National Educational Technology Plan: Learning Powered by Technology

The Department of Education has outlined two clear goals for education:

· Raise the proportion of college graduates with a 2 or 4 year degree from its current 39% to 60% by 2020
· Close the achievement gap so that all students – regardless of race, income, or neighborhood – graduate from high school ready to succeed in college and careers

The U.S. Department of Education released the National Educational Technology Plan (NETP): Learning Powered by Technology, which provides guidance in utilizing technology to meet these goals. The plan lays out clear ideas and goals in the areas of learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. The model of learning described in this plan calls for engaging and empowering learning experiences for all learners through the utilization of the latest technology to motivate and inspire all students, regardless of their differences. Additionally, it calls for educators to leave behind the one size fits all approach in favor of individualized instruction.

The teaching model as described by NETP “calls for using technology to help build the capacity of educators by enabling a shift to a model of connected teaching” (National Education Technology Plan, 2010, p. viii). The plan describes connected teaching as teams of educators connected to learners 24/7 with access to data, analytic tools, and resources to problem solve and connect with other learners in the global community.

In order to attain the goals the model of teaching calls for, the plan stresses training for teachers that closes the technology fluency gap between educators and their students. Additionally, it calls for utilizing technology to access the most innovative teaching and learning strategies.

The plan is lofty. The goals must be achieved if we want the students of the United States to regain a prominent role in problem solving on the global level. We know the costs of failure. Now we just need to provide the practical tools necessary (training and planning time) for today’s teacher to implement the new strategies. But in the age of budget shortfalls, will this be possible?