The National Education Technology Plan (NETP) was formulated in 2010 with a bold intention: rather than mending the American education system, revolutionize it. With technology usage expanding into every aspect of our lives, our educational system needs to keep pace with the learners’ needs today and prepare them for the future. The plan has two major goals: 1) Raise the percentage of college graduates (associate or bachelor’s degrees) by 20% in ten years; and 2) All high school students graduate, thoroughly prepared for either a career or secondary education. Using a business model, the NETP has five key components:
· Learning Learning must be individualized, differentiated, and use the technologies that students will be using in the career world. The competencies that students need to use these technologies in their education will also allow them to be effective members of a global workforce.
· Assessment Technology-based assessments are necessary to judge students’ competencies not only in core subject areas, but also in the technology skill areas that are vital to their future employment.
· Teaching This component is identified as critical for the NETP to be successful. Educators will have to strengthen their skills and be fully on board with new technology in order for this dramatic change in education to occur. Teaching will no longer occur in isolation, but as a team activity. The “team” will not just be co-workers on a campus, but a global team of co-workers connected by technology.
· Infrastructure This component is the backbone of the NETP. It is composed of people, professional development and other learning resources, policies, action plans for growth, as well as the “nuts and bolts” of hardware, software, web accessibility, and management systems. The framework of this infrastructure will be an enormous undertaking.
· Productivity Increased productivity is a part of our everyday lives. By using the business model, education can make the dramatic changes it needs in order to have our 21st century learners master the competencies they will require to compete in a global world. This is going to require a sea change in thinking, and it must apply to all of the above components in order for the transformation of our education system to be successful.
Wow. Talk about a bold initiative. I’m ashamed to say I wasn’t familiar with the NETP before this class, and now that I have reviewed it, I have a lot of mixed emotions. First, pride that our education leaders at the top recognize where and how we need to change in order to prepare our students for all of their responsibilities in the 21st century. Isn’t that what our profession is about-preparing our charges to be independent, responsible adults? Second, I’m feeling skepticism. I’m skeptical because we have to change the mindset of a LOT of people in order for this transformation to occur anywhere but on paper. I have serious doubts that the enormous amount of money needed for this project to occur will be appropriated by people in Congress who can’t even agree on what should be taught in a science classroom, much less how it should be taught. Third, I’m feeling terrified. I’m just getting good at using my Promethean. It looks like I signed up for this program in the nick of time. Last, I’m feeling optimistic. I’m optimistic because the people who have to make this program work are teachers. I know some teachers don’t want to change (really no different than any other profession), but for the most part teachers are the most accommodating, hardworking, devoted individuals I know. How else would we keep going in the face of so many obstacles we deal with everyday? I don’t have to list them—you know what they are. Somehow, some way, teachers will make this plan work.
National Education Technology Plan (NETP). (2010). Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010
Marianne Wallace EDLD 5306/ET8038
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