What is NETP?

On November 9, 2010 the U.S. Department of Education released a finalized National Educational Technology Plan (NETP). NETP 2010 urges the U.S. education system to seek clear outcomes, collaborate to redesign processes for effectiveness, monitor and measure performance, and establish accountability for progress. The plan describes learning as engaging and empowering learning experiences for all learners. The plan indicates that the content of instruction should match: who needs to learn, what needs to be learned, when, where, and how will students learn. A technology-integrated curriculum enables, motivates, and inspires all students, regardless of background, languages, or disabilities, to achieve. The plan describes teaching as fully integrated with technology or “connected”. Teams of “connected” educators have a plethora of resources at their fingertips to help reach the digital learner. The plan encouraged social networks be used as professional development tools for educators. It stated online communities should enable educators to take online courses to learn technology integration.

Although local, state, and  national technology plans have aligned goals of integrating technology into the classroom, neither of the plans have addressed the compensation of time it will take for educators to learn integration models. Teachers are already bombarded with the pressure of state examinations, I don’t see how administrators can additionally fit in the school year 50, possibly 100 hours of ample professional development for technology integration. Even if a technology integration certificate were mandated for future educators and a technology integration program were offered online for present teachers, where is the incentive for present veteran teachers to sacrifice an additional 100 hours of professional development in their crazy schedules. We all know that teaching is the most underrated profession in the country and to ask for teachers to become technologically literate with no compensation is a bit inhumane. I will start to take technology plans a bit more seriously when they detail how they will educate their teachers technology integration with compensation.


Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010