Reflection of the U.S Department of Education National Educational Techology Plan

Under the leadership of President Barack Obama, education is now an urgent priority with two major goals. The first goal is to raise the proportion of college graduates from 39% so that 60% of our population holds a 2 or 4 year degree.   The second goal is to close the achievement gap so that all students graduate from high school ready to succeed in college and careers. The National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) was created to achieve these two goals. The Obama Administration understands that technology is at the core of virtually every aspect of our daily lives and work. Therefore we must leverage it to provide engaging and powerful learning experiences, content, and resources and assessments that measure student achievement in more complete, authentic, and meaningful ways. We want to learn from other enterprises that have used technology to improve outcomes while increasing productivity. This will shorten the learning curve.  The NEPT created the 21^st Century Model of Learning Powered by Technology which calls for engaging and empowering learning experiences for learners. The model states that we must focus on what and how we teach to match what people need to know, how they learn, where and when they learn, and who needs to learn. The model also calls for us to help build the capacity of educators by enabling a shift to a model of connected teaching. This will provide educators with 24/7 access to data and analytical tools as wells as resources that help them act on insights that data provide.