National Education Technology Plan

Click image to enlarge. The National Education Technology Plan includes a model that puts students at the center and empowers them to take control of their learning. Students and educators including parents, mentors and peers have options for engaging and learning based on individual goals, needs and interests.

It’s national Education Week and the timely publishing of the National Education Technology Plan calls upon parents, teachers, students, mentors and business leaders to help make educational resources accessible outside the classroom. The model outlines enabling continuous, lifelong learning. Technology is at the core, making it possible to act on the knowledge of how people learn and leveraging technology to provide engaging learning experiences and then assessing achievement in more complete and meaningful ways. At the heart of the plan lays the knowledge that technology fills students’ lives 24/7 and harnessing it to engage them in learning experiences is key and the reality of their futures.

The National Education Technology Plan 2010, entitled “Transforming American Education Learning Powered by Technology” states the U.S. was once the global leader in college completion rates among young people, but now ranks ninth out of 36 developed nations. Taking back the leadership position by 2020 and ensuring America’s ability to compete in a global economy is President Obama’s goal.

Each goal addresses one of five components of learning powerd by technology:

• Learning – Engage and Empower
  • Revise, create and implement standards in learning objectives using technology for all content areas.
  • Implement learning resources that use technology to learn how people learn and then optimize the findings.
  • Exploit the flexibility of technology to reach learners anytime and anywhere.
  • Excel STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) learning.
• Assessment – Measure What Matters
  • Implement assessments on student learning that all stakeholders actionable feedback.
  • Build the capacity to improve technology based assessment materials.
  • Conduct R&D on how embedded assessment technologies, such as simulations, collaboration environments, virtual worlds, games, and cognitive tutors, can be used to engage and motivate learners while assessing complex skills.
  • Conduct R&D to be sure we measure what we intend, not outside factors.
  • Revise practices to ensure privacy.
• Teaching – Prepare and Connect
  • Expand opportunities for educators to have access to technology-based content through various resources. (universities, a state, a nation, ect.)
  • Utilizing social media to create career-long learning communities and opportunities.
  • Provide online access to all learners.
  • Increase digital literacy and ongoing learning to educators.
  • Develop a teaching force skilled in online instruction.

Click image to enlarge. The National Education Technology Plan includes a model much like the student learning model that shows teachers engage in personal learning networks that support their own learning and ability to serve students well.

• Infrastructure – Access and Enable
  • Ensure students and educators have access to the Internet in and out of school.
  • Ensure every student and educator has at least one Internet access device in and out of school.
  • Support development of open-source technology learning tools and courses.
  • Implement the next generation of computing system architectures enabling education IT professionals to focus more on maintaining the local infrastructure and supporting teachers, students, and administrators.
  • Eliminate differing standards in collecting and sharing student-learning data, content and resources.
  • Eliminate differing standards in collecting financial data.

• Productivity – Redesign and Transform
  • Define a common definition of productivity and improve policies and technologies for managing costs.
  • Rethink assumptions that inhibit leveraging technology and remove structural barriers.
  • Measure how technology is actually used to support teaching, learning and assessment.
  • Implement technology-powered programs between P-12 and higher education institutions to ensure seamless progression for students.

Implementing the plan depends on initiatives included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which includes the acceleration of providing Internet services to unserved or underserved rural areas as well as to institutions that will likely create jobs. The success of the model for learning in the plan rests on leadership in design and implementation of a more effective education system. The plan calls for a new approach in R&D for education in four areas:

• Providing grants for revving up innovative and proven practices through the Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation Fund which provides funding for grants that are awarded to schools and nonprofits for applying innovations that improve K-12 education.
• Transferring emerging technologies from consumer, business and entertainment sectors into education.
• Supporting current R&D including cyberlearning initiatives at the National Science Foundation.
• Creating The National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies which would serve the public through R&D combining learning sciences, technology and education.

America’s economic growth depends on innovative education and educators. The Portage County Business Foundation sponsors the Golden Apple Awards that recognizes and rewards educators who use innovative teaching methods. 2011 award winners will be announced starting January 24, 2011. For a list of 2010 winners visit the Educator Appreciation/Partners in Education (PIE) page on portagecountybiz.com.