National Education Technology Plan

Obama set out on the premise of two overarching goals:

“By 2020, we will raise the proportion of college graduates from where it now stands (39%) so that 60% of our population holds a two-year or four-year degree (National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2008).”

“We will 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.”

With these two goals in mind the U.S. Department of Education has come up with 5 specific goals:

Goal 1: 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.

Goal 2: Our education system at all levels will leverage the power of technology to measure what matters and use assessment data for continuous improvement

Goal 3: 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.

This third goal is directly linked to professional development. This goal is saying that we must close the gap between teacher and student technology fluency. Our students are natives and our teachers are immigrants. We need to teach the teachers the skills necessary to engage the natives.

Goal 4: All students and educators will have access to a comprehensive infrastructure for learning when and where they need it.

Goal 5: 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.

Teaching and Learning are effecting greatly by technology. This plan hit it on the bulls eye when it said that “much of the failure of our education system stems from a failure to engage students.” Our students in 2011 are immersed in technology outside of school. Many students say that when they arrive at school they literally have to slow down to learn. The world we are living in is technology 24/7 and we have to mold our classrooms to reflecting teaching and learning that are technology 24/7.

Professionals in community also have technology at their fingertips. No matter what the occupation is, there is some type of technology involved. We have to bridge the gap of learning for our students from school to the workforce.

Source: http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf