- Value [1] Learning
- Learning: Engage and Empower -- The model of learning described in this plan calls for engaging and empowering learning experiences
for all learners. The model asks that we focus what and how we teach to match what people need to know, how they learn, where
and when they will learn, and who needs to learn. It brings state-of-the art technology into learning to enable, motivate,
and inspire all students, regardless of background, languages, or disabilities, to achieve. It leverages the power of technology
to provide personalized learning and to enable continuous and lifelong learning.
- Value [2] Engagement
- Value [3] Empowerment
- Value [4] Technology
- Many students’ lives today are filled with technology that gives them mobile access to information and resources 24/7, enables
them to create multimedia content and share it with the world, and allows them to participate in online social networks where
people from all over the world share ideas, collaborate, and learn new things. Outside school, students are free to pursue
their passions in their own way and at their own pace. The opportunities are limitless, borderless, and instantaneous. The
challenge for our education system is to leverage the learning sciences and modern technology to create engaging, relevant,
and personalized learning experiences for all learners that mirror students’ daily lives and the reality of their futures.
In contrast to traditional classroom instruction, this requires that we put students at the center and empower them to take
control of their own learning by providing flexibility on several dimensions. A core set of standards-based concepts and competencies
should form the basis of what all students should learn. Beyond that, students and educators should have options for engaging
in learning: large groups, small groups, and work tailored to the individual goals, needs, interests, and prior experience
of each learner. Technology should be leveraged to provide access to more learning resources than are available in classrooms
and connections to a wider set of “educators,” including teachers, parents, experts, and mentors outside the classroom. It
also should be used to enable 24/7 and lifelong learning.
- Value [5] Life-Long Learning
- Value [6] Competencies
- What and How People Need to Learn -- Whether the domain is English language arts, mathematics, sciences, social studies, history,
art, or music, 21st-century competencies and such expertise as critical thinking, complex problem solving, collaboration,
and multimedia communication should be woven into all content areas. These competencies are necessary to become expert learners,
which we all must be if we are to adapt to our rapidly changing world over the course of our lives. That involves developing
deep understanding within specific content areas and making the connections among them. How we need to learn includes using
the technology that professionals in various disciplines use. Professionals routinely use the Web and tools, such as wikis,
blogs, and digital content for the research, collaboration, and communication demanded in their jobs. They gather data and
analyze the data using inquiry and visualization tools. They use graphical and 3D modeling tools for design. For students,
using these real-world tools creates learning opportunities that allow them to grapple with real-world problems—opportunities
that prepare them to be more productive members of a globally competitive workforce.
- Value [7] Critical Thinking
- Value [8] Complex Problem Solving
- Value [9] Collaboration
- Value [10] Multimedia Communication
- Value [11] Assessment
- Assessment: Measure What Matters -- The model of learning requires new and better ways to measure what matters, diagnose strengths
and weaknesses in the course of learning when there is still time to improve student performance, and involve multiple stakeholders
in the process of designing, conducting, and using assessment. In all these activities, technology-based assessments can provide
data to drive decisions on the basis of what is best for each and every student and that, in aggregate, will lead to continuous
improvement across our entire education system. The nation’s governors and state education chiefs have begun to develop standards
and assessments that measure 21st-century competencies and expertise in all content areas. Technology-based assessments that
combine cognitive research and theory about how students think with multimedia, interactivity, and connectivity make it possible
to directly assess these types of skills. This can be done within the context of relevant societal issues and problems that
people care about in everyday life. When combined with learning systems, technology-based assessments can be used formatively
to diagnose and modify the conditions of learning and instructional practices while at the same time determining what students
have learned for grading and accountability purposes. Both uses are important, but the former can improve student learning
in the moment (Black and Wiliam 1998). Furthermore, systems can be designed to capture students’ inputs and collect evidence
of their knowledge and problem-solving abilities as they work. Over time, the system “learns” more about students’ abilities
and can provide increasingly appropriate support.
- Value [12] Continuous Improvement
- Using Data to Drive Continuous Improvement -- With assessments in place that address the full range of expertise and competencies
reflected in standards, student-learning data can be collected and used to continually improve learning outcomes and productivity.
For example, such data could be used to create a system of interconnected feedback for students, educators, parents, school
leaders, and district administrators. For this to work, relevant data must be made available to the right people at the right
time and in the right form. Educators and leaders at all levels of our education system also must be provided with support—tools
and training—that can help them manage the assessment process, analyze relevant data, and take appropriate action.
