On March 5 the US Department of Education released a draft National Education

Technology Plan (NETP), titled “Transforming American Education: Learning Powered

by Technology,” which is now open for public comment. In a speech he gave two days
earlier Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said the plan addresses several key trends
in technology that can help transform education. Two of those trends that are of
particular import for online video are mobility and the growth of digital content. Duncan
noted that “60 percent of students report publishing their own material online,” but also
said that content is not just user-generated, acknowledging that “much is professionally
produced, and can be used to meet the needs of learners of all ages.”

The NETP suggests a learning model for the 21st century that addresses how, where
and where people need to learn, all aspects in which video plays a key role. Video is
cited as an important technology for representing factual information and complex
ideas from scientific disciplines in ways that “were formerly impossible or
impractical.” Creating an always-on, on-demand learning environment also relies on
video, from user-generated social media to academic content like online lectures. The
plan even references MIT physics professor Walter Lewin, whose engaging science
demonstrations gained him a worldwide audience and the attention of the New York
Times, as we covered in the 2008 Education Year in Review.

Video can be used for the preparation of new teachers and in the continuing education
of professional educators. For example, the NETP suggests that “outstanding
demonstrations of teaching practice can be captured and annotated” on video. In the
United Kingdom teacher.tv represents just such an archive of multimedia resources
dedicated to recording and disseminating best practices.

In order to design and implement the next generation of educational technologies the
NETP recommends coordinated public and private sector research and
development through the National Center for Research in Advanced Information
and Digital Technologies, authorized in the 2008 Higher Education Act. One of the
“grand challenge problems” to be addressed by this R&D is effectively a large-scale
digital asset management initiative, creating “an integrated approach for
capturing, aggregating, mining and sharing content... across many learning
platforms and data systems in near real time.”

Further information can be found at:

http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/plan/2004/site/edlite-default.html