Lots of news here on the U.S. Department of Education's National Education Technology Plan (if they can get away from buying hack time, their money may be going to a good cause) here. The full report is available here from their home site.



According to the report, the technology that has so dramatically changed the world outside our schools is now changing the learning and teaching environment within them. This change is driven by an increasingly competitive global economy and the students themselves, who are "born and comfortable in the age of the Internet."

In many states, the explosive growth of online instruction and virtual schools is already complementing traditional instruction with high quality courses tailored to the needs of individual students, the report said. At least 15 states provide some form of virtual schooling to supplement regular classes or provide for special needs, and about 25 percent of all K-12 public schools now offer some form of e-learning or virtual school instruction.

The report includes numerous details of successful initiatives and partnerships developed at the state level by school districts and by individual schools. It concludes with a series of recommendations for enhancing the use and benefits of new technologies, and places them within the context of long-term, systemic transformation, covering such issues as leadership, management, teacher training and funding.Also, CNN weighs in with a piece about how schools are trying to catch up to technology (investment would help). The International Society for Technology in Education aims to play a lead role in this plan.