Education Week 

A new 50-member Digital Learning Council will research best practices for digital education and release its findings this year, according to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise. The 50-member council includes John D. Couch, vice president of education at Apple Inc.; Shafeen Charania, director of education product group marketing for Microsoft; Daniel A. Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators in Arlington, Va.; state officials; and scholars at education think tanks. U.S. Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education James H. Shelton, who heads the office of innovation and improvement, is a liaison to the council.

The plan is to create a set of best practices that would cover a range of digital-learning issues, including: online and virtual schools, classroom technology, equity, security and privacy, and digital content. The council plans to do its work in two phases. It will develop the list of best practices for digital education by November or December, and in the second phase, encourage states to adopt them. The process is intended to be similar to that of the Data Quality Campaign, a foundation-funded group based in Washington focused on improving the collection, availability, and use of high quality education data.

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