The National Plan

Dear Readers:

Arne Duncan in his letter to Members of Congress calls for applying the advanced technologies used in our daily personal and professional lives to our entire education system to improve student learning, accelerate and scale up the adoption of effective practices, and use data and information to continuous improvement.

How have we started to make that change? Are we still trying to ride a system of education that is not working? We no longer live in the industrial age, but have moved onto the informational age. In the Transforming America Education Learning Powered by Technology states professionals routinely use the Web and tools, such as wikis, blogs, and digital content for research, collaboration, and communication demanded in their jobs. They gather data and analyze the data using inquiry and visualization tools. They use graphical and 3D modeling tools for design. For students, using these real-world tools creates learning opportunities that allow them to grapple with real-world problems-opportunities that prepare them to be more productive members of a globally competitive workforce.

The change is starting to occur in education in general, but it is slow moving. I have heard the conversation around the water cooler and at different educational meetings about how we are not meeting the needs of our students. How we know what education should look like, but not sure how to make that a reality. Information is readily available at every turn and most people reach in their pocket pull out a cell phone and google what they need. The time of just memorizing facts is becoming a thing of the past. When I want to remember something now I bookmark in the computer to view again. I was at a meeting with Mr. Carver when he told a story about being at NASA and how a tech told him his phone has more technological power than what was on the lunar lander. We need to see changes not only in the educational building; but also in higher education, community involvement, local, state and national governments. All of these pieces will play apart in how education will begin to look.

We here at Graettinger-Terril have begun to take the steps necessary for that journey, but are a long way from home. However I do not believe their is an end to this journey because it will constantly change. We need to make the moves necessary and provide the right resources to make this a reality. I appreciate your time in reading this long dialogue and if you have any thoughts on what we can do I greatly appreciate it.

Chris