Martha Kanter and Jim Shelton of the US Department of Education Open the 2011 Open Education Conference

Martha Kanter, Undersecretary of Education in the US Department of Education, gave today's opening keynote at the 2011 Open Education Conference in Park City, UT, followed by Jim Shelton, the Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement.

When President Obama took office, he asserted that the US should strive to have the best, most educated, most competitive workforce in the world. But right now we're 16th in the world in education and being outcompeted by other countries, including Singapore and China.

"I was just in London with university presidents, and all the conversation was about how to leverage what we know and the finest faculty to share knowledge with other countries and push the world towards a democratic society in which we all live and thrive." We have 6,200 colleges and universities in the US and 100,000 K-12 schools, which is an enormous opportunity for open education...