Blog Posting #3 National Educational Technology Plan

National Education Technology Plan has set out two very clear goals. By 2020, we will reach a graduation rate of 60% (either a two year or 4 year degree). This is an increase of 21% over the next nine years. The second goal is to close the gap between students no matter their race, income, or neighborhood so that they may graduate high school with the knowledge to succeed in college or in the job world.



To achieve these goals we must have a low cost solution that incorporates technology, evaluations and the goal for ongoing improvement. Each and every school should have the the opportunity to take advantage of the resources available and use them to help students achieve.



There are five essential areas that include learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. Learning includes for engaging and empowering our lessons to reach all students. There is a lot of mention of choice for students, using their learning styles, and reaching students where they are. Technology allows for many of these provisions and allows them to personalize their educational experiences. In the area of assessment, we need to look for new and improved ways to look at where our students are in their educational path and online assessments allow for immediate feedback that leads us directly to the areas students need the most improvement. Teaching areas calls for teachers to be connected to a vast number of other educator that allows us to broaden our teaching outside of the four walls of our classrooms and work with teachers worldwide to enhance the learning experience of our students. Infrastructure calls for everyone to be connected and for everyone involved to buy into the need and the amount of effort and resources it would take to make this type of learning accessible for our students. Productivity allows us to use technology, in a time of budget crisis, to account for every dollar and to make sure that we are spending our money in the area of education. You can never go wrong investing in our future.