New America
What We Don't Know About Teachers' Home Internet Access
When schools across the country were forced to shutter abruptly last month, headlines plastered the news with urgent questions about remote teaching and learning in times of crisis. But what remains largely absent from media coverage, nationwide analyses, and research is home connectivity among teachers. Do all p+PreK-12 teachers have Internet access at home? Do they all have high-speed broadband that allows them to stream video and run Zoom classrooms, keeping up with the demands of schools and districts?
Advocates Condemn FCC’s ‘Slap in the Face’ to First Responders, Urge Agency to Protect Public Safety (New America)
Submitted by benton on Mon, 04/20/2020 - 19:25OTI to FCC: Grant First Responders’ Request to Extend Net Neutrality Deadline (New America)
Submitted by benton on Fri, 04/17/2020 - 14:17Italy’s Education Must Go On(line) (New America)
Submitted by benton on Thu, 04/16/2020 - 14:15New America Urges FCC to Authorize $2.2 Billion in Available E-Rate Funds to Connect Students Left Behind During COVID-19 Pandemic
New America’s Open Technology Institute called on the Federal Communications Commission to use its existing authority and universal service budget to extend connectivity to students without broadband access to help facilitate remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the emergency request filing, OTI urges the FCC to act to empower schools and libraries to close the homework gap using the Universal Service Fund (USF) and E-Rate and Lifeline programs.
Online Learning Only Works if Students Have Home Internet Access. Some Don't.
The historic $2 trillion “economic rescue” bill includes key funding, which New America explains here, for a number of education initiatives ranging from early childhood to post-secondary. What it doesn’t include, noticeably, is a robust response for helping households gain better online access.
It's Not Just the Content, It's the Business Model: Democracy’s Online Speech Challenge
This report, the first in a two-part series, articulates the connection between surveillance-based business models and the health of democracy. Drawing from Ranking Digital Rights’s extensive research on corporate policies and digital rights, we examine two overarching types of algorithms, give examples of how these technologies are used both to propagate and prohibit different forms of online speech (including targeted ads), and show how they can cause or catalyze social harm, particularly in the context of the 2020 U.S. election.
OTI Urges FTC, DOJ to Take Stronger Posture on Vertical Mergers (New America)
Submitted by benton on Thu, 02/27/2020 - 12:08New America Urges FCC to Abandon “Misguided and Cynical” Lifeline Proposal
New America's Open Technology Institute urged the Federal Communications Commission to abandon a cynical set of proposals that would weaken the Lifeline program and jeopardize consumer privacy.