higher critical thinking to encourage them to bring their voice to their writing. it allows them to do really interesting work. >> a lot of private investment going into public schools? investment.private it is exciting how things have changed since 2000 and eight. i helped launch the first education venture fund in the world, learn capital. we have seen other venture firms launch. we have seen foundations get into the innovation agenda. the combination of philanthropic is fueling an explosion of

really exciting learning tools for next-generation schools. >> the forward of your book, getting smart, was written by a former west virginia governor. why was that? >> he was a great education governor. he has been an even better education advocate after leaving office area and both governor wise and governor jeb bush joined together in 2010 to , aate digital learning now forward leaning education policy platform for state leaders. both of those x governors have made a tremendous impact since leaving office, advocates for digital learning. >> what did governor wise do in west virginia? many digitald learning opportunities. we thought of it as distance

learning. connecting career education to schools. created dual enrollment opportunities so kids could earn college credit opportunities in high school. since leaving, governor wise took over the alliance for education. he has been the most important advocate for great high schools, and college and career preparation for young people in america. >> is there a difference between how public schools and private k-12 schools are approaching digital learning? >> not really. you would think that private schools would be a source of innovation. by and large, they haven't been. most remain relatively traditional. at the expense of private schools, every kid has a laptop. the learning environments are in most cases relatively

traditional. i would say what we haven't learned, as much as i would have hoped from the private schools. on the other hand, the radical radical cost constraints, charter networks of california, they have proven to be a source of innovation. they were forced to do more with less. as a result, the aspire. , a blended network, and some public schools have produced really extraordinary results with these new blended learning environments. a math us through how course would work online. , itt is an exciting blend personalizes learning. kahncademy is --

in a classroom that uses it, they might also use another visual game based math.t like sg students who learned several they have tos, master a certain skill before they move on to the next. a teacher monitor the progress of students who are doing different activities and be able to group students together for small group instruction, to create a project while students are learning. these teacher becomes more of a conductor of learning, where kids are using tools to build basic skills, and teachers can

intervene as necessary, or help kids practice and apply what they are learning. >> you write that social networks for place the classroom. >> what i mean by that is students in a social running platform can be in a different groups during the day. grouping.dynamic instead of grouping kids by birthday, school be more dynamic. kids will be in leveled math group, a reading group, a very diverse project group that is working on a project in the community. the school become much more dynamic and kids will be in groups for periods of time. the shift easily and naturally. rather than kids being in class where they are way ahead or way

behind, the grouping will flow more dynamically as students progress. likes what was the school district that you were the superintendent of? how large was it? likes federal way -- >> federal way, 22,000 students. today it is a high poverty challenge district with 120 languages spoken. >> what kind of online or digital programs did you introduce? an online school called internet academy. it is one of the active statewide programs in washington state. we also have connections academy , k12, and operators. young people in washington have good access to online learning. it could be better for washington students. that is true in most states. they could use better part-time

access to their high school could be a mixture of blended an online class. futureou foresee in the that our current structure of superintendent, different principles and schools, and the physical buildings could go away? relational.is very education is very communal. most of us learn best in a community. parents find the custodial aspect of school to be important. for thef those reasons, foreseeable future, most it is will go to a place called school. i think as students move into upper division of high school, most of them will spend part of their time learning online. that is definitely already true in post secondary. with someges are

on-site and some online. what digital learning is doing , particularly for older students, expanding access to courses. what should be true today is that every high school student in america should have access to every advanced placement course. to college credit opportunities, to every world language, to a wide range. these can be offered very cost-effectively and with very thanquality for no more what we are spending today. , a muchsee much more bigger change at the high school level than we do the elementary level. >> you touched on this earlier. how was the role of the teacher evolving? >> i'm excited about what this means for teachers. the profession has been very

difficult and isolating for individual teachers. what it will mean in a blended environment is that they will work on a team. a team of teachers on different levels. they will have access to a teacher that will support their learning. online learning will be blended. part will be on a team, part will be individual learning plans where they access a playlist of digital resources. the other exciting thing, there has been a new leadership opportunity for teachers within their school and outside their school. teachers can teach online, eveners can even -- therapist can teach online. we're seeing great results and online speech therapy. a math teacher can become a statewide provider. it is opening up these interesting new career paths for teachers. that they can extend their impact, that they can earn more and remain as a teacher if that

is what they really want to do. it is an exciting advance for teachers as well as students. >> is there a threat for local control? >> in many respects, digital learning is [indiscernible] it is silly to limit access to learning. in the past, education was limited to the opportunity down the street at the local school. now, particularly for high school students, their learning is a bundle of digital learning services. some are formal and paid for by the state, some that are informal and resources that students and parents find online. it is becoming important that states make sure that every family have access to a variety of formal and part-time online learning, and district remain open to those possibilities.

