Education Secretary Arne Duncan pitched a slew of new, technology-based education reforms on Thursday, stressing schools needed to enter the 21st century to keep students engaged.

In a speech to the Association of American Publishers, the Education secretary lamented the reality that many public schools are still "throwbacks to the state of education 50, 20 or even 10 years ago," as many teachers and administrators have failed to "keep pace" with current trends in technology.

Consequently, Duncan framed his department's forthcoming National Education Technology Plan as an attempt to prepare students "for the future that awaits them, and the skills the world will require of them."

A draft of that plan is due out Friday, according to the Department.

"Most young people can't remember a time without the Internet. But right now, many students' learning experiences in school don't match the reality outside of school," Duncan said in his speech.

"We need to bridge this gap. We need to make school more relevant and engaging. We must make the on-demand, personalized tech applications that are part of students' daily lives a more strategic part of their academic lives."

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The federal government could begin monitoring some private Internet networks for potential cyberattacks, a Department of Homeland Security official suggested Wednesday.

The technology to intercept and respond to those threats, called Einstein, already applies to federal networks and systems, Greg Schaffer, assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications, told CNET in an interview.

But Schaffer added that his department was weighing the possibility of deploying the program to the private sphere, primarily to protect key infrastructure like power plants from becoming vulnerable to cyberattack.

Ultimately, Schaffer declined to provide specifics of that proposal, stressing that Einstein still remains highly classified. Nevertheless, the White House's decision this week to declassify a crucial, 2008 cybersecurity document reveals at least one important detail about the program: Einstein works primarily by sharing key Web communication data with the National Security Agency, long hampered by privacy concerns.

Anticipating this could incense industry critics, Schaffer later stressed to CNET that the goal of Einstein was not to establish a "Big Brother" system "in order to provide a level of protection either for the federal government or otherwise."

"As a practical matter, you're looking at data that's relevant to malicious activity, and that's the data that you're focused on," he said. "It's not necessary to go into a space where someone will say you're acting like Big Brother. It can be done without crossing over into a space that's problematic from a privacy perspective."

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The chairs of the Rural Telecommunications Task Force are circulating a letter to colleagues expressing concern about recent changes to the Commerce Department's process for awarding broadband stimulus money.

The letter, sent by Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Lee Terry (R-Neb.), asks other House members to send a letter to Larry Strickling, Assistant Secretary in charge of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The NTIA is charged with allocating more than $4 billion in stimulus awards for broadband expansion problems in underserved areas.

During the first round of awards, existing broadband providers had 30 days to challenge stimulus applications that propose building networks in areas they already serve. This was intended to ensure stimulus money would not go to regions that already had broadband service.

But under the rules for the second round of awards, NTIA wants to shorten the window for existing providers to review projects to 15 days.

"This shortened window will be unworkable for many rural broadband providers and increases the risk of wasting taxpayer money," the "dear colleague" letter said.

Strickling will testify on the progress of the broadband stimulus spending during an oversight hearing by the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet.  Stupak and Terry sit on that panel and will likely bring up the review period change.

"As we work together to develop policies that will expand broadband access to all Americans, we strongly believe that funding already-served areas with broadband stimulus money is not good public policy and will undermine future efforts to achieve broadband access to unserved rural Americans," says the letter Stupak and Terry plan to send to Strickling.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) told the FCC not to intervene in a fee dispute between Walt Disney Company and Cablevision.

His letter to the agency comes just after Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) asked the FCC to help resolve the battle by fixing the federal rules for signal carriage. (See previous post.)

Disney has threatened to pull its ABC station in New York City from Cablevision's system on Sunday unless the cable company agrees to pay Disney additional fees. That means New Yorkers would miss the much-anticpated Oscars.

"Actual discussion of the deal is best left between the respective companies and their viewers, free from government interference or cajoling," Barton said in his letter to the FCC. "The alternative is to ask the government to weigh the relative value of carriage and of particular programming. This is a risky proposition."

