Education is the priority under the Obama administration and as identified by President Obama, education is the pathway to economic growth and prosperity of America. In the following couple of paragraphs, I have discussed a few points that struck me as significant in the National Education Technology Plan 2010 (Plan).
This plan identifies technology to be a crucial aspect of present life. It addresses how technology-based learning can be used as the basic foundation of education in order to engage students in pursuing further education and prevent further dropouts. The plan identifies the fact that technology is highly accepted among students and there definitely is a mismatch between in-school and out-of-school usage of technology among students. It would be useful to incorporate technology within the classroom as a medium of instruction. It also makes me realize that including technology would aid the visual and auditory learning among students. Hands-on approach using technology will also facilitate the kinesthetic learners in the classroom. Technology definitely has the ability to reach more number of students and facilitate their learning.
Another significant point identified by the plan is that, technology can also be used to collaborate with parents and include them in the education process. Collaborating with the family and including them in the process, specifically if a student is diagnosed with a disability can be very supportive for the individual and the family. The plan describes the “connected teaching model” wherein the classroom educators should be well versed with the technology, and their expertise and competence facilitate the teaching-learning approach. This in-turn influences the “program and curriculum development” and technology related funding decisions at school. I agree with the “connected teaching model” regarding the fact that the educators need to be fluent with the technological areas so as to incorporate them in education.
Education being identified as the state and local responsibility, it is crucial to develop strategies to make education reach to all students. The plan recommends implementing approaches for research and development in education. Further research exploring the effectiveness of technology-based instruction medium will be valuable to increase the training of teachers and staff and will also help schools to receive funding to further expand this field.
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“Another significant point identified by the plan is that, technology can also be used to collaborate with parents and include them in the education process.”
Technology, in my experience, can be a great tool for communication between student-and-teacher and teacher-and-parent. In my ninth grade class I used dialogic journals to communicate with my students on a regular basis [basically establishing a forum for individual instruction and the providing of additional resources and instruction]. In addition, however, I used Google Drive to provide parents with the opportunity to read, reflect, and respond to their child’s work and the material we were covering in class. It was incredible the response I got from parents. While not all of the parents took advantage of the opportunity, the ones that did found the transparency to be refreshing and advantageous for promoting development throughout the year.