National Education Technology Plan

The Executive Summary states that the Obama administration has made education a serious priority by establishing two goals to be met by 2020. We have a need to increase the number of people with a two or four year degree from 39% to 60%. We also need to close the learning gap regardless of race, income, or neighborhood of our students. By meeting these goals, we will benefit from higher earnings, and being able to work more collaboratively with those across borders and cultures to solve our timely challenges. The five goals are recommendations for states, districts and federal government and other stakeholders and these include: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure and productivity.

The 21st Century Model of Learning Powered by Technology responds to learning that is engaging and empowering learning experiences for all of our students. Our students are surrounded by technology opportunities 24/7 and as educators; we need to use their interest to create engaging and relevant experiences. We must begin to empower our students to take control over how, when and where they learn. When our students are learning about their interests, that learning becomes more relevant, inspiring and motivating for us all. Personalized and differentiated instruction is much more possible for our students with the use of technology/instructional resources. We would also have more resources for students to work with others on projects based on real-world questions. Students will manage their own portfolios, set personal achievement goals by understanding their strengths and weaknesses.

This technology model will require teachers to be more connected to one another more than ever before. Connected teaching puts teachers, students, and professionals from a variety of professions, and parents create situations where all stakeholders can learn from others no matter the hour. Teachers are building on-line learning that encourages collaboration and the access to a multitude of resources and others' experiences.

While reading this model for learning driven by technology, my concern became that a majority of our students are not empowered to learn on their own. How do we instill that intrinsic motivation in our students? As our teaching changes to become more personalized, our assessments will also evolve. Our teachers slowly understand the benefits of collaborative teaching, but we have much more to learn from each other.