Blog Posting #3 EDLD 5352

The Obama plan for transforming American education includes two very important goals.

“ We will 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. We will
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.”

These are very progressive and aggressive goals as they just about double the current percentages. The idea behind the plan is that today’s students already have access to so much technology information from the time they are born, their toys are now almost all electronic and either wireless or require batteries. The wooden blocks and toy dolls are now sold on the “vintage” racks at the stores. Students coming into Kindergarten not only know what a computer is, but most of them can turn it on and use it without assistance.

The drafted plan provides support for the online professional development courses that are now being offered and states that the past ineffective professional development is being replaced with, “collaborative, coherent, and continuous… online environments full of resources” (TEA, 2010. p. 8) I agree that the professional development moving to technologically inclined status is progressive and required, however I disagree that the past professional developments were ineffective. I believe that the professional developments needed today, are not what was needed ten years ago, however, I do not believe that during that time, they were ineffective in anyway.

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. (2010). Transforming
american education: learning powered by technology Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Education. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files
/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf