National Education Technology Plan

The National Education Technology plan has two major goals.  Increase the number of college graduates with either an associates or bachelors degree, and prepare students to succeed in college and/or careers.  In order to achieve these goals we must motivate and encourage students to want to continuously learn.  An educator needs to encourage and teach to each individual student and his or her specific needs.  New ways to assess strengths and weaknesses while there is time for improvement need to be implemented.  Learners should feel empowered in their leaning in order to become productive, ethical and active members of the 21^st century society.  The Educational Technology Plan wants to create a technology based connected learning environment in and out of schools for the educational needs of all school stakeholders.  In order for technology to be effectively incorporated there must be a comprehensive infrastructure that all parties have access to.

Much of the professional development and training will be geared towards teaching to each students needs, and the use of technology to motivate them to succeed.  Online learning will be accessed not just by the students but also by educators to develop their technological competencies and abilities. Training will not just be comprised of workshops and in-services, but will also use online social networks and distance learning to help include technology in an effective and interesting manner.

My main concern is with individualizing instruction for each student.  Part of the plan suggests that we need to move away from structured curriculum pacing to address the needs of each individual.  There are standardized tests the students need to take, we need to prepare them the best we can.  But how are we supposed to do that when we have more curriculum to teach than we do time to cover it?