the fcc is currently working on the issue of the eu rate. how important is that? importantbeen historically. how districts wired up to provide digital learning opportunities at school. , the regulations have become dated. the process has become bureaucratic and clunky. the funding hasn't kept up with inflation. , his proposaler he put out last week, he does a nice job of addressing those. it increases the amount of funding, and it streamlines the regulations. it begins to take into account that we are now in this mobile learning society where learning isn't just at school. mobile learning is where anywhere a student or family is

connected. >> where is the resistance to digital learning? i think there is resistance and a couple of camps. there are definitely some people who want to keep doing things. feel are some that threatened by some changes that are occurring. some districts don't want to see budget dollars moved to an online provider. for example, there is a bit of parochial thinking when it comes to online learning. the other problem is that it is just still a bit difficult to transform your school. it is hard work. the toolset is a couple of years from being elegantly simple. i think what we will see a year from now is that it becomes much easier for teachers to adopt a set of tools and create powerful

learning experiences for students. that would make it undeniable for schools. this is a really a choice. the system is being enveloped by these digital learning opportunities. individual teachers are incorporating them into their classrooms at an extraordinary rate. dmoto,are 35 million on e a free learning platform. kids are blending their own learning and they are dragging us along with them. >> where does the u.s. stand when it comes to digital learning worldwide? >> we are a leader when it comes to online learning. that is true in higher education. we are a leader in terms of creating new interesting next-generation learning models. in high school, we are probably

lagging when it comes to broadband. there are other countries like korea that have much better broadband access. leader when ita comes to developing new education technology. we are a leader in many respects. i think this can be an important growth category for the u.s. export, to create and learning technologies and learning experiences. >> what is "getting smart." i>> and education advocacy organization. we want to make it happen sooner and better. >> this is something you run. >> i do. we just are wrapping up a new smart cities." siliconit comes to

valley, are they on board donating computers? say they are not on board to the extent that they should be. there are many technology companies selling equipment to schools. unfortunately, most of the products that are being sold to schools are still consumer products. if you look at apple, the ipad has been extremely popular with schools. it is still a consumer, consumption devise. it is not designed well for schools. it doesn't have good teacher management capacity. i would say a company like google has made interesting resources available for free. microsoft has made a number of education resources available for free. neither has stepped into the platform space to help schools

integrate successfully. we are seeing an increased interest and a few companies stepping in. payinguld do more as attention to education as a market and philanthropic lay. where the landmines? what is the downside of digital learning? have just recently written about is, it is as education becomes unbundled and learning from many different sources, it is going to become much more important to provide really strong guidance of support for our high school kids. isn't as good as it should be today. as we expand we need to make sure there is a sustained adult relationship at school that is helping them make good digital

choices that prepares them for college and careers. >> are the more opportunities cheating?ing -- for >> not any more than there are in today's classroom. there is lots of cheating that happens in the good old-fashioned way. online providers are pretty smart about this. how are thinking hard about they verify student identity. people doing online testing pay close attention to this. i don't think it is an increased risk. >> our textbooks obsolete? >> definitely. districts should buy textbooks. it is silly. district lastas week and helped them decide not to make a $10 million adoption. instead, increase student access by using laptops and tablets,

and to use paper content. there is so much great free open content. it is dynamically refreshed, and often more engaging. textbooks really don't make sense. if schools are going to pay for content, it should be smart content. likeould be adaptive, dream box, a seattle company, so -- so teachers are getting a lot of data from it. the districts pay for content, it ought to be smart content, not as a consequential. likes how important is the federal department of education? -- >> how important is the federal department of education? >> it became important with the passage of no child left behind.

that framed up a nationwide approach to school accountability. congress has failed that now for 13 years to update and renew that law. it has made the federal government less relevant. during the recession, the federal government invested heavily in a stimulus program which included grant programs called race to the top that resulted in significant reforms. without reauthorization of federal legislation, states are becoming much more important. as i described earlier, the rise of digital learning makes authorizing statewide providers a very important role. in u.s. education, state government is really important. >> 10 years from now, walk us through your dream classroom. >> i will walk you through my

dream city. i finished the book on cities. the way i think city should work, families ought to have access to a variety of educational opportunities, all of them incorporating technology , blending the best of face-to-face and online. a should have access to a variety of full and part time online learning opportunities. they ought to be in a city where everybody has access to broadband, rich and poor alike. both at home and in public facilities. broadband is going to be very important. students ought to have access to many out of school learning opportunities where they have a chance to make stuff, and to be creative, to apply their learning. young people ought to have access. they should experience success

in college, and work in community service before they leave high school so that suggests a highly engaged community where partners are helping schools provide rich learning opportunities for kids. this is an environment that is highly engaging, very community connected, where kids and families get the support they need to succeed. >> tom vander ark is the author " thanks forsmart, your time. >> thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> on newsmakers, unaccompanied minors crossing the u.s. border and the federal government option for responding. tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00

eastern on c-span. live coverage from nashville where the national government association is holding its three-day meeting. we will have that live at noon eastern. it'sseball does strike me, a good sport be the national pastime of a democratic nation. compromises about and settling. you don't get everything you want in baseball. there's a lot of losing in baseball. everything goes to spring training knowing they will win 60 games, lou 60 games. they have to play the whole season to sort out the middle 42.

games, you got0 a good chance to play in october. it is a sport of the half load. >> affairs house foreign committee chair representative ed royce speaking at the christian science monitor. topics included recent allegations of the u.s. spying in germany and ongoing negotiations over iran's nuclear program. he talks about the situation with unaccompanied minors on the u.s. border. this is one hour. nk you for coming, everybody. our guest is representative ed royce.