National Education & Technology Plan

In the National Educational Technology Plan, it discusses how to transform American education using technology efficiently and cost effectively in these down-trodden economic times. It doesn’t actually come out and tell the districts how to use the technology around us cost-effectively, just that it can and should be used in such a manner. I agree that technology needs to be used more, but more so by the students, and less by the teachers. I’m not quite sure that I’m totally on board with personalizing each individual’s learning experience within the classroom setting, as I have over 100 students and only 45minutes to engage them in the learning process. In order to do as this plan suggests, I believe there needs to be a major overhaul on how our society sets up the academic calendar and day. I know from experience that creating 5 lessons for one class period, which is expected for differentiation purposes, is pretty much impossible to do every day 6 times a day. So, I’m guessing 100 different lessons to create is not going to happen; I sound cynical, well I am. At this point, most teachers are over worked and very much under appreciated, I know in my district doing a fantastic job, creating an engaging lesson, and doing your job doesn’t count for much. There are plenty who do nothing, and still have the same evaluation as I do; it’s enough to make me want to quit this profession.

However, I digress, in this particular plan it discusses how people learn, how we should teach, how we should assess, the infrastructure needed, and lastly, the concept of productivity. Of course, it’s goals and recommendations are as vague in guidance as can be.

The goals of this plan are:

1. 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” (10).

2. Assessment

“Our education system at all levels will leverage the power of technology to measure what

matters and use assessment data for continuous improvement” (10).

3. 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” (3).

4. Infrastructure

“All students and educators will have access to a comprehensive infrastructure for learning

when and where they need it” (11).

5. 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” (12).

For it’s recommendations, starting with the “learning goal,” it recommends that the states, districts, and teachers, redesign their curriculum to look more like the real world in the 21st century using technology as a means to engage, guide, and develop self-reflective, motivated, ethical, and life-long learners.

Recommendations for “Assessment” are something that I could get behind. I have never thought that one standardized test can measure what a student has learned, and this plan’s first recommendation is to do just that. It says, “ Design, develop, and adopt assessments that give students, educators, and other

stakeholders timely and actionable feedback about student learning to improve achievement

and instructional practices” (10). It furthers discusses the idea of using technology as a tool for us to better our assessment materials, assessments, etc. It disgusts me to see some teachers only teaching to the TAKS test this day in age, however it does happen. Some ideas that are given as a means for possible research into feasible assessments are gaming technology, virtual worlds, simulations (like SimCity), collaboration environments (like wikis). And of course, us educators need a way to analyze the assessments that follows privacy laws, but still uses technology to disperse the information to the student and parents.

“Teaching” recommendations are easily briefed up, like students, we educators should use the technology as a means to share and connect with fellow educators to ensure that the curriculum taught is relevant to today’s learners. I feel that the “Infrastructure” and the “Productivity” are a little self explanatory. Basically the plan wants every student and teacher to have access to all necessary resources and technologies needed round the clock. One major issue with this is, I work in a very low socio-economic area, where most of my students don’t have computers, or if they do then they don’t have internet capability. I worry that teachers will begin to rely too heavily on technology and these students will be left behind because they don’t have the same silver-spoon as others. And with “Productivity,” the plan wants the local districts to come up with a common vision that reflects the communities goals whilst still complying with the Federal plan.