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Draft National Educational Technology Plan

Thank you for the many thoughtful and outstanding comments we received during the Draft National Educational Technology Plan’s open comment period. We are now in the process of carefully reviewing each of those comments and accordingly revising the plan. As we do so, our specific focus is on the recommendations and actions contained in the "Reaching our Goals" sections. Our aim is to be sure to be responsive to your interests and concerns as we strive to transform American education in order to best prepare students for success in college and careers and as citizens. In the meantime, we encourage you to continue to share this draft widely!

What's New

• Educational Technology-Focused Online Communities of Practice (June 2010). A solicitation announcement was released on June 28, 2010 in FedBizOpps (solicitation # ED-PEP-10-R-0053) to address the requirement to develop a series of at least six online Communities of Practice (COP) to leverage the use of educational technology to improve teaching, assessment, learning, and infrastructure in schools. COPs are designed to assist people in learning about and understanding best practices, research, and implementation strategies by learning from experts and from each other. COPs can become very scalable and sustainable by utilizing well developed online community technology platforms and designing for high quality content distribution, meaningful interactions, and access to expertise. The online communities to be developed under this contract will be measured by the quality and quantity of content, interactions, and exchanges. They will scaffold best practices by providing the information and ongoing support for improving learning with technology, ensuring teachers are highly effective and connected to data, resources, content and expertise and providing assistance for the best modern infrastructure build out for 24/7 community wide learning. The online COPs developed under this contract will be designed to implement recommendations in ED's new draft National Educational Technology Plan.
• Teachers' Use of Educational Technology in U.S. Public Schools: 2009 (May 2010) This First Look report presents data from a spring 2009 teacher Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) survey on the availability and use of educational technology. This includes information on the use of computers and Internet access in the classroom; availability and use of computing devices, software, and school or district networks (including remote access) by teachers; students' use of educational technology; teachers' preparation to use educational technology for instruction; and technology-related professional development activities.
• Educational Technology in U.S. Public Schools: Fall 2008 (April 2010) This First Look report presents data from a fall 2008 Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) survey of public schools on the availability and use of educational technology. This includes information on computer hardware and Internet access, availability of staff to help integrate technology into instruction and provide timely technical support, and perceptions of educational technology issues at the school and district level. It follows a series of school level surveys dating back to 1994; the 2008 and 2009 surveys also included one conducted at the district level and another asked of teachers.
• The Teacher's Guide to International Collaboration on the Internet (Summer 2010) was developed to help teachers use the Internet to "reach out" globally. These materials were initially prepared as part of the Department of Education's first International Education Week celebration in 2000; the current version of the Guide was completed in 2005. An updated version of the Guide will be posted on this site in the coming weeks. This guide is designed for online access: on every page and in every section, teachers will find many projects and suggestions to begin or expand classroom projects that reach across the globe, including links to elementary, middle and high school projects and links to organizations involved in international education via the Internet. Please check back soon!

About OET

The Office of Educational Technology (OET) provides leadership for maximizing technology's contribution to improving education at all levels. OET develops national educational technology policy and ensures that Department educational technology programs are coordinated and consistent, and support efforts across the federal government. In addition, OET supports the Department's Mission and the President's and Secretary's priorities by leveraging the best modern technology to:

• support progress toward college and career-ready standards and rigorous assessments that will improve both teaching and learning;
• connect and support teachers and ensure all students have access to highly effective teaching;
• engage students and turn around low-performing schools; and
• improve student learning, teacher performance, and college and career readiness through enhanced data systems.

The Director of the Office of Educational Technology is Karen Cator.

Contact information:

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