Had an interview with Newsweek on one of the biggest challenges facing the Obama administration: How to make best use of the millions of plugged-in supporters that worked for the Democratic contender during the election and were critical to his success. I encourage you to read the whole story, and you will see on the second page a disagreement between DailyKos.com’s Markos Moulitsas and myself:
The trick for Obama will be to lead the Netroots movement rather than be led by it. Tapscott, the author of “Grown Up Digital,” thinks there’s a real risk of backlash if the kids who supported Obama feel their hero has let them down. “If he betrays this generation, the protests of the ’60s will look like a tea party,” Tapscott says. But Markos Moulitsas, captain of the liberal blog DailyKos.com and an occasional NEWSWEEK contributor, doesn’t think Obama’s base would turn on him. “If they get disillusioned, they’ll probably just become apathetic again,” he says. “I couldn’t see disappointed supporters becoming enraged against him. “
What do you think? Is this generation going to insist on being involved in the governing process, even if Obama doesn’t invite them to the table?
President Barack Obama stuck to the script almost word-for-word in his address to schoolchildren across the nation earlier today. Critics of the speech complained last week that Obama would try to indoctrinate schoolchildren with his “socialist ideology.” Some said they would keep their children home today.
The White House posted the speech text online Monday so that concerned parents could read the text themselves and decide whether the content was suitable for their children. Some parents still insisted that Obama could stray from the text and deliver extemporaneous subversive ideas.
Roger Cooper, an insurance agent who was out shopping with his wife and three school-aged children, told the Wall Street Journal said he hadn’t read Mr. Obama’s speech but had read about it on the Internet. “It’s propaganda,” Mr. Cooper said as he emerged from an Apple Store in Dallas’s Knox-Henderson neighborhood. “I don’t trust the man. He’s been nothing…
As a sign of our partisan times, Google News shows more than 5,000 articles have recently appeared concerning the suddenly controversial speech President Barack Obama is giving next Tuesday to students across America. Many conservative pundits and parents have decried the speech, saying Obama will use the occasion to promote his “socialist agenda.”
The speech text will be posted online at whitehouse.gov the day before the President speaks to students at a Virginia high school.
According to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Obama will discuss the importance of education as the new school year begins. “The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning. He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents, and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible, so they can compete in the global economy for…
The federal government’s plan to promote expansion of the country’s high-speed Internet network has been swamped with applications totaling nearly $28 billion - seven times the $4 billion allocated to the program’s first round of spending.
Applications came in from a diverse range of parties including state, local, and tribal governments; nonprofits; industry; anchor institutions, such as libraries, universities, community colleges, and hospitals; public safety organizations; and other entities in rural, suburban, and urban areas. The wide array of applicants illustrates how greater bandwidth benefits virtually every aspect of society.
The urgency of bulking up the nation’s Internet infrastructure was underscored by a report released last week by the Communications Workers of America (CWA). It revealed that the United States ranks 28th in the world in average Internet connection speed and is not making significant progress in building a faster network.
The report said the average download speed in South…
Click on the video screen above to see a CBS report about a British video targeted at young drivers that uses a graphic car-crash re-enactment to draw attention to the potentially deadly consequences of texting while driving.
The video was made by the police department in Gwent, Wales, last summer for $20,000 has gone viral online, with more than 1.5 million people viewing the video on YouTube.
“Yes it is violent, but the reality of a fatal road accident is much more gruesome, is much more violent,” writer-director Peter Watkins Hughes told CBS News. “My position on this is that if you are old enough to drive, if you are old enough to want to drive, you are old enough to be aware of the real and serious risks one places yourself in every time you get…
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a lifelong champion of equal rights and educational opportunity, died late Tuesday at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass. He was 77.
The Chronicle of Higher Educationpublished today an obituary, written by Kelly Field, that recounts the Senator’s tireless efforts to improve higher education.
Mr. Kennedy, who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate for more than four decades, had a hand in the creation of nearly every major federal student-aid program, from Pell Grants in 1972 to the Academic Competitiveness and Smart Grants for high-achieving, low-income students in 2006. In the 1990s, he was a chief architect of the federal direct-loan program, in which the government lends money directly to students through their colleges, and one of its staunchest supporters in the Senate.
Senator Kennedy was also one of the most reliable defenders of student aid,…
Education Secretary Arne Duncan responded earlier this week to a new report that documents the poor showing of American students relative to the students of other countries. In math, America’s 15-year-olds’ scores now lag behind those of 31countries. In science, eighth graders’ scores now lag behind their peers in eight countries, and in reading, five countries have improved their performance and surpassed the U.S.’s 4th graders.
Today’s report is another wake-up call that our students are treading the waters of academic achievement while other countries’ students are swimming faster and farther. Our students have stagnated educationally, putting our long-term economic security at risk…
These results show that for us to stay competitive and move forward we have to get our students ready for global competition. That’s why I so strongly support the work of our governors and chief state school officers to develop a set of common internationally-benchmarked, college and career-ready standards…
As I’ve written many times before, President Barack Obama is making deft use of the web and the youth-powered social movement that got him elected to help advance his agenda. I also said his biggest battle would be healthcare. With members of Congress back in their constituencies during August, the battleground for health care reform shifts from the backrooms in Washington to communities across America. Earlier this week Obama sent an email to the membership of Organizing for America, the organization that grew out of the 13 million volunteers who had signed up with Obama’s campaign team during last year’s election.
