(Photo) On the White House campus in Washington, DC: Emily Kirkpatrick, Executive Director, NCTE, with Zac Chase, Digital Equity Fellow for the Office of Educational Technology at the US Department of Education. Zac was a member of NCTE for more than a decade.
NCTE Executive Director Emily Kirkpatrick kicked off this week on the White House campus with government and education leaders from around the country for the release of the updated National Education Technology Plan (NETP). The NETP was first developed in fulfillment of the 2000 Educate America Act and has been updated multiple times since its original release.
Zac Chase, Digital Equity Fellow for the Office of Educational Technology at the US Department of Education, led the development and writing of the plan, which reframes educational technology around digital design, accessibility, and use divides. The plan incorporates many Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and includes numerous best-practice examples from schools, districts, classrooms, and states across the country.
There was substantial discussion at the release that the new plan emphasizes all the people who are involved—our teachers, students, and learning communities—and there was an ongoing call to support teachers by providing more time for collaboration. Dialogue also addressed important topics such as health, safety, citizenship education, and accessibility for special learning needs as well as cultural and linguistic learning.
NCTE will provide opportunities for members to interact with the federal personnel who have led the development of the new plan. One anticipated opportunity is at the upcoming NCTE-NCTM Joint Conference on Elementary Literacy and Mathematics in New Orleans.
Links to Related Resources
Definition of Literacy in a Digital Age position statement
NCTE James R. Squire Office of Policy Research in English Language Arts policy briefs