Posting #3
National Educational Technology Plan: Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology.
The U. S. Department of Education has released the National Educational Technology Plan: Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology in order to guide school districts in creating their own long term plans for technology. The document is broken down into five key areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. Goals are set within each area. Activities to achieve these goals are also outlined.
Overall, the goals of this organization are to develop our students into “active, creative, knowledgeable, and ethical participants in our globally networked society” (US Department of Education, 2010) who can be assessed in real and meaningful ways to increase their productivity. Educators are expected to become proficient in the use of technology and global networking in order to better reach all learners. The report also recommends one-to-one internet access. Professional development for educators needs to be focused on allowing educators to become more technologically literate. In this way, they can assist the learners in their use of technology.
With the state of the economy at this time, I see the need for school districts to get creative in order to reach many of the goals outlined in this report. Laptop computers are becoming more economical, but are still out of reach for most school districts to provide one-on-one computer access for students. If schools could reach this infrastructure goal, many of the other goals would be easier to attain.
Citation:
US Department of Education, Transforming American education: learning powered by technology, (2010) http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf