Here’s What We Don’t Know
Will her hires be edtech advocates?
If the Senate confirms DeVos as the new education secretary, she would be in a position to hire the next director of the Office of Educational Technology along with other key department leaders.
Will she support already-in-place edtech initiatives?
For example, almost 3,000 school superintendents have already signed up for the Future Ready Schools initiative, which helps school district leaders plan and implement personalized edtech learning strategies to benefit students. For Future Ready Schools, the Education Department worked with the national policy and advocacy organization the Alliance for Excellent Education. Sara Hall, executive director of that program at the Alliance, told ET News: “The promise of technology is critical to unleashing the potential within America’s education system…We look forward to learning more about Mrs. DeVos’ plans to harness the potential of digital learning for America’s students, particularly those in underserved communities.”
Will her support of school choice hinder edtech equality?
One of the benefits of edtech can be to help close the equity divide rampant among students and their families today. Public schools that fund well-implemented edtech initiatives for learning not only help to engage students in their learning, but provide tools to help them succeed in technology-based and digital literacy-supported skills for the future.
Yet, the argument against school choice is that students within the public school system will not get the same opportunities as students attending charter schools. Funding and access to better teachers and resources will be unfairly tipped toward charter schools. If this argument has merit, will only some schools see the benefit of having DeVos as an edtech advocate?
- #4: 25 education trends for 2018 - December 26, 2018
- Video of the Week: Dealing with digital distraction in the classroom - February 23, 2018
- Secrets from the library lines: 5 ways schools can boost digital engagement - January 2, 2018