IT to Take Government to the People
GSA’s Emerging Citizen Technology Office (ECTO) works with a network of partners from more than 300 federal, state, and local government entities – including all Cabinet-level departments, all branches of the armed services, and more than a dozen states – to help evaluate, test and implement IT modernization initiatives with emerging technologies. While individual technology focuses will change with time, current efforts include:
ECTO works with experts on all aspects of practical and compliant use of emerging technologies and helps build roadmaps for government adoption, including over 2,100 participants across agencies, startups, industry leaders, civic organizations and research institutions. How it works:
ECTO hosts the U.S. Emerging Citizen Technology Atlas, an open source and crowdsourced repository to capture ongoing efforts, provide stakeholders with resources, and foster better collaboration between public services and U.S. businesses. Government employees are encouraged to join our interagency programs, and anyone can sign up for our public listservs to receive the latest information and opportunities to participate.
Next generation digital public services are powered by government data and artificial intelligence like chatbots and smart forms. The intelligent automation of programs can help make public services more open, responsive, informative, and accessible for Citizens.
GSA’s Emerging Citizen Technology Office launched the Artificial Intelligence for Citizen Services program in October 2016 to unite public service managers and innovative U.S. businesses in evaluating and building smart automation solutions.
GSA launched an open-source pilot that helped dozens of federal programs make their services available to consumer intelligent personal assistants (IPAs) like Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana, Google Assistant, and Facebook Messenger. Staff is working with client agencies to prepare business cases understanding the impact of these advances in Artificial Intelligence on Citizen Services.
Federal agencies can better evaluate and adopt distributed ledger technologies (like blockchain) that use encryption and coding to improve transparency, efficiency and trust in information sharing. Blockchain use cases that agencies submit for exploration touch many parts and processes of an organization, including:
GSA’s Emerging Citizen Technology Office launched the U.S. Federal Blockchain program for federal agencies and U.S. businesses who are interested in exploring distributed ledger technology and its implementation within government.
GSA hosted the first U.S. Federal Blockchain Forum on July 18, 2017, uniting more than 100 federal managers from dozens of unique agencies to discuss use cases, limitations, and solutions. Agency teams submitted their own potential use cases for blockchain technology to the current repository of almost 200 submissions.
The Federal SocialGov Community was launched in June 2012 to research, evaluate and implement emerging social technologies and strategies for public services. GSA helps develop the shared resources and tools needed to get the job done, including:
The SocialGov Community includes 1,200 digital specialists at more than 160 federal, state and local agencies and organizations who are dedicated to improving the creation, adoption and evaluation of engaging, collaborative and responsive digital programs.
One of these programs is the U.S. Digital Registry, which is the official resource agencies, citizens and developers use to confirm the official status of social media and public-facing collaboration accounts, mobile apps and mobile websites. This creates an additional layer of security by helping prevent exploitation from unofficial sources, phishing scams or malicious entities.
Immersive enhanced audio and visual experiences through virtual and augmented reality are now available to many U.S. citizens through smartphones and other mobile devices, opening the door to an incredible diversity of new programs and services.
GSA’s Emerging Citizen Technology Office launched the Federal Virtual/Augmented Reality program in October 2017 to serve as a collaborative hub for the research and refinement of VR and AR business cases and pilot programs across government.
Federal agencies share their ideas on how this new medium might expand and improve their services – using virtual therapy to treat PTSD, educating farmers on the installation of solar panels, or disaster management preparedness and response. To help explore and share these great ideas, GSA hosts workshops where agencies and industry specialists can brainstorm and demonstrate the new technologies.
The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) is an innovative funding vehicle, authorized by the Modernizing Government Technology Act of 2017 that gives agencies additional ways to deliver services to the public more quickly, better secure sensitive systems and data, and use taxpayer dollars more efficiently.
The TMF Program Management Office (PMO) provides support to agencies applying to receive funds from the TMF to support their modernization efforts at every stage of the proposal development process, from initial concept development to final award. PMO works with agencies to build strong business cases for their proposals from both a modernization and financial standpoint. Post-award, the PMO works to help smoothly transition project proposals from phase to phase and provides technical, acquisition, and financial assistance and oversight throughout project execution. In addition, PMO provides support to the Technology Modernization Board in their review of project proposals.
The Mobile Program Management Office vision is to make government available anytime, anywhere on any device today and tomorrow. The Mobile PMO manages the MobileGov Community of Practice which shares information, practices and tools online and through events to keep government on top of all things mobile. The MobileGov CoP sponsors the Federal Crowdsource Mobile Testing Program, the Structured and Open Content Models Working Group, as well as offering programming through webinars and in-person events.
