President Ed Tech
##AUTHORSPLIT##<--->
Following a rough ride with the Bush administration, only one
candidate offers the policies and vision that can reinvigorate
our industry and help our students gain a foothold on the future.
BARACK OBAMA for president.
I say this with equal parts gravity and
enthusiasm, and after a great amount
of consideration. It's certainly not something
I am in the practice of doing. In
my long tenure at T.H.E. Journal, I have
aggressively advocated for the education
and technology communities,
but have stayed clear of endorsing
candidates for office. It can be bad for
business, as well as a little presumptuous.
But this country can no longer
afford to have tepid support for technology
in education from the federal
government, when all other facets of
our-- and the world's-- economy and
society are leveraging technology to
make changes in how they operate.
Many US schools are on the cusp
of greatness. Robust deployment of
technology, effective professional
development, informed use of data,
and close connections to parents
and the community at large are the
hallmarks of these campuses. Unfortunately,
they are in the minority,
what Secretary of Education
Margaret Spellings has called
"islands of excellence."
The success of these
schools has happened in spite
of what we might politely call
mixed messages from the
Bush administration. The
first iteration of the
administration's No
Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB) included the
Enhancing Education
Through Technology
initiative, with funding
totaling about $700
million. Three years later,
the administration began
zeroing out the program.
Congress was able to keep it alive but
with its funding weakened, forcing
states to cut back the support they
could offer schools.
After too many years of antagonism
from the White House, we need the
right leadership to help undo the damage
done to the education technology
movement. We need leadership that
can create programs that are suffi-
ciently broad-based and flexible for
states and districts to adapt to their
local needs. And we need leadership
that can prepare our students for the
second decade of the 21st century.
I'm endorsing Sen. Obama because
he has articulated a technology and
education platform that will provide
the support and direction crucial to
the future of our schools and students.
Obama's opponent, Sen. John
McCain, also has a platform for technology
in education, and though it is
not without merit, it is too targeted to
meet the many and diverse needs of
states and school districts.
Obama's plan is like a page
out of this very magazine: a
balanced use of technology
integrated throughout all of
teaching and learning, with a
special look at better approaches
to testing, the bane of
educators' existence
as drawn in NCLB.
In a recent op-ed
piece outlining his
vision for education,
Obama
stated, "I'll bring
our schools into
the 21st century
by helping them integrate
technology into
their curriculum and teach kids not only math and science,
but the teamwork, critical thinking, and
communications skills required in
today's workplace."
He also spoke of the role technology
can play in keeping parents informed
about their child's education: "I'll help
schools post student progress
reports online so parents can get a
regular update on what kind of grades
[their children are] getting on tests
and quizzes from week to week."
In his education reform plan, Obama
provides further signals that he has
the right ideas about technology use
in the classroom: "We must integrate
technology and its range of applications
into all our nation's schools so
that we go beyond the conception that
educational technology means just
specialization in technology....[My]
administration will ensure that all
students are trained to use technology
to research, analyze, and communicate
in any discipline."
Obama's plan calls for the creation
of a $500 million matching fund to
ensure technology is fully incorporated
into schools. The fund would be
dedicated to improving the quality
of learning and instruction through
simulations, interactive games, and
tutoring. The money would also be
used to develop better student
assessments, encourage states to
use technology to provide regular
reports to parents, and create new,
tech-based curriculum with help from
leaders in the technology industry.
Finally, Obama wants to use this
fund to support the shift to student-centered
instruction, in which teachers
act more as guides, rather than
providers, of knowledge: "The fund
will use technology to allow teachers
to work collaboratively with their
peers across the country to share
best practices and support teachers
to provide more individualized assistance
to students so that teachers
are no longer the primary source of
facts and information, but instead
the coaches on how to best analyze
and apply information."
In the face of Obama's forwardlooking
educational strategies,
McCain's approach is too narrow
to bring the breadth of change that
the educational environment needs.
McCain's website states that he "will
make real the promise of NCLB by
giving parents greater choice. Choice
is the best way to protect children
against a failing bureaucracy. But
parents must have more control over
the money."
There are five ways McCain is
proposing to provide more choice,
and three of them have to do with
online learning. He will:
- Expand virtual learning by targeting
$500 million in current federal
funds to build new virtual schools
and support the development of
online course offerings for students.
- Allocate $250 million to a competitive
grant program to support states
that commit to expanding online
education opportunities by building
virtual math and science academies
and offering online tutoring and foreign
language courses.
- Offer $250 million for "digital passport
scholarships" to help students
pay for online tutors or enroll in
virtual schools.
These are interesting and in some
cases compelling ideas for virtual
learning. However, this appears to be
the extent of McCain's technology and
education platform, so its impact
would be limited.
Obama's broad-based approach
will bring a much-needed spark to
technology and education. His
emphasis on integrating technology
throughout curriculum, student-based
learning, creating better assessments,
and cultivating 21st-century skills is
exactly the formula that can transform
education and ensure our students
are prepared to live and work in a
changed world.
-Geoffrey H. Fletcher, Editorial director
This article originally appeared in the 10/01/2008 issue of THE Journal.