The National Educational Technology Plan

The National Educational Technology Plan report focuses on using technology to prepare our present students for a future world. The goals for teachers and students center on becoming contributing members to the global community. For teachers, this means making their work public. Collaboration outside of the school walls means that teachers can receive input from colleagues with various backgrounds and experiences. This sharing of ideas will make Lessons more effective. In addition to using technology to share ideas, it needs to be associated with assessments and data collection. Assessment and other types of collected data will be helpful when making decisions about curriculum. The main drawback that I see comes down to time. The report states and I can personal attest to this fact, that we already have less time for professional development than most other countries. We cannot increase our level of success unless we have time to collaborate locally and globally. In addition to time for collaboration, leadership needs to provide time for some teachers to raise their computer proficiency. It is impossible to design technology integrated lessons for students if you do not feel comfortable with technology yourself. The key goal for students is to set the foundation for becoming a lifelong learner. Jobs are becoming more technologically advanced and are changing so rapidly that a student cannot lock in to one skill set. They must be able to learn new skills in order to keep up with an ever changing world. If they want to stay relevant, they must be able to call upon these skills at any given time.
According to the National Educational Technology plan, students and teachers need to be continuous learners if they want to be a part of the global learning community that is out there.