The National Association of State Boards of Education is calling for a dramatic shift in the structure of modern education to meet the needs—including digital needs—of today’s students.
The Arlington, Va.-based school board advocates make 10 recommendations to drive that shift in Next Generation Learning: Transforming the Role of Educators Today for the Students of Tomorrow, including allowing classroom teachers the flexibility to use a variety of technologies and imploring schools and districts to lead more and better professional development around tech issues.
Other recommendations crafted by a NASBE study group included pushing collaboration among students as well as teachers, a practice that would appear to lend itself to the increased use of Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis, and social networks.
In a corresponding report, No Time to Wait: Creating Contemporary School Structures for All Students Today and Tomorrow, NASBE recommends utilizing technology and other modern tools to shift away from class seat-time requirements and toward a model that promotes innovation both inside and outside of school walls. In other words, it calls for what virtual education advocates would say could be gained through online or blended learning.
The recommendations echo the release of a recent survey from the National School Boards Association, which found that nearly half of responding district-level ed-tech leaders felt their biggest challenge was facilitating effective teacher technology use.