奥巴马总统在白宫举办的首届学生电影节上的讲话
THE PRESIDENT: Hello. My name is Shelly Ortiz — oh, wrong page. (Laughter.) I was just teasing. I knew I wasn’tShelly Ortiz. (Laughter.) Everybody give Shelly a big round of applausefor the great work. (Applause.) Thank you so much. Thanks for not only the introduction, but forthe beautiful video that you made about your dad. Us dads, we get pretty touched by stuff likethat.
And I am thrilled that all of youare with us for our first-ever White House Student Film Festival. And I know we’re running a little bitlate. It’s not because the projector wasnot working. It was because of me. But I appreciate all of you guys being hereand your patience.
The Academy Awards are not untilSunday, but, as you can see, we’ve brought the Oscars to the White House alittle bit early. And I want to thankour partners: Fox, National Geographic,and the American Film Institute. We’vegot the red carpet, we’ve got the big screens, the opening monologue. The only difference is nobody asks what you’rewearing. (Laughter.)
And we’ve got Bill Nye, theScience Guy — (applause) — and Neil deGrasse Tyson from the HaydenPlanetarium — (applause) — who might even give you a sneak peak of his newshow, COSMOS, if everybody behaves themselves. (Applause.) I saw the originalversion — I’m a little older than all of you — and it was spectacular andwonderful, and I know this is going to be not just as good but evenbetter. And so we’re thrilled withthat. And we’re putting on a big showhere because we’re honoring some remarkable filmmakers.
I’ve said before, I believe, andI hope all of us believe, that every child in America deserves a world-classeducation — especially in science and technology and engineering and math –because it’s skills like these that made us an economic superpower and builtour middle class. We also need folks whoare studying the arts because our film industry is a huge generator of jobs andeconomic power here in the United States, and it tells us our story and helpsus to find what’s — our common humanity.
And it’s skills like these thatallowed NASA to announce the other day that we’ve discovered more than 700 newplanets. (Applause.) That’s cool. I mean, we didn’t make the planets, but we — (laughter) — we found outthat they were there. And one of theways that we deliver the best education in the world is by empowering ourstudents with the best technology in the world.
To help inspire us, we invitedstudents from across the country to send their videos about how their schoolsuse technology today, how they might use it in the future. So kids got their cameras out and went towork. And we received about 2,500 videos– 2,500. And we watched them all. I did not personally watch them all, but theWhite House watched them all.
And today, the Oscar goes to –all of you. Because among all theincredible videos we received, yours stood out.And in my official capacity as President,let me just say these movies are awesome. Like all great movies, yours do something special — they tell astory. They help us understand, in thiscase, the amazing things that are going on in classrooms and how technology isempowering our students and broadening their imaginations and challenging themto dream bigger and reach further.
Now, here is the spoileralert: There is some wonderful stuffgoing on out there. So even before youhave seen some of these films, you need to know that what these filmmakers havedisplayed is the incredible innovation and creativity of this generation comingup.
You’ve got Gabrielle Nafie andMiles Pilchik from SciTech Kids in New York. (Applause.) They showed us thattheir class isn’t just dreaming about going into space, they’re actually goinginto space. They designed densityexperiments and used a 3-D printer to build tiny satellites to hold them. And then they actually launched a giantballoon that carried their satellites up to the edge of space — very cool —
MS. NAFIE: Thank you. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: — so they could collect the data. When I was in elementary school, I was notlaunching satellites into space.
You’ve got Alex Emerson, whoshowed how his 8th grade class at Brookwood School in Massachusetts changed thedefinition of “pen-pals” by video-chatting with students in Uganda. And one of the things they did wascollaborate on cook stoves that help families in rural areas cook safer andwith cleaner energy.
And it doesn’t stop with what’spossible today. These videos show howstudents are imagining the future — classrooms that are fully accessible toclassmates with disabilities; individualized learning platforms that you cancarry around in your pocket. And that’sthe kind of creativity and imagination we want all our young people to embrace.
