Reimagining the Role of Technology in Education

Technology can be a powerful tool for transforming learning. It can help affirm and advance relationships between educators and students, reinvent our approaches to learning and collabora-tion, shrink long-standing equity and accessibility gaps, and adapt learning experiences to meetthe needs of all learners.

Our schools, community colleges, and universities should be incubators of exploration and invention. Educators should be collaborators in learning, seeking new knowledge and constantly acquiring new skills alongside their students. Education leaders should set a vision for creating learning experiences that provide the right tools and supports for all learners to thrive.

However, to realize fully the benefits of technology in our education system and provide authentic learning experiences, educators need to use technology effectively in their practice. Furthermore, education stakeholders should commit to working together to use technology to improve Global education. These stakeholders include leaders; teachers, faculty, and othereducators; researchers; policymakers; funders; technology developers; community members and organizations; and learners and their families.

EQUITY AND ACCESSIBILITY

Equity in education means increasing all students’ access to educational opportunities with a focus on closing achievement gaps and removing barriers students face based on their race, ethnicity, or national origin; sex; sexual orientation or gender identity or expression; disability; English language ability; religion; socio-economic status; or geographical location.

Accessibility refers to the design of apps, devices, materials, and environments that support and enable access to content and educational activities for all learners. In addition to enabling students with disabilities to use content and participate in activities, the concepts also apply to accommodating the individual learning needs of students, such as English language learners, students in rural communities, or students from economically dis- advantaged homes. Technology can support accessibility through embedded assistance—for example, text-to-speech, audio and digital text formats of instructional materials, programs that differentiate instruction, adaptive testing, built-in accommodations, and other assistive technology tools.

DIGITAL USE DIVIDE

Traditionally, the digital divide referred to the gap between students who had access to the Internet and devices at school and home and those who did not. Significant progress is being made to increase Internet access in schools, libraries, and homes across the country. However, a digital use divide separates many students who use technology in ways that transform their learning from those who use the tools to complete the same activities but now with an electronic device (e.g., digital worksheets, online multiple-choice tests). The digital use divide is present in both formal and informal learning settings and across high- and low-poverty schools and communities.

NON-COGNITIVE COMPETENCIES

Non-cognitive competencies (also referred to as social and emotional learning) include a range of skills, habits, and attitudes that facilitate functioning well in school, work, and life. They include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship skills as well as perseverance, motivation, and growth mindsets.

PERSONALIZED LEARNING

Personalized learning refers to instruction in which the pace of learning and the instructional approach are optimized for the needs of each learner. Learning objectives, instructional approaches, and instructional content (and its sequencing) all may vary based on learner needs. In addition, learning activities are meaningful and relevant to learners, driven by their interests, and often self-initiated.

BLENDED LEARNING

In a blended learningenvironment, learning occurs online and in person, augmenting and supporting teacher practice. This approach often allows students to have some control over time, place, path, or pace of learning. In many blended learning models, students spend some of their face-to-face time with the teacher in a large group, some face-to-face time with a teacher or tutor in a small group, and some time learning with and from peers. Blended learningoften benefits from a reconfig- uration of the physical learning space to facilitate learning activities, providing a variety of technology-enabled learning zones optimized for collaboration, informal learning, and individu- al-focused study.

AGENCY IN LEARNING

Learners with agency can “intentionally make things happen by [their] actions,” and “agency enables people to play a part in their self-development, adaptation, and self-renewal with changing times. To build this capacity, learners should have the opportunity to make meaningful choices about their learning, and they need practice at doing so effectively. Learners who successfully develop this ability lay the foundation for lifelong, self-directed learning.

PROJECT-BASED LEARNING

Project-based learning takes place in the context of authentic problems, continues across time, and brings in knowledge from many subjects. Project-based learning, if properly implemented and supported, helps students develop 21st century skills, including creativity, collaboration, and leadership, and engages them in complex, real-world challenges that help them meet expectations for critical thinking.

E-RATE PROGRAM: SOURCE OF FUNDING FOR CONNECTIVITY

The Schools and Libraries Universal Service Support Program, commonly known as the E-rate program, is a source of federal funding for Internet connectivity for U.S. schools and libraries. Created by Congress in 1996, E-rate provides schools and libraries with discounted Internet service on the basis of need. The program was modernized in 2014 to ensure there is sufficient funding available to meet the need for robust wireless connectivity within schools and high-speed connectivity to schools. For more information about E-rate, visit the website of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

AUTHENTIC LEARNING

Authentic learning experiences are those that place learners in the context of real world experiences and challenges.

OPENLY LICENSED EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

Openly licensed educational resources are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under a license that permits their use, modification, and sharing with others. Open resources may be full online courses or digital textbooks or more granular resources such as images, videos, and assessment items.

CONNECTHOME

ConnectHome is a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program focused on increasing access to high-speed Internet for low-in- come households. The pilot program launched in 27 cities and one tribal nation in the summer of 2015, initially reaching more than 275,000 low-income households and nearly 200,000 children.

As part of the program, Internetservice providers, nonprofits, and the private sector will offer broad- band access, technical training, digital literacy programs, and devices for residents in assisted housing units.

The timing has never been better for using technology to enable and improve learning at alllevels, in all places, and for people of all backgrounds.

Educators, policymakers, administrators, and teacher preparation and professional developmentprograms now should embed these tools and resources into their practices. Working in collabo-ration with families, researchers, cultural institutions, and all other stakeholders, these groups can eliminate inefficiencies, reach beyond the walls of traditional classrooms, and form strong partnerships to support everywhere, all-the-time learning.

Although the presence of technology does not ensure equity and accessibility in learning, it has the power to lower barriers to both in ways previously impossible. No matter their perceived abilities or geographic locations, all learners can access resources, experiences, planning tools, and information that can set them on a path to acquiring expertise unimag- inable a generation ago.

All of this can work to augment the knowledge, skills, and competencies of educators. Toolsand data systems can be integrated seamlessly to provide information on student learningprogress beyond the static and dated scores of traditional assessments. Learning dash board sand collaboration and communication tools can help connect teachers and families with instantaneous ease. This all is made more likely with the guidance of strong vision and leadership atall levels from teacher-leaders to school, district, and state administrators. For these roles, too, technology allows greater communication, resource sharing, and improved practice so that thevision is owned by all and dedicated to helping every individual in the system improve learn- ing for students.

It is a time of great possibility and progress for the use of technology to support learning.

CHALLENGES REMAIN

For all the possibilities of technology-enabled learning, it also creates challenges we will face aswe embrace the change necessary to realize its potential. With the proliferation of devices and applications, we should build all educators’ understanding of and ability to serve as stewards of student data so that only those with lawful access to the data can access it. We also need tofind new and creative ways to solve the problem of connectivity in learners’ homes so that thelearning made possible in connected schools does not end when students leave for the day.

As we bridge the digital divide in schools and homes across the country, we also should build educator capacity to ask students to take part in new and transformational learning experiences with technology. This will require more than sharing tips in the faculty lounge or after-school professional development for educators. It also will require systemic change on the part ofteacher preparation providers so their faculty and programming reflect more closely the stan- dards and settings for which they are preparing teacher candidates.

These partnerships between teacher preparation programs and school districts are emblematic of the types of partnerships we will need to build across all education groups if we hope to increase the use of technology in learning from an add-on to an integral and foundational com- ponent of our education system.