- Value [13] Standards
- Value [14] Connected Teaching
- Teaching: Prepare and Connect -- Just as leveraging technology can help us improve learning and assessment, the model of learning
calls for using technology to help build the capacity of educators by enabling a shift to a model of connected teaching. In
such a teaching model, teams of connected educators replace solo practitioners, classrooms are fully connected to provide
educators with 24/7 access to data and analytic tools, and educators have access to resources that help them act on the insights
the data provide. Professional educators are a critical component of transforming our education systems, and therefore strengthening
and elevating the teaching profession is as important as effective teaching and accountability. All are necessary if we are
to attract and retain the most effective educators and achieve the learning outcomes we seek. Just as leveraging technology
can help us improve learning and assessment, it also can help us shift to a model of connected teaching. In a connected teaching
model, classroom educators are fully connected to learning data and tools for using the data; to content, resources, and systems
that empower them to create, manage, and assess engaging and relevant learning experiences; and directly to their students
in support of learning both in and out of school. The same connections give them access to resources and expertise that improve
their own instructional practices and guide them in becoming facilitators and collaborators in their students’ increasingly
selfdirected learning. In connected teaching, teaching is a team activity. Individual educators build online learning communities
consisting of their students and their students’ peers; fellow educators in their schools, libraries, and after-school programs;
professional experts in various disciplines around the world; members of community organizations that serve students in the
hours they are not in school; and parents who desire greater participation in their children’s education. Episodic and ineffective
professional development is replaced by professional learning that is collaborative, coherent, and continuous and that blends
more effective in-person courses and workshops with the expanded opportunities, immediacy, and convenience enabled by online
environments full of resources and opportunities for collaboration. For their part, the colleges of education and other institutions
that prepare teachers play an ongoing role in the professional growth of their graduates throughout the entire course of their
careers. Connected teaching enables our education system to provide access to effective teaching and learning resources where
they are not otherwise available and more options for all learners. This is accomplished by augmenting the expertise and competencies
of specialized and exceptional educators with online and blended (online and offline) learning systems, ondemand courses,
and other self-directed learning opportunities.
- Value [15] Technology Understanding
- 21st-Century Resources for Professional Educators -- The technology that enables connected teaching is available now, but
not all the conditions necessary to leverage it are. Many of our existing educators do not have the same understanding of
and ease with using technology that is part of the daily lives of professionals in other sectors. The same can be said of
many of the education leaders and policymakers in schools, districts, and states and of the higher education institutions
that prepare new educators for the field. This gap in technology understanding influences program and curriculum development,
funding and purchasing decisions about educational and information technology in schools, and preservice and in-service professional
learning. This gap prevents technology from being used in ways that would improve instructional practices and learning outcomes.
Still, we must introduce connected teaching into our education system rapidly, and therefore we need innovation in the organizations
that support educators in their profession—schools and districts, colleges of education, professional learning providers,
and professional organizations.
- Value [16] Infrastructure for Learning
- Infrastructure: Access and Enable -- An essential component of the learning model is a comprehensive infrastructure for learning
that provides every student, educator, and level of our education system with the resources they need when and where they
are needed. The underlying principle is that infrastructure includes people, processes, learning resources, policies, and
sustainable models for continuous improvement in addition to broadband connectivity, servers, software, management systems,
and administration tools. Building this infrastructure is a far-reaching project that will demand concerted and coordinated
effort. Although we have adopted technology in many aspects of education today, a comprehensive infrastructure for learning
is necessary to move us beyond the traditional model of educators and students in classrooms to a learning model that brings
together teaching teams and students in classrooms, labs, libraries, museums, workplaces, and homes—anywhere in the world
where people have access devices and an adequate Internet connection. Over the past 40 years, we have seen unprecedented advances
in computing and communications that have led to powerful technology resources and tools for learning. Today, low-cost Internet
access devices, easy-to-use digital authoring tools, and the Web facilitate access to information and multimedia learning
content, communication, and collaboration. They provide the ability to participate in online learning communities that cross
disciplines, organizations, international boundaries, and cultures. Many of these technology resources and tools already are
being used within our public education system. We are now, however, at an inflection point for a much bolder transformation
of education powered by technology. This revolutionary opportunity for change is driven by the continuing push of emerging
technology and the pull of the critical national need to radically improve our education system.
- Value [17] Anywhere Anytime Access
- Always-on Learning An infrastructure for learning is always on, available to students, educators, and administrators regardless
of their location or the time of day. It supports not just access to information, but access to people and participation in
online learning communities. It offers a platform on which developers can build and tailor applications. An infrastructure
for learning unleashes new ways of capturing and sharing knowledge based on multimedia that integrate text, still and moving
images, audio, and applications that run on a variety of devices. It enables seamless integration of in- and out-of-school
learning. It frees learning from a rigid information transfer model (from book or educator to students) and enables a much
more motivating intertwinement of learning about, learning to do, and learning to be. On a more operational level, an infrastructure
for learning brings together and enables access to data from multiple sources while ensuring appropriate levels of security
and privacy. The infrastructure integrates computer hardware, data and networks, information resources, interoperable software,
middleware services and tools, and devices, and connects and supports interdisciplinary teams of professionals responsible
for its development, maintenance, and management and its use in transformative approaches to teaching and learning.
