A new federal National Education Technology Plan reveals 21 recommendations for policymakers, administrators, teachers and teacher preparation professionals. The 2016 Plan, Future Ready Learning: Reimagining the Role of Technology in Education, articulates a vision of equity, active use, and collaborative leadership to make everywhere, all-the-time learning possible, according to the plan’s website. While acknowledging the continuing need to provide greater equity of access to technology itself, the plan goes further to call upon all involved in American education to ensure equity of access to transformational learning experiences enabled by technology. The principles and examples provided in the plan align to the Innovative Technology Expands Children’s Horizons (ITECH) program as authorized by Congress in December 2015 through the Every Child Achieves Act. The plan that the U.S. Education Department released on Dec. 10 does not look like a typical plan. Instead, it includes a mix of examples from education institutions, recommendations and commentary on what education institutions should do to change learning with technology over the next five years.
“ Future Ready Learning : On the Role of Technology in Education , ” is a new federal 21-point guide to using technology in American schools , which was released last week and states that technology learning is best used to advance “ a vision of innovation , active use , and collaborative leadership to make everywhere , all - the - time learning possible . ” According to eSchoolNews , the new guide is unique in that it “ includes a mix of examples from education institutions , recommendations and commentary on what education institutions should do to change learning with technology over the next five years . ” .