The National Educational Technology Plan Summary

The National Educational Technology Plan Summary

What a coincidence to summarize the NETP this week.  Last week I was asked to facilitate the PSAT test to all sophomores at my high school.  The entire sophomore population was tested, which by the way was funded by TEA.  Our campus was one of the pilot campuses to test its students.  To my understanding, the state of Texas is ranked number 47 for college gratuates graduating with a 2 or 4 year degree. Not a good place to be.  As a result, TEA has funded a number of high schools to assess our students using the PSAT to analyze student academic ability. After talking to counselors, it is clear that educators need to encourage our students to further their education by attending a college or university after completeing high school.  

According to the Obama Administration, the United States has a college graduation rate of 39%.  Apparantly the state of Texas is assisting in this low number.  Consequently, the National Educational Technology Plan has several goals to improve student achievement via technology integration and implementation.       

The National Education Technology Plan is focusing on five main core areas. Those areas are learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity.  Let's take a closer look at each focal point.

Learning: All learning should be engaging and empowering for all students from early childhood to college graduates.  The emphasis should be how teachers are conveying their subjects and how they are matching what the students need to learn, how they learn and why they need to learn it.  Technology driven instruction will provide tailored learning enviroments to all students no matter their background, languages, or differences.

Assessment: Critical thinking, complex problem solving, collaboration, and multimedia communication – in all content areas can be measured with technology based assessments along with teacher lesson plan outcomes and curriculums. By determining the students' strength and weakness, this will aid the instructors in developing lessons and activities that will enhance the students' ability to use these skills.  As a result, students will be more successful in the classroom and improve their test taking abilities; thereby transferring these successes to the college level courses as well.

Teaching:  Teaching with technology in the classroom will engage the students and help them be active learners.  Students are more likely engaged by incorporating technology in all subjects.   Educators need to utilize every technological tool available to them. This includes the on-line environment, the textbook technology support, the equipment provided in the classroom, in addition to the professional development offered via their districts. By equipping the teachers with the tools necessary to teach the 21st century learner and training them to use technology cohesively, the teaching will transfer the learning to our students.    

Infrastructure: In order for students to be more engaged and thus more successful with their education, school districts need to implemement infrastructures that will meet the needs of all learners anytime of the day.  Not only do the students need this support but the educators as well as the supporting staff need this in order to provide a more suitable envirnoment for a technology driven culture.

Productivity:  Despite the fact that our society is in econmic tormoil, this is no excuse for slowing down our productivity goals for our students.  In fact, we should be driving educational productivity goals even more.  Technology implementation should increase productivity for students' learning in every facet of the environment, from the basics of elementary courses to distant learning at that middle school and high school levels. Technology investment will by far be one of the biggest expenses a district will incurr. However, if allocated correctly, this will be the best return on investment (ROI) with educational aptitudes that can be effectively measured.

In order for our students to be prepared for their future, we need to take all aspects of the education into account.  It starts with their home life and continues at school, after school, at work and on weekends.  Learning should be continuous life-long processes and embraced with enthusiasm for what lies ahead for the future of our students.  

Source: http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf