National Education Technology Plan

The National Education Technology Plan (NETP) clearly defines education as “the key to America’s economic growth and prosperity and to our ability to compete in the global economy (page 1)”.  The plan calls for new ideas in education to be implemented quickly and that this transformation be: clear about outcomes, collaborative, continually monitored for performance, hold ourselves accountable for progress.  The justification for technology to be at the core of this revolutions is given that technology is in every aspect of our lives and should therefore be integrated and propelled by this same technology.  The plan has goals and recommendations in five areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure and productivity.

Goals:

“1.0 Learning

All learners will have engaging and empowering learning experiences both in and outside of school that prepare them to be active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in our globally networked society.”

“2.0 Assessment

Our education system at all levels will leverage the power of technology to measure what matters and use assessment data for continuous improvement.”

“3.0 Teaching

Professional educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that connects them to data, content, resources, expertise, and learning experiences that enable and inspire more effective teaching for all learners.”

“4.0 Infrastructure

All students and educators will have access to a comprehensive infrastructure for learning when and where they need it.”

“5.0 Productivity

Our education system at all levels will redesign processes and structures to take advantage of the power of technology to improve learning outcomes while making more efficient use of time, money, and staff.”

            The plan emphasizes that change in education can come from modeling the business industries innovative use of technology.  The plan also indicates that technology can make everything better, learning, assessment, teaching and productivity, because this is what is occurring in the business model.  With technology, learning can become more individualized and differentiated.  Technology can improve teaching through collaboration and real time assessment of learners instead of at the end of the year assessments.  The plan also includes many examples of real schools implementing innovative ideas and using technology.

            I think we must be careful how far we emulate the business model in education.  We must not allow public education to become a business like college education has become, only for those who can afford to pay.  Technology provides many tools that, as the examples in the NETP show, given opportunity, training and resources, teachers can innovatively integrate into their lessons.  Teachers have always known that the key to education is to engage students and differentiate the lesson for each student according to their speed and learning method.  The two biggest influences on whether applying technology to education will actually work are: having time for students and parental involvement.  High positive parental involvement always increases success.  There is all kinds of pressure on time for students, from ‘time to move on to the next lesson’ to science only being taught on certain days because it’s not in TAKS this year.  Having a bold, innovative and revolutionary technology plan will bolster education, but will not solve all.

Resources:

http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf