ePortfolios and the NETP
Reading between the lines: Kathleen Willbanks, ePortfolio California Program Manager, reports on the National Education Technology Plan
Some of you may have seen the National Education Technology Plan (NETP) that was released in March, 2010.
In these times of budget cuts, it takes a lot of guts to start the report with: “Education is the key to America’s economic growth and prosperity and to our ability to compete in the global economy.” In Los Angeles, 4,700 teachers received lay-off notices, Kansas City is closing almost half their schools, and, on a local note, one of my city’s two middle schools is closing.
Just in the first page, these other statements caught my eye:
“Specifically, we must embrace innovation, prompt implementation, regular evaluation and continuous improvement.”
“To shorten our learning curve, we can learn from other kinds of enterprises that have used technology to improve outcomes while increasing productivity.” (Didn’t business and government used to turn to education for innovation?)
Basically there are five areas of interest: Learning, Assessment, Teaching, Infrastructure and Productivity.