National Educational Technology Plan

After reading the National Education Technology Plan and Obama's goals for education, I feel that education will be making a necessary change to meet the needs of students of the 21st century. Obama's goals include raising the college and high school graduation rates, and closing the achievement gaps in demographics among students. In order to meet these goals, the plan suggests changes in the classroom and in student learning. The educational system will need to be changed to include clearn outcomes, collaborative redesigned processes that are more effective, efficient, and flexible, a better way to monitor and meausre performance, and an higher standard for accountablity. A study mentioned in the plan states that children aged 8-18 spend 53 hours a week using media for entertainment. It is the challenge in education to find a way to make the media they use educational. Students learning will be changed so that students use technology to create their own learning environments giving them a sense of ownership. Classrooms must change to meet the needs and connect technology learning within the classroom as these are the needs of the 21st century learner. Learning taking place at school must be altered to be more student centered and to meet individual and diverse needs of each student. Assessments will need to be changed to reflect this style and instead of pen and paper bubbling, students will show that they master necessary skills through other outlets. Teaching must be innovative, creative, and continuously changing to meet the needs of each student. Teachers must learn to take more flexible approaches and connect learning to the needs of each student. In order for teachers to master the current trends in technology, professional development will be necessary in a way that is collaborative and frequent allowing for teachers to have support and become familiar. Such examples will include in person workshops as well as online classes. If these changes are made, I do feel that education can make giant leaps into meeting the ever changing needs of our students. In reflection, I realize how much technology has improved since I was in grade school. Now students as young as 2nd grade have cell phones. It only makes sense that the needs of schools change to meet the current demands and I feel that this educational plan has covered a lot of the worries of educators as well as parents.