For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 21, 2001
U.S. Supports APEC e-Learning Initiatives
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, 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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