Corrected: A previous version of this article misquoted U.S. Director of the Office of Education Technology Karen Cator. She said, 鈥淕oals and recommendations are great.鈥�
The U.S. Department of Education intends to pay for research to study online professional-collaboration communities for teachers and other educators, according to the action plan in the final version of the Obama administration鈥檚 National Education Technology Plan.
, unveiled Tuesday by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, also pledges to finance development of open-source educational resources and launch an initiative dedicated to defining and increasing educational productivity. Mr. Duncan spotlighted the plan in a speech at a conference of the State Educational Technology Directors Association, held at the National Harbor complex in Prince George鈥檚 County, Md., just outside Washington.
鈥淥ur team here ... is absolutely committed to doing the work necessary to bring this plan to life,鈥� Mr. Duncan said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to need the effort of everyone鈥攑arents, teachers, students, business leaders鈥攖o create the digital learning experiences that will prepare our students for success.鈥�
Those measures, as well as the creation of a national online-learning registry鈥攚hich was announced in July and is expected to be operational by early 2012鈥攁re all included in the action plan, which may be the most significant addition to the document since a preliminary draft was issued in March.
鈥淕oals and recommendations are great,鈥� said Karen Cator, director of the federal education technology office, which headed up the effort. 鈥淏ut from a sense of 鈥榃hat should we do?鈥� 鈥榃here should we start?鈥� 鈥楬ow should we think about this?,鈥� that was the impetus between really focusing on that section.鈥�
Among other objectives, the action plan outlines an initiative to underwrite design research on online professional-collaboration communities for educators with a similar focus, and then to extend that research to at least six different educator specializations. The idea is to improve teaching, assessment, learning, and educational infrastructure through Web 2.0 technologies, such as social networking. The action plan also makes other recommendations for the Education Department to help further the national plan, though most involve the department in the role of a facilitator rather than a provider of improvement measures.
Goals for 2020
The final document is structured similarly to the preliminary draft, with the plan organized into five portions: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. Its executive summary still states the same goal: to use technology to raise the percentage of American students graduating with two- or four-year college degrees from 39 percent to 60 percent by 2020, and to narrow racial, socioeconomic, and geographic discrepancies among those graduating students.
鈥淲e are at this really pivotal point where more people are understanding, 鈥榊es, we are in tough economic times, so we better look around and leverage every possible resource,鈥欌�� Ms. Cator said. 鈥淎nd technology holds great promise for improving the opportunities for way more people to learn.鈥�
Advocates for educational technology had lauded many recommendations in the earlier draft, such as its emphasis on putting a computing device in the hands of every student and its insistence that technology use in schools must resemble technology use in the workplace to prepare college- and career-ready students. (鈥淯.S. Ed-Tech Plan Urges Rethinking In K-12 Schools,鈥� March 10, 2010.) But at the time, such advocates doubted whether the goals could be met without heightened federal funding for educational technology.
Since then, President Barack Obama has continued to move forward with his proposal to eliminate the federal Enhancing Education Through Technology, or EETT, program and wrap it into a larger 鈥淓ffective Teaching and Learning for a Complete Education鈥� initiative. The latter鈥檚 price tag of just over $1 billion includes $450 million for literacy; $300 million for science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM, subjects; and $265 million to support a 鈥渨ell-rounded education.鈥�
Some educational technology advocates are worried that rolling ed-tech funding into that initiative would dilute investments in K-12 ed-tech programs.
But the Federal Communications Commission voted in September to index the $2.25 billion E-rate program for inflation for the first time in its 13-year history, a move some technology advocates said signaled that the federal government is serious about supporting more and better uses of technology in schools. (鈥淩evisions to the E-Rate Viewed as a Step in the Right Direction,鈥� Oct. 6, 2010.) The E-rate helps provide subsidies for school purchases of hardware and service to increase Internet connectivity.
鈥淲e definitely see the right vision,鈥� said Keith R. Krueger, chief executive office of the Washington-based Consortium for School Networking, or CoSN. 鈥淚 think [the ed-tech plan] moves us in a direction. Certainly from CoSN鈥檚 perspective we鈥檙e concerned about whether districts and states will have enough resources to do this. While this particular vision is powerful, we had many concerns around the original blueprint.鈥�
Any proposals requiring new federal funding could face a difficult political climate on Capitol Hill, where Republicans who won control of the House of Representatives and gained seats in the Senate in the midterm elections are likely to push for cuts in discretionary federal spending.