- Value [18] Personalized Learning
- Productivity: Redesign and Transform To achieve our goal of transforming American education, we must rethink basic assumptions
and redesign our education system. We must apply technology to implement personalized learning and ensure that students are
making appropriate progress through our P–16 system so they graduate. These and other initiatives require investment, but
tight economic times and basic fiscal responsibility demand that we get more out of each dollar we spend. We must leverage
technology to plan, manage, monitor, and report spending to provide decisionmakers with a reliable, accurate, and complete
view of the financial performance of our education system at all levels. Such visibility is essential to meeting our goals
for educational attainment within the budgets we can afford. Improving productivity is a daily focus of most American organizations
in all sectors—both for-profit and nonprofit—and especially in tight economic times. Education has not, however, incorporated
many of the practices other sectors regularly use to improve productivity and manage costs, nor has it leveraged technology
to enable or enhance them. We can learn much from the experience in other sectors. What education can learn from the experience
of business is that we need to make the fundamental structural changes that technology enables if we are to see dramatic improvements
in productivity. As we do so, we should recognize that although the fundamental purpose of our public education system is
the same, the roles and processes of schools, educators, and the system itself should change to reflect the times we live
in and our goals as a world leader. Such rethinking applies to learning, assessment, and teaching processes and to the infrastructure
and operational and financial sides of running schools and school systems.
- Value [19] Rethinking Assumptions
- Rethinking Basic Assumptions -- One of the most basic assumptions in our education system is time-based or “seat-time” measures
of educational attainment. These measures were created in the late 1800s and early 1900s to smooth transitions from K–12 into
higher education by translating high school work to college admissions offices (Shedd 2003) and made their way into higher
education when institutions began moving away from standardized curricula. Another basic assumption is the way we organize
students into age-determined groups, structure separate academic disciplines, organize learning into classes of roughly equal
size with all the students in a particular class receiving the same content at the same pace, and keep these groups in place
all year. The last decade has seen the emergence of some radically redesigned schools, demonstrating the range of possibilities
for structuring education. These include schools that organize around competence rather than seat time and others that enable
more flexible scheduling that fits students’ individual needs rather than traditional academic periods and lockstep curriculum
pacing. In addition, schools are beginning to incorporate online learning, which gives us the opportunity to extend the learning
day, week, or year. The United States has a long way to go if we are to see every student complete at least a year of higher
education or postsecondary career training. There is no way to achieve this target unless we can dramatically reduce the number
of students who leave high school without getting a diploma and/or who are unprepared for postsecondary education. A complex
set of personal and academic factors underlie students’ decision to leave school or to disengage from learning, but support
should start as early as possible, before children enter school, and should become intensified for those students who need
it as they move through school. Practices supported with technology can help address the problem, including learning dashboards
that keep students on track with their course requirements and earning credits for courses taken online. Redesigning education
in America for improved productivity is a complex challenge that will require all 50 states, the thousands of districts and
schools across the country, the federal government, and other education stakeholders in the public and private sector to come
together to design and implement innovative solutions. It is a challenge for educators— leaders, teachers, and policymakers
committed to learning—as well as technologists, and ideally they will come together to lead the effort.
- Value [20] Organization Around Competence
- Value [21] Individual Needs
- Value [22] Rigor
- A Rigorous and Inclusive Process -- This plan, led by the Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology, was
developed using a rigorous and inclusive process built on the report of a technical working group of leading education researchers
and practitioners. In keeping with the White House’s Open Government Directive, the Department invited extensive public participation
in the development of the plan. Broad outreach efforts and state-of-the-art communications and collaboration technology enabled
tens of thousands of individuals to learn about and contribute to the development of the plan over its 9-month development
period.
- Value [23] Inclusiveness
- Value [24] Timeliness
- The Time To Act Is Now -- The NETP accepts that we do not have the luxury of time: We must act now and commit to fine-tuning
and midcourse corrections as we go. Success will require leadership, collaboration, and investment at all levels of our education
system—states, districts, schools, and the federal government—as well as partnerships with higher education institutions,
private enterprises, and not-for-profit entities. In the United States, education is primarily a state and local responsibility.
State and local public education institutions must ensure equitable access to learning experiences for all students and especially
students in underserved populations—low-income and minority students, students with disabilities, English language learners,
students in rural and frontier schools, and others. States and districts need to build capacity for transformation. The Department
of Education has a role in identifying effective strategies and implementation practices; encouraging, promoting, and actively
supporting innovation in states and districts; and nurturing collaborations that help states and districts leverage resources
so the best ideas can be scaled up. Postsecondary education institutions—community colleges and four-year colleges and universities—will
need to partner more closely with K–12 schools to remove barriers to postsecondary education and put plans of their own in
place to decrease dropout rates. Clearly, postsecondary institutions would be key players in the national R&D efforts recommended
in this plan. Education has long relied on the contributions of organizations in both the private and not-forprofit sectors,
and this will not change. As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, there has never been a more pressing need to
transform American education or a better time to act. The NETP is a 5-year action plan that responds to an urgent national
priority and a growing understanding of what the United States needs to do to remain competitive in a global economy.
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