This is one in a series of reports to the President and Congress developed by the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) on key contemporary issues in information technology. This report highlights findings and recommendations on how the Federal government can provide the leadership needed to solve key information technology challenges and to improve the quality of, and public access to, distant, knowledge-intensive, and otherwise unaffordable educational and training experiences. The overarching recommendation is that the Federal government set as a national priority the effective integration of information technology with education and training. This must be at the core of any far-reaching education initiative. Four subordinate recommendations urge that the Federal government: establish and coordinate a major research initiative for information technology in education and training, including learning technologies and sciences, information technologies for education and training, and requirements for learning and teaching information technology fluency; establish focused government-industry-foundation partnerships to aggressively pursue the information technology research program; develop programs that enable educators and related professionals to use information technology effectively; and work with industry and academic to develop technical standards for extendable component-based technologies and infrastructures that can be widely used in online education and training. A list of workshop participants is appended. (AEF)