2010 Congressional Briefing
National Release of Speak Up 2009
K-12 Students and Parents Data

“Students want their voices heard by those making education policies, but we are now seeing them move beyond their attempts to share their needs with adults. They are taking the technology they have grown up with and using it to help them learn—inside and outside of the classroom.”
-- Julie Evans, CEO, Project Tomorrow

Creating our Future: Students Speak Up about their Vision for 21st Century Learning

On March 16, 2010 Project Tomorrow released the report “Creating our Future: Students Speak Up about their Vision for 21st Century Learning” highlighting the Speak Up 2009 K-12 student and parents results.

The Speak Up 2009 survey represents the voices of more than 300,000 students nationwide and provides compelling evidence that our nation’s K-12 students are increasingly taking responsibility for their own learning in and out of school.

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 Afterschool Alliance, Alliance for Excellent Education, American Youth Policy Forum, ASCD, Blackboard, Building Engineering and Science Talent (BEST) Workforce, Broadband for America, CDW-G, Center for Educational Excellence, Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), Curriki, Dell, Inc., Discovery, Dutko Worldwide, Education Free Agent, LLC, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), ISTE, K12, MD Department of Education, NASA, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Career Technical Foundation, National Cyber Security Alliance, National Math and Science Initiative, National Science Foundation, Parven-Pomper Strategies, PBS, PCI Group, Pearson, Sesame Workshop, Smithsonian Institution (National Museum of Natural History), State Ed Tech Directors’ Association , SMART Technologies, The National Endowment of the Arts, The Sheridan Group, U.S. Department of Education, Verizon, and Wireless Generation.

Julie Evans, Project Tomorrow CEO, and Jessie Woolley-Wilson, President, K12 & K20 Strategy for Blackboard, Inc., welcomed the participants to the briefing and shared their enthusiasm for the Speak Up 2009 findings.  Karen Cator, Director of Technology in Education, U.S. Dept. of Education shared the newly released Ed Tech Plan.

Julie shared selected national findings from Speak Up 2009 and discussed how students are seeking learning environments that incorporate these three essential elements:

• Social-based learning where students can leverage emerging communications and collaboration tools to create and personalize networks of experts to inform their education process.
• Un-tethered learning where students access technology-enabled learning experiences that transcend the classroom walls and are not limited by resource constraints, traditional funding streams, geography, community assets or even teacher knowledge or skills.
• Digitally-rich learning where students see the use of relevancy-based digital tools, content and resources as a key to driving learning productivity, not just about engaging students in learning.

Students from Washington Lee High School (VA), Kenmore Middle School (MD) and Garnet Valley School District (PA) shared their insights about the use of technology for learning in and out of schools.