We cannot wait to see more ofthat innovative spirit later this year when we host our first ever White HouseMaker Faire. (Applause.) We already have a White House ScienceFair. This new event is going tohighlight how Americans young and old -— tinkerers and inventors —- areimagining and designing and building tools and machines that will open ourminds and power our economy.
We want to bring this spirit –including more technology –into the classroom. And that’s why I launched something we’re calling ConnectED — ourinitiative to close the technology gap in our schools and connect 99 percent ofAmerica’s students to high-speed broadband Internet within five years. Because when the average American school hasabout the same Internet bandwidth as the average American home but serves 200times as many people, that means our students are at a disadvantage. And when less than 30 percent of our studentshave access to true high-speed Internet in their classroom, while in SouthKorea students have 100 percent, that’s like waving the white flag when itcomes to our global competition. Buthere’s what I think: In a country wherewe expect free Wi-Fi at our coffee shops, then we should demand it in ourschools and in our libraries. (Applause.)
This is not thing we can doalone. And as a consequence, I picked upthe phone and started asking business leaders to help bring our schools andlibraries into the 21st century. Theydid not just answer the call, they came up huge. So, earlier this month, some of our biggesttechnology companies committed to more than $750 million in computers and softwareand broadband access to put our kids and classrooms on the cutting edge oftechnology.
Today, I’m proud to announce thatmore companies are getting on board. Prezi will provide over $100 million in presentation products to helpstudents develop ready-to-work skills in slideshows and creative communication. So give them a big round of applause. We’re very proud of them for that. (Applause.)
And Adobe will make available,for free, more than $300 million in creative and teaching software so that kidscan turn their ideas into films and graphics, and teachers can deliver lessonselectronically. So give Adobe a biground of applause. (Applause.)
If you’re quick at math, which Iknow you are, then you’ll see that this means we’ve delivered over $1 billionin technology commitments to our schools, which isn’t too shabby for one month.But there’s still more to do, and we need even more companies to get onboard. Because, thanks to innovativeschools and teachers and students like all of you, we know what school mightlook like in the century ahead: Classrooms wired to space; students who are fluent in coding and webdesign; teachers collaborating on projects with peers around the world. We’ve always imagined giving every child thechance to learn like that. And withthese private sector partners, we’re helping to make it a reality.
So let me leave you with awonderful example of the difference that technology can make. Kyle Weintraub is a 7th grader at DavidPosnak Jewish Day School in Florida. Andlast year, he was diagnosed with lymphoma, had to move to Pennsylvania fortreatment. In the past, that meant Kylewould have had to leave his school and his friends behind. But every day, Kyle puts on his schooluniform and, without even leaving his room in Pennsylvania, he goes to schoolin Florida because he has a special robot with a high-tech video feed that goesto class for him. And even as he’sgetting medical treatment and fights to get better, Kyle can keep up with hisstudies — controlling his robot from his computer at home. And through a video feed, Kyle can see hisclassmates; they can see him. So therobot doesn’t just have a name — they just say, “Hey, Kyle.”
And he can look around theclassroom, move down the hallways, even sit with his friends at lunch. And I know the teachers think this is justextraordinary as well, because if there’s one thing you don’t want to do, isstart a food fight with a robot. (Laughter.) So everybody kind ofseems to be better behaved when Kyle’s robot is around. Kyle is here today. He did not bring hisrobot, but everybody give Kyle a big round of applause. (Applause.)
Kyle’s story is just one exampleof what’s possible when we put our extraordinary technologies to work for ourstudents and our schools. And that’swhat this film festival is about. So toall the young filmmakers out there, remember you’re much better at this thanall that adults. (Laughter.) It’s your imagination and your creativity andyour innovation and your dreams that are going to help this country moveforward.
Keep up the great work. We could not be prouder of you. Your parents are proud of you, I know that,but I am, too. And America is countingon you.
So with that, let’s start theshow. Thank you, guys. (Applause.)
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