eSN Exclusive: At a time when the need for global competitiveness looms large and the academic performance of the nation's students is fueling policy debates from local school boards to the White House, Tim Magner, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings' choice to head the federal Office of Educational Technology (OET), believes technology will play an integral role in helping educators prepare students for life and work in the 21st century.

In an interview with eSchool News, Magner said he's looking forward to the challenges--and opportunities--that await him in his new role as the country's top educational technology official. A former software executive and Education Department (ED) veteran, Magner talked about the ways in which technology continues to transform education. He also underscored the federal government's commitment to preparing students for success in the global workforce--this, despite recent budget cuts to critical funding measures such as the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) block-grant program and other federally funded grant initiatives designed to support technology in the nation's schools.

"It goes without saying that, personally and professionally, this is an exciting position to be in," Magner said of his new post at the department. "This is an exciting time in education, where we are looking at it really being the backbone of our national effort to be competitive and to create the next generation of entrepreneurs and scientists and teachers that we have in this country."

Magner said he looks forward to working with members of the ed-tech community, both in schools and on the advocacy front, to "create a dialogue" that will highlight the continued importance of technology in education and get stakeholders talking about new and innovative approaches to teaching and learning.

From the use of innovative technologies by teachers in the classroom, to the integration of statewide data systems designed to track and analyze student progress, Magner said technology is "giving us the information we need to improve education across the board."

Thanks to these and other emerging technologies, he said, the opportunity is greater than perhaps ever before for educators to transform traditional learning environments--and make the instructional adjustments necessary to reach a new, highly digital generation of learners.

Going 'horizontal'

The first person to head OET since former director Susan Patrick left the department last August to lead the North American Council for Online Learning, Magner believes the key to realizing technology's promise lies in each school system's ability "to think systemically."

"It's really seeing all the ways that a cogent and comprehensive technology platform can be used to deliver efficient and effective education services and engage students in their own learning in a way that, I think, can be really transformational," he explained.