2010 Educational Technology Plan

The 2010 State of Michigan Educational Technology plan was not an easy read for me. However, after breaking down the information, I found it to have a great number of good ideas. With all good intentions comes a need for outlining a way to carry them out. There are many ideas that I think could be very beneficial to both students and educators, I am just not certain they are all feasibly possible. Although there were many different plans stated, I will focus on those that interested me the most.


The first goal, teaching for learning, is based on educators integrating technology into their everyday teaching. I like the idea of having the technology standards built right into the curriculum. My only concern with this is that it will take away the basis for while technology teachers will plan their curriculum. Presently, technology teachers base their teaching around what the technology standards are. If there are no more standards, what will they base their curriculum around?

I am also a big fan of the new high school graduation requirement of an online learning credit. However, this is one of the good intentions that I think may be difficult to carry out. Having an online learning credit requirement will allow students try out a new learning style, one that may open up new doors for them that they didn’t even know existed. The only problem is making it possible for all students to complete the credit. The school district would have to make computers available to all students. It would almost have to be like instead of meeting in a classroom for, say, third period, they would meet in a computer lab and have the designated time to use the computer and internet to fulfill their requirements.

The second goal of the Technology Plan is leadership. This goal was mainly about continuing to develop and carry through the technology plan, and who would be a part of this process. As of now the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) and Educational Technology Advisory Group (ETAG) are working together with other groups to try and make these goals a success. The second strategy of this goal is to make broadband access available to all educators and students outside of the traditional school building. I think this is a wonderful idea, as many students do not have the privilege of having this access and it would be greatly beneficial of them to have. However, I do not see how this can be done. Internet companies will not agree to allowing them to have it for free, so how else would they have the access “anywhere, anytime” as the goal states. Also, surely, not all school districts will have the funds available to provide this to all students and educators.

The third strategy of this goal states that there will be online access to educators for a plethora of resources. There will also be professional development opportunities to use these resources for effective learning. I think this is a great idea because although the resources will be available, to be able to apply them effectively will increase its use and success rate. This goal also says it will provide grants for educational technology projects. This is great because many teachers have plenty of great technological ideas, but cannot always be carried out because of funds. The question becomes how many funds and how obtainable will they be for educators?

The third goal of the plan is Professional Learning. I found this goal to be exciting as a fairly recent graduate of a teacher preparation program. The MDE wants to integrate these new technology plans into teacher preparation programs to ensure that new teachers are prepared to use them in the classroom. Although continuing to provide professional development opportunities will be essential, it is a great start to have knowledge on how to carry out technology teaching upon graduation.

Although it is important for new teachers to be knowledgeable on educational technology right away, it is also very important to allow experienced teachers the opportunity to learn how to integrate these strategies in their classrooms. This goal allows them to do that. It states that it will provide professional development sessions to show all educators how to be effective when teaching using technology and how to utilize the tools given to them.

Goal four focuses on school and community relations. How will those people that are still associated with student learning but are not present in the classroom at all times learn about the importance of educational technology and how to use it? The first strategy of this goal sets to create an action plan to inform parents, board members, community members, and policy makers of the benefits and concerns of integrating technology in everyday learning. One way they would like to this is to provide online access to data reflecting how educational technology has effective student learning. I like the idea of including the community outside of the school building in the technology plan. It will provide concrete evidence as to how this is beneficial to students, which will in turn create a positive understanding of the changes to traditional teaching without technology.

The fifth and final goal of the action plan is data and information management. I found this goal to be particularly useful in that it not only provides data to educators, but it also shows them how to take that information and apply it to their teaching. Based on findings, how can teachers change what they are teaching to be most beneficial to students? The word I liked most in the first strategy was “simplify”. To make anything simpler to use on an educator is essential. Teachers will not utilize tools provided to them if they are difficult to use and understand. The second strategy of this goal is to have a longitudinal data study on students beginning in PK that follows them post secondary. This will provide a great deal of data as to how teachers can efficiently and successfully alter their teaching to be most beneficial.

The final point of the technology plan that I liked was the fact that the MDE planned on showing educators how to use this data. Data is useless unless it can read properly and then can be used to improve student learning. If teachers know how to read the data and can have a thorough understanding of what it means, they can change some things about their teaching to advance student progress. This, in the end, is the purpose for teaching.



Works Cited:

Michigan Department of Education, . (2009, December). Draft 2010 state of michigan educational technology plan. Retrieved from http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/DRAFT_2010_State_Ed_Tech_Plan_vSBE2_304864_7.pdf