The National Education Technology Plan

In the National Educational Technology Plan 2010 the U.S. Department of Education sets out goals for schools and educators across the country. The most basic of which is for the production of students who are ready for the rigors of life in the real world and have the skills to effectively problem solve in real world situations. The goals set forth that for this to occur, the learner must have advanced skills with emerging technologies. According to the report, for this to happen, we must provide ample support to educators, who often lack the experience or skills to use these emerging technologies themselves. While accountability for student learning is necessary for educators, it is often over emphasized when evaluating the effectiveness of these educators. The report proposes that we need to lighten our reliance on accountability and spend more effort supporting educators needs for training and developing them. It is difficult to expect an educator to be responsible for teaching a skill set to our students, if that educator lacks the fundamentals associated with the skill set. The report goes on to insist that this support should come in the form of collaboration with other professionals, not just in your district but also from around the globe. The use of online collaborations and communities is recommended to help educators reach out to others and share experiences of successful teaching. These suggestions are not only made for teachers that are currently in service, but also for students that are training to be teachers. Many of these pre-service teachers come into the profession without the proper training in classroom technology and are forced to learn as they go. This causes many of them to abandon the profession before they even get their feet wet. Supporting them before they reach graduation can only help to strengthen them once they are hired into a district.
Providing support for the advancement of the teaching profession, as the report suggests, is something I would welcome. However, as it all to often seems, it will probably prove difficult to change the emphasis from accountability to student progression.