National Education Technology Plan

            The National Educational Technology Plan is formed to revamp American education through being clear about outcomes, redesigning for effectiveness, efficiency, and flexibility, observing and measuring performances, and being responsible for the results along the way.

The National Educational Technology Plan is driven by two goals:

•           To raise the proportion of college graduates from 41 to 60 percent

•           To close the achievement gap so that high school students are ready for college when they graduate.

There are 5 essential areas that the National Educational Technology Plan presents for learning with technology. When used correctly, these 5 essentials will help reach the 2 main goals of the American Educational Technology Plan. They are as follows:

•           Learning: Engage and Empower- This portion of the plan says that all students should be engaged with learning in and out of school. That students should be at the center of their own learning and that they should be prepared to be participants in our networked society.

•           Assessment: Measure What Matters- This states that we should assess what matters and then use the data that we gain to help improve education.

•           Teaching: Prepare and Connect- Educators will be supported by technology that connects them to resources and experiences that will make them become more efficient teachers.

•           Infrastructure: Access and Enable-  This will give access for all students and educators to infrastructure for learning.

•           Productivity: Redesign and Transform- This will improve learning outcomes by redesigning processes and using the power of technology. It will save time, money, and staff.

            To make this plan productive, we need to start implementing these essentials now. We need to collaborate at a local and state level to create and authorize new formative and summative technology-based assessment resources. These assessments should incorporate simulations, collaboration environments, virtual worlds, and games. The main goal is to use technology as a resource for teaching and for learning to improve education. This means that professional development will have to be implemented continuously. Technology is constantly changing. Therefore, to keep up with the new technology, teachers will need to be involved in professional development to learn all the new technology to implement into their lessons. If teachers are as up to date as possible, then the 2 main goals, to raise college graduates and to have students ready for college when they graduate high school, that this plan is driven by, can be made possible.

National Education Technology Plan Executive Summary. (2010). Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology [1-24]. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010