The first thing I want to say to the authors of the new National Ed Tech Plan (pdf) is this: DON’T TEASE ME.
Please.
I’m trying not to get overly optimistic here, but suffice to say, if the rhetoric is any indication of the direction, we may have actually turned a corner.
- Personalized learning
- Learning that is “lifelong and life-wide and available on demand.”
- A device and ubiquitous access for every student and teacher.
- Professional development that focuses on “connected teaching” in “online learning communities” (Sounds familiar.)
- Professional learning that is “collaborative, coherent, and continuous.”
- Learning that is “always on”
- Learning that is no longer “one size fits all.”
- Student work on the cloud
- Student managed electronic learning portfolios
- Students as “networked learners”
- Broadband everywhere
- Open educational resources
- Creative Commons licenses
- Changes to CIPA and FERPA to open up access
- Rethinking the “basic assumptions” of schooling
And more.
Sure, there’s some stuff not to like, and a lot of vagueness as to how we get there, but I’m giving this an A-. Read it.
But here’s the thing…anyone else see a big disconnect between this vision and RTTT? Are these folks really in the same administration?
The words make me optimistic. The deeds so far? Not so much.
So, what do we do about that?