Blog 3

The summary of the draft plan to transforming American education is to ensure that the number or percentage of graduates and college applicants are raised. To do this they must close the achievement rate. Meaning the students regardless of parent income, home situation, location/neighborhood, and race graduate. To do this the educational system must be held to certain standards. The school districts and the schools must be clear about the outcomes they seek. School leaders must collaborate to redesign the structures and procedures they already have in place to achieve effectiveness, efficiency and flexibility. Have a form of monitoring the progress, and a system to ensure accountability for the progress or lack of it. What this means for learning is that the how, what, where and who of learning is met with the use of technology. Technology is meant to close the gap by engaging, motivating, and inspire students and personalize their learning experience. For the educators this means not only a change in how the teaching is done but where it takes place. Accountability and the use of effective teaching have always been around, just in different forms and jazzed up wording. Technology is now a must to teaching, no longer is the education just left the teacher and state requirements of what needs to be taught. While resources are now available in all forms any time with a connection to the internet, it can also be used to connect classrooms and teachers to another. This empowers the educator to create, manage assess and provide real world connections. This requires that the educators and learning community is up to date on current and evolving technology, meaning professional development provided by the districts and outside development by the sole educator to achieve the requirement. What is my opinion on this, the issue I have is deciding what is relevant to the student learning, where the technology will come from, where the funds will come from and will they be used for this of magically moved to fund other programs. Also what is the line drawn for the student and teacher regarding the use of technology? Are videos and information provided fact or opinion and believed truths by the person providing it, is this program up to date, they change every year and is the computer updated to meet the evolving needs of system requirements. In other words, what is needed, how will it be provided and who will be in charge, and will the student be held responsible for their own learning and failures?