The Making Mobile Gov project was a three phase multi-media project created by the MobileGov Community of Practice to help federal agencies discover, discuss and design a citizen-centric path to mobile government services and information. Held during the summer 2011, this project served three strategic goals:
Since Former President Obama announced a digital strategy initiative in May 2012, GSA has been working to build interoperability and openness securely into government systems. GSA is developing common standards and producing better content and data to be delivered through multiple channels in device-agnostic ways. Continually addressing privacy and security in the digital age, GSA is creating an environment where citizens are increasingly becoming partners in building a better government.
The Digital Government Strategy is aimed at building a 21st century government that works better for the American people. The strategy's three primary goals are to:
GSA has successfully met its digital-strategy milestones [PDF - 103 KB], remaining agile and flexible, and fundamentally shifting the way we are approaching digital government. The agency has also pioneered several government-wide solutions called for in the strategy that are helping all agencies implement this important initiative. For example, GSA provides a growing list of API data sets that anyone can use to unlock government data.
In addition, GSA offers an array of customizable cybersecurity products and services to help agencies enhance security, improve resilience, protect important information, and bring systems into the 21st century. Products and services follow guidance from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), which organizes basic cybersecurity activities into high-level functions (Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover) that support cybersecurity risk management.
Federal agencies can also meet their small business contracting goals while also meeting their needs for state of the art IT support through GSA’s trusted small business industry partners, including:
The small businesses on GSA contracts have undergone a stringent, multidimensional selection process and have demonstrated performance. Some of the contract vehicles are set-asides with only small businesses, while others include small businesses as part of a wider pool of highly qualified industry partners.
Developing a Technology Literate Nation
To realize fully the benefits of technology in society and the education system and to provide authentic learning experiences, educators need to use technology effectively in their practice. Furthermore, education stakeholders should commit to working together to use technology to improve American education. These stakeholders include leaders; teachers, faculty, and other educators; researchers; policymakers; funders; technology developers; community members and organizations; and learners and their families.
Traditionally, the digital divide referred to the gap between students who had access to the Internet and devices at school and home and those who did not. Significant progress is being made to increase Internet access in schools, libraries, and homes across the country. However, a digital use divide separates many students who use technology in ways that transform their learning from those who use the tools to complete the same activities but now with an electronic device (e.g., digital worksheets, online multiple-choice tests). The digital use divide is present in both formal and informal learning settings and across high- and low-poverty schools and communities.
Technology can be a powerful tool for transforming learning. It can help affirm and advance relationships between educators and students, reinvent our approaches to learning and collaboration, shrink long-standing equity and accessibility gaps, and adapt learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners.
Schools, community colleges, and universities can be incubators of exploration and invention. Educators can be collaborators in learning, seeking new knowledge and constantly acquiring new skills alongside their students. Education leaders can set a vision for creating learning experiences that provide the right tools and supports for all learners to thrive.
The National Education Technology Plan (NETP) sets a national vision and plan for learning enabled by technology through building on the work of leading education researchers; district, school, and higher education leaders; classroom teachers; developers; entrepreneurs; and nonprofit organizations. The principles and examples provided in this document align to the Activities to Support the Effective Use of Technology (Title IV A) of Every Student Succeeds Act as authorized by Congress in December 2015.
To illustrate key ideas and recommendations, the plan includes examples of the transformation enabled by the effective use of technology. These examples include both those backed by rigorous evidence as well as emerging innovations. The identification of specific programs or products in these examples is designed to provide a clearer understanding of innovative ideas and is not meant as an endorsement. The NETP also provides actionable recommendations to implement technology and conduct research and development successfully that can advance the effective use of technology to support learning and teaching.
Intended to be useful for any group or individual with a stake in education, the NETP assumes as its primary audiences teachers; education leaders; those responsible for preparing teachers; and policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels. The concepts, recommendations, and examples are also applicable to post-secondary institutions, community organizations, and state-level initiatives. The NETP focuses on using technology to transform learning experiences with the goal of providing greater equity and accessibility.
When carefully designed and thoughtfully applied, technology can accelerate, amplify, and expand the impact of effective teaching practices. However, to be transformative, educators need to have the knowledge and skills to take full advantage of technology-rich learning environments In addition, the roles of PK–12 classroom teachers and post-secondary instructors, librarians, families, and learners all will need to shift as technology enables new types of learning experiences.
For these systemic changes in learning and teaching to occur, education leaders need to create a shared vision for how technology best can meet the needs of all learners and to develop a plan that translates the vision into action.
Technology-enabled assessments support learning and teaching by communicating evidence of learning progress and providing insights to teachers; administrators; families; and, most importantly, the learners themselves. These assessments can be embedded within digital learning activities to reduce interruptions to learning time.
Learning, teaching, and assessment enabled by technology require a robust infrastructure. Key elements of this infrastructure include high-speed connectivity and devices that are available to teachers and students when they need them. Aside from wires and devices, a comprehensive learning infrastructure includes digital learning content and other resources as well as professional development for educators and education leaders.