National Educational Technology Plan: Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology
The NETP presents five goals with recommendations for states, districts, the federal government, and other stakeholders in our education system that address learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity.
Learning: “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 participation in our globally networked society.”
Assessment: “Our education system at all levels will leverage the power of technology to measure what matters and us assessment data for continuous improvement.”
Teaching: “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.”
Infrastructure: “All students and educators will have access to a comprehensive infrastructure for learning when and where they need it.”
Productivity: “Our education system at all levels redesign processes and structures to take advantage of the power of technology to improve learning outcomes while making efficient use of time, money, and staff.”
Goals for Learning, A Model for the 21st Century states that 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. In essence, what a 21st century learning should look like is placing students at the center and empowering them to take control of their own learning. Learning is not a “one size fits all”. We need to place emphasis on individualized, personalized and differentiated instruction to ensure that we are meeting the needs of all students.
Goals for Teaching, Improving Learning Through Connected Teaching states that professional educators will be supported individually and in teams by technology that connects them to data, content, resources, expertise, and learning experiences, that can empower and inspire them to provide more effective teaching for all learners. Unfortunately, in some cases, we see how many educators work in isolation and have minimal interaction with colleagues. Professional development is often provided in short, fragmented, and periodic workshops that offer little opportunities to integrate learning into practice. We have become a society that revolves around testing and how we rate as a school based on our students’ test scores. When really, what we should be seeing and experiencing in the classrooms is allowing our students to have exposure to creativity, research, innovation, apply problem solving strategies, and personalized instruction to ensure that we are meeting our diverse population of students and build on their strengths and provide the necessary tools to help strengthen their weakness.
I really agree with what you say about how teachers often work in isolation, and in turn include few opportunities for students to use technology to communicate and interact with others either. The reality is that we have access to a global community at our fingertips yet are often hesitant, whether from fear or lack of technical knowledge, to help ourselves and our students create vital, learning links outside of the four walls of our classroom.
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