Review of the National Educational Technology Plan

Any plan that involves improving our countries educational system should be viewed as one of the most  important political issues of today because it involves the future of this country, which are our children.  As a business and computer science teacher myself for 8 years, I found the National Educational Technology Plan to be refreshing because it says it will involve changing the way school systems operate.  The one part about the National Educational Technology plan that I found most interesting is the Drivers of Change objective.  What this Drivers of Change objective basically is, is allowing technology to become the vehicle to help facilitate learning to students in schools as well as at home.  What schools have done for years is try to make all students adapt to the one way education road to education.  We all know that road, reading chapter after chapter in a textbook and answer the questions at the end of the chapter for homework.  Then tell the students to try to remember all of the chapters as we get ready for the all important STANDARDIZED TEST in the spring, after spring break of course, to measure whether or not the student is making progress.  Ranking students based on what was done on a test.  Ranking schools based on what the population of the school scored on the tests.  Good schools versus bad schools, new textbooks versus old textbooks.  What makes me so frustrated as a teacher is that I see this happening everyday in other classrooms.  Teachers complain that the students are not motivated. Administrators blame teachers for motivating their students.  Parents complain to the Administrators about how their child is being treated unfairly by the teacher.  What is unique about the way I teach my students is that I don't rely on textbooks to facilitate learning in my classroom.  I try to rely on various technology systems like the educational computer games, interactive blogs, collaborative projects that involve the use of three to four different software applications.  I see myself as using this Drivers of Change model already because I try to make my class relate to what my students are interested in.  If you ask me if schools should embrace this new way to educate and motivate our children that involves video games instead of textbooks, texting and blogging instead of notes taken from lecture verbatim, social networking instead of extra after-school remediation or the use of web cameras & video imaging instead of library research to find the answers, I'd vote yes.

Reference

Office of Educational Technology. (2010). Transforming american education: learning powered by technology. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf