National Educational Technology Plan

On November 9, 2010 the U.S. Department of Education released a National Educational Technology Plan (NETP): Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology.  The technology plan, under the Administration of Obama, is driven by two main goals: increasing the percentage of college graduates from what it is today (41%) so that 60% of the population has a two-year or four-year degree by 2020 and to refine K-12 achievement so that high school graduates are ready to succeed in college and careers.  It is known that technology is the foundation of everything we do today so it must be a core value for education. 

NETP presents a model of learning based on five criteria: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. Learning must engage and empower students to collaborate, utilize resources, problem solve, and exercise real-life experiences in the classroom and the use of technology is key to this goal.  Technology-based assessments should be implemented to gather relevant assessment data, accurately analyze it, and apply continuous improvement.  These assessments could be interconnected allowing feedback from students, teachers, administrations, parents, and other relevant stakeholders.  Teachers are a critical component of educational transformation so it is important to make sure join together in the vision of the 21^st Century education.  Connecting educators will enable collaboration and continuity of professional development which will prove to be a more effective use of resources and allow more opportunities.  In order to facilitate technology-based learning, there must be a robust infrastructure in place that offers anytime, anywhere connectivity.  This infrastructure would not only support access to information but to people and online learning communities to enhance real-world learning and problem solving skills.  Another goal of NETP is to increase productivity by redesigning and transforming the educational landscape.  The business world and other sectors have integrated new practices to increase productivity and decrease cost and it’s imperative that education adopt some of the same practices.  This will require rethinking basic assumptions that may hinder the need to integrate technology into learning.

Ultimately, these changes should be internally driven from within each state and local district. The Department of Education will play a large role in facilitating these goals and objectives down to each state to boost this transformation.