National Educational Technology Plan

The draft of the National Educational Technology Plan breaks down the goals of the Office of Educational Technology, which is part of the U.S. Department of Education. In this draft they call for the education system to transform its use of technology in the classroom. The plan has setup its goals for this transformation of school technology use in the areas of Learning, Assessment, Teaching, Infrastructure and Productivity.

· The goal for learning is “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”.

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

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

· The goal for Teaching is “Professional educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that connects them to data, content, resources, expertise, and learning experiences that can empower and inspire them to provide more effective teaching for all learners”.

· The goal for Infrastructure is “All students and educators will have access to a comprehensive infrastructure for learning when and where they need it”.

· The goal for Productivity is “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 draft discusses a term called “connected teaching”. This is the idea of teachers leaving the idea of teaching in isolation and stepping into a 24/7 fully connected environment, that gives them access to student data and provides the opportunity to interact with fellow teachers for collaboration or staff development. This ties into the new idea of student learning. If teachers are connected in 24/7 then we must help teach our students to become 24/7 learners as well. The article says “Learning can no longer be confined to the years we spend in school or the hours we spend in the classroom: It must be life-long, life-wide, and available on demand” (Bransford et al., 2006). I think this a great idea for teachers and students to tap into. It really mirrors the way the world works now. We are no longer disconnected at any time of the day. With modern technology we are tapped into the world 24/7, 365 days a year. We must teach our students to learn in this non-stop world or they will have difficult finding success later in life.

With this draft comes a new way of looking at professional development and training. The article describes the modern teacher as having to transform the way they do things in the classroom, so that they can use technology effectively to reach students. This transformation will require professional development to show them the best practices for accomplishing successful use of technology in the classroom. This was a quote from the draft that I found extremely interesting “Educators can be engaged in professional learning not only when attending formal workshops or other activities outside the classroom, but also in the very act of teaching, 45 Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology which can offer a rich source of information to inform professional growth (Ancess, 2000; Borko, Mayfield, Marion, Flexer, & Cumbo, 1997; Kubitskey, 2006). It was very interesting to read about the idea of teachers attending professional development while in the midst of teaching a class. This is very new concept to me but I can see the benefits of it and the tremendous amount of information you can learn from having people observe you from all over the world. The feedback they could provide would be priceless and the opportunity for others to see concepts used in real time would be so much more valuable than regular professional development workshops.

The draft of the National Educational Technology Plan was an extremely interesting piece of information. The ideas that were presented are very exciting and in my opinion, something that education is in need of. We must find a way to reach all students and technology is an extremely great way to help engage a child that would otherwise not care about their own education.