Fact Sheet: U.S. Support for e-Learning Initiatives in Pacific Rim
(White House outlines education activities within APEC)Following is a White House fact sheet on U.S. support for education initiatives within the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) community; the fact sheet was released at the close of the October 20-21 APEC leaders' meetings in Shanghai:
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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Shanghai, People's Republic of China)
For Immediate Release
October 21, 2001FACT SHEET
U.S. SUPPORTS APEC e-LEARNING INITIATIVES
The greatest resource of any nation is the creative energies of its people. They must gain the skills demanded by a new economic world. Only when literacy and learning are widespread will the benefits of the global economy be widely shared.
-- President George W. Bush October 20, 2001
The United States is a strong supporter of APEC activities aimed at strengthening basic and secondary education, particularly through the innovative use of the Internet. The Bush Administration, in close partnership with other APEC economies and the private sector, is launching three important new APEC education projects: the APEC Cyber Education Cooperation consortium, the Asia-Pacific e-Learning Alliance, and the e-Language Learning Project.
-- APEC Cyber Education Cooperation. The Department of Education has joined with other ministries and private sector organizations to develop a knowledge bank of best practices in education. The Department has also developed a web portal to host online communities of educators and provide training for teachers to improve the use of information and communications technology in the classroom. When teachers, for example, want to find out how students in Singapore have achieved the best math scores in the world, they can access via the Internet the curriculum materials and lesson plans of Singaporean teachers.
-- e-Language Learning Project. Given the importance of second language skills in today's global economy, the U.S. will launch an initiative that will use the Internet to help students learn a second language. The initial focus will be on English, Chinese, and Spanish, which are expected to be the dominant languages on the Internet.
-- Asia-Pacific e-Learning Alliance. Ten companies from the United States and Asia, including Sun Microsystems, AOL Time Warner, Cisco Systems, Oracle, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Applied Materials, Saba Systems, Fujitsu, Daesung Group, Acer Enrich, and YTL e-Solutions, have formed an alliance to identify and promote the policies and practices that encourage information technology development and training. This year they are conducting studies of how e-learning can improve education and boost productivity.
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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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