1. Can you describe how you personally use technology to access, create and share information?
2. In terms of technology use, what were the most innovative ideas for education that you saw in the Race To The Top applications that you reviewed?
3. The National Education Technology Plan calls for the end of “one size fits all learning.” Do you agree and, if so, what does that mean for students and teachers?
4. The plan also calls for teachers to take part in “online learning communities” and “personal learning networks.” What types of professional development should schools be engaging in to achieve those goals?
5. If you were to counsel teachers and administrators in their participation in these communities and networks, what three suggestions would you give?
6. Do you agree that skills such as collaboration, problem-solving and self-direction (among other “21st Century Skills”) are important for students to develop and, if so, how are current assessment regimes checking for those skills?
7. Do you believe that every student in the United States should have ubiquitous access to the Internet and, if so, what plans are in place to achieve that? If not, why not?
8. According to the National Council of Teachers of English, the following are the characteristics of “literate readers and writers” in the 21st Century. How are you personally meeting these standards?
• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and
cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of
purposes
• Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous
information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments
9. How do you see technology being used by your own children and grandchildren to learn in the future?
10. (Yours?)
10. How do you reconcile the national common content standards with the end of “one size fits all learning?”
10. Do you see any conflicts between the content-driven pedagogical model that currently dominates day-to-day classroom work in K-12 education and the workforce skills that future Americans will need?
10. What investments is the Department making to prepare future-focused, rather than compliance- or status quo-oriented, school leaders?
10. What element of our current system of accountability in schools is intrinsically motivating for children?
We’re still begging for new generations to be motivated by the “carrot” that someone else owns.
Personally, I couldn’t be more anxious to engage locally in a discussion over what is essentially the same set of questions. I admire the focus of the post… and I think it is a terribly valid one. However, you’ve also nailed down a pretty nice little set of ten questions here for any school system to ask inwardly. A slight bit of modification would deliver a great document for an exercise with leaders of any school system.
I am especially humbled by #8. There are things present in the NCTE standards that truly defy the creation of more typical “learning objectives.” They’re not foreign. They’re not impossible. Yet, tackling these standards -and the processes required within- are delightfully rigorous and relevant.
10. How would you go about flipping the DoE on its head so that it ceased being a top-down driven entity and drew its direction from a collaboration of teachers, administrators, students, and parents sitting at the table with those already there (corporate leaders and politicos)?
10. Why is there such emphasis on the centuries old pedagogical model of testing, testing, testing by the DOE versus a more useful & appropriate approach rewarding schools for creating innovative learning based communities?
Why engage him on the grounds of “edtech?”
1) He can always just respond with pablum or feign ignorance.
2) What Duncan/Obama are doing is much bigger than edtech. It’s an assault on democracy and civil society via the destruction of public education.
3) This national edtech plan is as useless and foolish as the last 94 others that have led to little of constructive value.
4) As much as I hate to admit it, the edtech community has little to be proud of.
The pedagogical model of testing you’re referring to is not CENTURIES old. It is years or perhaps two decades old.
10. Wouldn’t it make more sense to eliminate the federal department of education budget and send the operating funds down to the local schools so they can acquire the tools and information links they desperately need? Do we really need 3 levels of oversight for education with each holding the lower level hostage with funding and grants?
10. The National Ed Tech Plan recognizes the challenges imposed by E-Rate and other policies and laws. “In some cases this requirement creates barriers to the rich learning experiences that in-school Internet access should afford students”(p. 54). What action are you prepared to take to eliminate these barriers?
Will,
Why engage him on the grounds of “edtech?â€
1) He can always just respond with pablum or feign ignorance.
2) What Duncan/Obama are doing is much bigger than edtech. It’s an assault on democracy and civil society via the destruction of public education.
3) This national edtech plan is as useless and foolish as the last 94 others that have led to little of constructive value.
4) As much as I hate to admit it, the edtech community has little to be proud of.
10. Can you tell me why I should feel good about closing our elementary school computer lab for ONE THIRD of the school year so our kids can take high stakes tests on computers?