When the plan focuses on learning it, "asks that we focus what and how we teach to match what people need to know, how they learn, where and when they will learn and who needs to learn. (United States Department of Education, p. vi). This goal shows that we need to get past just the subject matter and focus more on teaching the higher level thinking skills like critical thinking and problem solving. The ability to use these skills along with technology will enable our students to learn what they need to know in the future. This is very important because of the rapidly changing information that is available and will be used in the future that has not even been invented yet. This section of the plan made me think about the teachers at school and how they are so focused on teaching the students information. They give them worksheet after worksheet and stress when the students do not know it. I wonder if they were to look at whether or not this information might possibly be outdated in the future ha s come to mind for them. I think that it is important instead to look at the skills they are teaching and make sure that the students are learning about things that will be useful in the future.
The second area of the national plan is assessment. The plan discusses using data from assessments to drive instruction for individual students to meet their needs. This plan especially relates assessments to those that are technology based. This made me think of Response to Intervention (RtI) and Professional learning communities. I work very closely with the teachers on my campus with RtI and professional learning communities. Assessment is a big component of this. We use the data to drive instruction. We are not quite to technology based assessments though. That is a goal of mine. I would like to be able to give computer based assessments on all skills to better determine areas of strength and weakness and also give computer based technology assessments to determine what technology skills these students need. That is the only way we are going to make students technologically literate.
The third area of the national plan is teaching. This section discusses connected teaching. This type of teaching has teachers using technology so that they can give their students the best instruction possible as well as the best resources possible because they have access to other teachers and resources that they would not have if they did not use technology. When I teach I will need to remember that in order to be effective I need to use the great resources available through technology.
The fourth area of the national plan is infrastructure. This infrastructure, "includes people, processes, learning resources, policies, and sustainable models for continuous improvement in addition to broadband connectivity, servers, software, management systems, and administration tools. (United States Department of Education, ix). This helps people function in a classroom using technology without problems coming up so that they do not get frustrated with technology use.
The fifth area of the plan is productivity. This section discusses how we should use the concept of productivity to make sure that we are getting the most out of every activity. Technology helps us to do this. If we look at what we want to do and look at possibilities for technology use in terms of productivity, we can at times find the missing time that we so often complain about as teachers. I think this is an important concept to remember. I think that I need to remember in everything that I do to make sure that I am using my time effectively for the best results and the best use of time for maximum educational benefit.
This plan was very interesting. It gave me another view of what is expected and what the goal is for technology. So often we hear about goals in other areas. It was nice to hear about goals and visions for technology as well.
U.S. Department of Education. (2010). Transforming American education: Learning powered by
technology. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education. http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf , accessed March 5, 2011.
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