National Educational Technology Plan

The National Educational Technology Plan called “Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology” was finalized on November 9, 2010.   This plan calls for implementing advanced technologies we all use daily not only in our personal lives but our professional lives to transform education system.  The belief is that this implementation would improve student learning, accelerate and scale up the adoption of effective practices and use data and information for continuous improvement (NETP).    The underlying purpose of this plan is to raise the population of college graduates and to close the achievement gap so that all students graduate from high school ready to succeed in college or a career (NETP).

NETP has five goals basic goals to achieve.  Each of the goals has recommendation for states, districts, the federal government, and other stakeholders.  Each goal addresses one of five essential components of learning powered by technology:  learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity (NETP).

 This plan calls for engaging and empowering learning experiences for all learners.  Studies have shown that if we make the learning experiences more relevant to our students’ lives that they are more engaged in the learning process.  The plan also calls for teachers to reflect on  what and how they teach to ensure that it is  matching what the learners need to know, how they learn, where and when they will learn, and who needs to learn (NRTP).  

Assessments are one way to ensure that teachers are teaching appropriate content and meeting the needs of their students.  NETP would requires new and better ways to measure what “matters, diagnose strengths and weaknesses in the course of learning when there is still time to improve student performance, and involve multiple stakeholders in the process of designing, conducting, and using assessment”(NETP).

An essential component of this plan is a comprehensive infrastructure for learning that provides every student, educator, and level of our education system with the resources they need when and where they are needed.

As I read to the plan, I wondered how all these goals would be implemented due to budget issues.   The national government is having trouble balancing the budget and is talking about raising the debt ceiling once again.  The state government is cutting its budget.  Teachers are losing jobs.  My main concern is where we get the money for the infrastructure to support these goals.

National Education Technology Plan 2010 | U.S. Department of Education. U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved July 22, 2011, from http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010/executive-summary