Were you aware that our nation has an educational technology plan?
Perhaps you feel safer and more secure just knowing that the government has an educational technology plan.
Facetiousness aside, this is a report worth reading even if it mostly focuses on K-12. The 2016 plan is titled Future Ready Learning: Re-imagining the Role of Technology in Education. and it is:
the flagship educational technology policy document for the United States. The 2016 Plan articulates a vision of equity, active use, and collaborative leadership to make everywhere, all-the-time learning possible. While acknowledging the continuing need to provide greater equity of access to technology itself, the plan goes further to call upon all involved in American education to ensure equity of access to transformational learning experiences enabled by technology.
While the orientation is the application of educational technology in K-12 settings, I found it worthwhile to take in some of the material related to future learning technologies, universal design for learning, the impact of physical space on learning, how educators can and should be using technology and the role of leaders in advancing new forms of technology-enhanced learning. The content is supplemented with many good examples of how educational technologies are being used in classrooms right now. Despite the lack of higher education examples, there are clear connections to the application of technology in colleges and universities.
I think the Plan is ultimately going to be helpful to academic Blended Librarians when they need to develop a local technology plan, or possibly when they need to reflect on the broad scope of how technology is being used in education. Along with publications such as the Horizon Reports and ECAR Reports on student and faculty technology use, Future Ready Learning is a valuable read for Blended Librarians who want to be as knowledgeable as possible on how technology is being applied for better learning – and what the possibilities are for future students.