The National Educational Technology plan was developed in 2009 by the Department of Education (DOE), reflecting the Obama Administration’s academic goals, which reflect the urgent priority given to the improvement of education. The plan centers around two main goals. First of all, by 2020, the United States will raise the proportion of college graduates from 39% of the population to 60%. The second goal is to close the achievement gap so that all students graduate from high school prepared to succeed in society, either in college or right away in a career. In order to meet these goals, the DOE focuses on improving teaching and learning techniques by using technology. It urges the country’s education system, at all levels, to be clear about outcomes, check for effectiveness, and hold ourselves accountable for results and the process. It sets out ways to accomplish this by planned changes to learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, productivity, and research and development. These changes are extremely thorough, revolutionary in some ways, and require much time and resources to be allocated to implement these changes. These amendments to the education system are very rigorous and demanding, but are all learner outcome driven and focused on improving the quality of education and quality of life in the United States.
The new technology plan focuses on teaching as a collaborative, connective effort, rather than the isolated activity it has been in years past and, in many schools, continues to be. The reason behind this goal is twofold. First, connective teaching connects teachers to professional development which is effective and readily available to teachers. Secondly, connective teaching allows for multiple opportunities to personalize learning. Connective teaching offers more expanded resources to teachers to use in the instrumentive classroom, as well as expanding their knowledge of how to use technology effectively in teaching. Many teachers now have the opportunity to set up online learning communities with students and their peers in order to work together to learn and grow at all levels. Classroom educators should have around the clock access to learning tools and activities, and technology allows them this. Technology also allows teachers help connect their lessons to students’ personal goals and achievements, which allows students to take ownership of their learning and makes it more relevant to them. Additionally, technology allows students to share their work online, which is an effective creative outlet for them and will make them more aware of the content of their work and the work of others.
Teachers cannot keep up with the latest teaching styles or improve in weak areas without professional development. In the new plan, teachers’ professional development will interweave face to face classes with online instruction. This allows them to experience connective teaching, as that is the best way for them to learn how to do it themselves. While younger teachers have grown up with technology, some still do not know how to incorporate it into the classroom, while the veteran teachers do not know how to do it at all. There are changes that must take place in the technological classroom, particularly in the way the teachers are prepared. Learning institutions must begin preparing new teachers to use technology at a high level, in order to improve learning and instructional practices, as well as improve their own learning. Another implied goal is to have teachers use more time for personal professional development. The plan states that in the US, teachers have less time for professional development than do teachers in other countries where the students’ test scores are higher. Teachers should also look for professional development opportunities not only in formal classes, but also in every day teaching, as using technology in instruction has the potential to teach teachers about technologies and methods that can be directly applied to students. Overall, professional development should be constant and happen every day, according to this plan, and should play a major role in a constantly learning society.
The goal that the plan has for technology in learning seems to be to make it easier and more relevant. Technology provides ready access to a wider range of learning resources and connects to a larger world. This also causes the learners to be able to personalize their learning and make it more relevant to them. Additionally, the plan for technology in learning calls for adaptive learning, that is, blending content with the ability to learn new things. This is what many school districts are doing now, specifically in Texas, where the K-12 Technology TEKS has been blended across all content areas. This blending would require a deeper and more hands-on knowledge of technology applications and how to use them in education, so the states need to focus on both teachers and students learning how to use technology effectively. Knowledge of how to use technology would lead to personalized learning, motivation to be a life-long learner, and improve secondary and post-secondary success rates.
I have seen firsthand how an expanded use of technology can greatly benefit a school and its students and faculty. The school in which I did my student teaching has the good fortune to have a head principal who understands the needs of the modern school and encourages the use of and experimenting with technology in the classroom, and he is very encouraging when it comes to professional development and new ways of learning. Many districts, both in Texas and in the United States, are already conducting assessments and implementing technology standards which are very similar to the standards the DOE’s plan presents. However, there is one major flaw in the plan: money. The plan does explain that to implement this plan, districts should spend their money more wisely and adopt a set budget to do this. While this all well and good, it is presented as if every district in the nation has the same access to the funds which would allow this expanded use of technology to occur, with no attention given to the areas of the country where they spend extremely wisely on education, but just do not have the access to funds to keep up with the new technology, which makes it impossible to meet these standards. Additionally, federal law dictates that special education programs receive an equal or proportionate amount of funding, and this causes other students not to have the opportunities to keep up with the latest technology. It is absolutely not acceptable to divert funds from special education just to try and keep up with Europe. While the concepts and plans of action for increased technology learning are exactly what we need in this country today, the reality is that some schools and school districts are simply not as privileged as others, and all the responsible spending in the world will not allow them to significantly improve their technology education. Until more government funds are earmarked for education, this plan cannot be fully implemented.
*Note: The information presented in this blog posting was found online at:
National Educational Technology Plan (2009). Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oii/nonpublic/erate.html
No comments:
Post a Comment