“Throughout August, members of Congress are back home, where the hands they shake and the voices they hear will not belong to lobbyists, but to people like you,” Obama wrote.
“Home is where we’re strongest. We didn’t win last year’s election together at a committee hearing in D.C. We won it…
I posted yesterday about the release of IBM’s Smarter Planet University Jam report. Because three-quarters of the Jam participants were students, and skills and education is something they can relate to, this topic proved to be the most active. The highlights from the report are reprinted below. Readers of Grown Up Digital will recognize many of the arguments from the book as to why today’s education system is failing and why it must be more student-focused.
1. Success in the services-based global economy requires academia, government and industry to work together to create “T-shaped” people. T-shaped people are those who have deep knowledge in one discipline and broader knowledge in others. These people were identified as possessing the types of skills industry will most likely employ. But the methods used to develop those skills in academia today lack the needed…
A new report released yesterday shows that eight of 10 students around the world want universities to revamp traditional learning environments while over 90 percent want to join or start a Green Advocacy group at their campus. 64 percent of students believe that the world has a chance to reverse carbon emissions by 2025, and 60 percent believe that education and efficient transportation offer the best hope for sustainability of our cities.
These are just a few of the findings of a remarkable crowdsourcing process held earlier this year by IBM called the Smarter Planet University Jam. Nearly 2,000 students, faculty, IBM business leaders, technologists, governmental officials, and industry partners from 40 countries around the globe took part in the Jam and demonstrated both enthusiasm and optimism about opportunities to work together.
A team of Jam hosts, facilitators, and subject matter…
The Bard school was jointly created in June 2001 by the New York City Board of Education and Bard College. It is founded on the belief that many young people are ready and eager to do serious college work at age 16. It enables highly motivated students to move in four years from ninth grade through the first two years of college, earning the associate of arts (A.A.) degree as well as a high school diploma.
It is a public education institution, and no tuition is charged. The student body is diverse ethnically and economically. There are about 500 students and the average…
Today, at Macomb Community College in Michigan, President Barack Obama outlined a plan to reform the nation’s community colleges, calling for an additional 5 million community college graduates by 2020 and new initiatives to teach Americans the skills they will need to compete with workers from other nations. He outlined initiatives to increase the effectiveness and impact of community colleges, raise graduation rates, modernize facilities, and create new online learning opportunities.
Following are excerpts from his remarks:
Time and again, when we have placed our bet for the future on education, we have prospered as a result - by tapping the incredible innovative and generative potential of a skilled American workforce. That is what happened when President Lincoln signed into law legislation creating the land grant colleges which not only transformed higher education, but also our economy. That is what took place when President Roosevelt signed the GI Bill which helped…
It’s official - South African youth love to Scrutinize! An animated public health campaign called “Scrutinize HIV” has been chosen by children and young adults as one of the best media campaigns in the country.
All seven television commercials in the campaign can be viewed here.
The Scrutinize campaign aims to raise awareness of HIV among young people and encourage them to scrutinize and take responsibility for their own potentially risky behavior - and already, its catchphrases such as “Flip HIV to HI-Victory” are being incorporated into popular culture.
“In my 20 years of global advertising work, I’ve never heard of a social marketing campaign featuring in a people’s choice marketing/brand awards and certainly never in one polled amongst teens,” said Cal Bruns, director of the commercials. “That Scrutinize was featured in the same breath as Coke, Pepsi…
On Thursday of this week I’ll be hosting the book launch for Yes We Did - Rahaf Harfoush’s story of the role of the new media in the Barack Obama campaign and its implications for business.
The deft use of digital technologies by Obama’s team during the primaries and the election itself is already the stuff of political legend. Obama strategists promised that a President Obama would continue to use the Internet and social media to open up the government to greater scrutiny and give Americans a stronger voice in how the government is managed.
Recently, Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media at the White House, released a video [see above] on the White House blog that highlights the new media channels that the Administration has created to help fulfill its campaign pledge of more open government.
The overarching theme of President Barack Obama’s election campaign was that he couldn’t bring reform to Washington on his own. It would have to be a group effort, and Obama promised to use digital technologies to meaningfully involve the public in the process of change. Today he began to deliver on that promise.
The first step of the public participation is an online brainstorming session, beginning today and running to May 28th. The National Academy of Public Administration, a Congressionally chartered, non-profit, non-partisan institution, is hosting this brainstorming session on behalf of the White House. The site allows a person to submit ideas, discuss and refine others’ ideas, and vote the best ones to the top. “We are seeking innovative approaches to policy, specific project suggestions, government-wide or agency-specific instructions, and any relevant examples and stories relating to law, policy, technology, culture, or practice.” The most important themes and…
What do you think? Is this generation going to insist on being involved in the governing process, even if Obama doesn’t invite them to the table?