He continued: "Service providers and programmers are closet to their viewers and in a better position than the government to weigh the costs and benefits of carriage deals, especially in as competitive and as complex a video marketplace as we have today. If either party dislikes the deal, either is free to walk away. And both have something to lose: viewers."

A dispute between Walt Disney Company and Cablevision has caught the attention of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) today.

He sent a letter to the FCC today asking Chairman Julius Genachowski to help facilitate a speedy resolution for the broadcasting battle, which Kerry referred to as a "game of chicken," to prevent 3.1 million households from losing signals this weekend.

“These are private negotiations, but there’s a public interest at stake," Kerry said. "Its resolution matters to the consumers who take hard earned money out of their wallets each month to pay their cable bills and shouldn’t become collateral damage in wars between executives.”

Disney has threatened to pull it's ABC New York City station off Cablevision's system in a feud over fees. Read more...

WEDNESDAY BLOG ROUNDUP:
Apple sues HTC over Android phones - Gabriel Madway, Reuters
Apple stepping up pressure on music labels - Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica
Spectrum inventory measure may see markup next week - Tech Daily Dose
Check out a big primer on big data - Stacey Higginbotham, GigaOM
Babble, sure. But pointless? - Nancy Scola, techPresident
U.S. security agencies begging for cyber 'Cold War' - Jay Stanley, HuffPo
Pentagon seeks robo-EMS to rescue wounded - Kate Drummond, Wired.com
Six essential iPhone apps for a zombie attack - Sarah Jacobbson, PCWorld
Apple starts nuclear war in patent fights - Susan Decker and Connie Guglielmo, Bloomberg

OTHER STORIES FROM THE HILL:
Internet advertisers make foray into political fundraising - The Hill
Dingell opposes 'punitive' radio tax - The Hill
Study: Pentagon Facebook pages easily confused with 'clones' - The Hill
Facebook to hire new D.C. staff, lobbyist - The Hill

It is often difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish the Pentagon's official Facebook pages from the countless "clones" erected by military familes, fans and supporters, a new study finds.

Moreover, an "extremely small number" of the Defense Department's Facebook outlets have any markings whatsoever indicating they are official Web sites, creating confusion among Facebook users, the report continues.

Both findings are part of a new study released Wednesday by Janson Communications, a public relations firm that specializes in defense.

Analysts there prepared their report in January, weeks before the Pentagon announced it would allow troops serving both at home and abroad access to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

But the report's authors nonetheless stress their data demonstrates the key challenges military leaders will still face in implementing their Web policy this year.

The Pentagon announced its seminal policy shift on Friday, following a seven-month review of its social network rules. Ultimately, the new guidelines permit even troops stationed in war zones to communicate with family and friends using the Web, though commanders do have the ability to shut off access temporarily to preserve network resources or safeguard U.S. interests.

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The Federal Communication Commission's forthcoming broadband road map calls for the creation of Video.gov -- a Web video archive not too unlike the White House's other information portals.

The FCC's government performance director, Eugene Huang, first discussed the provision at a civic engagement conference this week. He said would arrive as part of the agency's National Broadband Plan, due to Congress on May 17.

The video archive would build on the early successes of Data.gov, the information hub established during the first year of President Barack Obama's administration. However, the video archive would be managed by the Library of Congress and other archival agencies within the federal government, not the White House.

The online advertising industry is dipping its toe in political fundraising as its trade group tries to beef up its Capitol Hill involvement.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau launched its own political action committee a year and a half ago and started writing checks to lawmakers last year. The group represents the interests of Internet advertising networks and companies that rely on that ad revenue, including AOL, Amazon, Hulu, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft Advertising, Huffington Post and Gawker Media.

Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) was the beneficiary of IAB's first fundraiser in November. IAB plans to host 10 more events this year to "find our champions and educate members," said Mike Zaneis, vice president for public policy. Read more...