Technology and Education

Education is key to America’s economic growth and prosperity. Our ability to compete in the global economy is the path to jobs and higher earning power.

Under the Obama administration, education has become an urgent priority driven by two clear goals. By 2020, the goals are:

• to raise the proportion of college graduates from where it now stands [39%] so that 60% of our population holds a 2-year or 4-year degree.
• to close the achievement gap so that all students – regardless of race, income, or neighborhood – graduate from high school ready to succeed in college and careers.

Currently, we are experiencing a “skills gap” that poses a serious threat to our economic future and to the quality of life of all Americans. Closing the gap requires serious and sustained effort, even as we navigate perilous economic and fiscal challenges. To achieve these goals, we must embrace innovation,  implementation, regular evaluation, and continuous improvement.

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. 

By supporting student learning in areas that are of real concern or particular interest to them, personalized learning adds to its relevance, inspiring higher levels of motivation and achievement. Technology provides access to more learning resources than are available in classrooms and connects to a wider set of “educators,” including teachers, parents, experts, and mentors outside the classroom.

Since technology is at the core of virtually every aspect of our daily lives and work, we must leverage it to provide engaging and powerful learning experiences, content, and resources and assessments that measure student achievement in more complete, authentic, and meaningful ways. Technology-based learning and assessment systems will be pivotal in improving student learning and generating data that can be used to continuously improve our education system. 

Students today are filled with technology that gives them mobile access to information and resources 24/7, enabling them to create multimedia content to share with the world. They participate in online social networks where people from all over the world share ideas, collaborate, and learn new things. The opportunities are limitless, borderless, and instantaneous. By supporting student learning in areas that are of real concern or particular interest to them, personalized learning adds to its relevance, inspiring higher levels of motivation and achievement.

21st century learning calls for using technology to help build the capacity of educators by enabling a shift to a model of connected teaching. The expectation of effective teaching and accountability for professional educators is a critical component of transforming our education system. Leveraging technology can help improve learning and assessment, technology can help build the capacity of educators by enabling a shift to a model of connected teaching. Technology provides access to more learning resources than are available in classrooms and connects to a wider set of “educators,” that includes teachers, parents, experts, and mentors outside the classroom. 

In a connected teaching model, connection replaces isolation. 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 inside and outside 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 self-directed learning.

This calls for a new paradigm for education and training, which goes beyond traditional practice, encompassing creative and critical thinking, communication skills, the ability to find information, as well as the ability to interact with others.  On-demand learning emerges, where the “anyone, anytime, anywhere” delivery of education and training is adapted to the specific requirements and preferences of each individual citizen within different learning and work settings.

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.

Given an opportunity to use the web and tools such as wikis, blogs, and digital content for the research, collaboration, and communication provides students learning opportunities that allow them to grapple with real-world problems. These opportunities prepare them to be more productive members of a globally competitive workforce.