National Education Technology Plan

The lofty goals of the National Educational Technology Plan of 2010 are that “By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world,” and that the plan will close the achievement gap, regardless of income or ethnicity, so all students will graduate prepared to succeed in college or careers. The plan states how the Secretary of Education and the Department of Education will accomplish this goal.  The plan calls for the use of advance technologies in our daily lives and applies this to the entire education system to be data driven to improve the education system for all students.

The plan consists of five goals with recommendation for all stakeholders, which includes the states, the local districts, the federal government and others including community leaders and others interested in improving education.  For each goal for Learning, Assessment, Teaching, Infrastructure, and Productivity, one of the five essential components of learning powered by technology is address.

To have continuous improvement, the technology plan must address learning changes of students and evaluate the successes and address the failures of the plan, and address ever-occurring changes in technology equipment and applications. 

It is essential that the infrastructure and the technology equipment are available to students.  It is essential that teachers are provide with training to address how learning must be addressed to teach students to use technology and use global data to develop critical thinking skills.  With a shortage of funds at the federal, state, and local levels, the delivery of education using technology must become more productive and efficient. To accomplish this, it is essential that the Federal Government provide the necessary funding and resources to accomplish the National Educational Technology Plan of 2010.

A major issue at the national level, state, and local levels that will affect the success of the Plan is funding.  With the present economy, educational funding is being reduced which affects money available for staff, training, infrastructure, and equipment.  This will, in my opinion, cause different levels of learning opportunities and not close the learning gap as fast as desired in the Plan.

Another issue is the skill levels of teachers, which varies just as the skill levels of students do.  Training to address the differences in skill levels of teachers will be just as difficult as it will to address the different skill levels of students.

Another issue is the federal governments involvement in education at the state and local levels, and the resentment at these levels of being told what to do by the “Feds.”  The local districts want local control without the strings attached to federal funding.
To achieve the lofty goals of the 2010 Technology Plan, the Department of Education must provide the leadership to coordinate, implement, evaluate, and provide the funding.
Through common goals by all levels involved, there will be a better opportunity for success.

Reference

US Department of Education. (2010). National Education Technology Plan 2010. Retrieved   from http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010