Posted by Lil Kellogg at January 26, 2010
Filed Under: Educational
Last year we made note that the USDOE was embarking on a project to develop a new National Technology Plan that would be shared in early 2010. Thanks to the feedback and input provided by hundreds of practitioners and educational technology advocates (such as yourself) across the country, the plan is coming together nicely. A published draft of the report is planned to be available in late February or early March, but I had the opportunity to attend a webinar today, hosted by iNACOL, that gave us a glimpse into the key themes in the plan.
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You’ll remember that the plan’s objective is “to provide a vision for how information and communication technologies can help transform American education.” Originally the plan intended to focus on four areas of educational transformation: Learning, Assessment, Teaching, and Productivity. The scope has now been expanded to include Infrastructure and Research and Development as additional focus areas. I’ll review the vision for each of the six themes below as they were presented today:
- Learning Vision – Learning experiences provided in schools must incorporate what science is telling us about “how” students learn. The focus needs to be on personalization and individualization, and technology is needed to support that transformation. They referenced recent data providing evidence that a blended teaching and learning model (online and face-to-face) shows the most promise for increased student achievement.
- Assessment Vision – Student-level assessments need to measure what matters and connect to continuous improvement systems. he focus needs to be on imbedded assessments that inform students and teachers about strengths and weaknesses.
- Teaching Vision – Professional educators need to have technology-based tools and data as well as connections to resources and expertise. Technology can support 24x7 access to student data, instructional resources, content and instructional expertise, as well as provide a team-based approach to learning such as professional learning communities (PLCs).
- Infrastructure Vision – All students and educators must have access to a comprehensive infrastructure to allow anytime, anyplace broadband access. They acknowledged that the increasing demand for broadband access is a key challenge for education and deferred to the new National Broadband Plan that is also planned to be released in February 2010. This new National Broadband Plan will have a section dedicated to education. More on that in a future blog …
- Productivity Vision – All levels of the system (PreK-20 and from local to federal government) work together to continuously improve outcomes and efficiency. The plan will challenge education to rethink fundamental policies such as seat time and age-based groups. This is a very different approach to productivity than we have seen in the past.
- Research and Development Vision – While elements of the next-generation system exist today, we need a comprehensive long-term research and development agenda to accomplish the vision in the other areas. Some of the ideas mentioned include more interoperable systems requirements and standards. They also pointed out that while they believe a blended learning model is more effective, there was still much to be researched around the how, when and why to use one mode over another.
While there are some traditional core elements of the National Educational Technology Plan that are not new to those in the trenches, I believe there are enough new concepts and fresh ideas that have the potential to breathe vision and innovation into educational technology. I am anxious to see the first draft and will keep you posted when it is available at www.edtechfuture.org.
That is the good news …
Now for the not-so-good news, an issue we might well introduce with an old adage: “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” The ever-present FUNDING CHALLENGE is not going away any time soon and with the current economic issues, it will be more challenging than ever. As surmised, there is little support in Washington for the Enhancing Education Through Technology program. Washington favors making technology integral throughout its educational programs, but does not plan to mandate any specific allocation to technology. I suggest that without an official mandate, it will be virtually impossible—especially in this difficult economy—to get any funds allocated to technology. I am interested to hear your ideas on this. What do you see as the pros and cons of allocating a specific percentage of federal program funding to technology? For example, what if the new regulations required that five percent of Title I funds had to be spent on technology? Please share your thoughts with the ENA community because, as you already know, EdTech Matters!
