The National Ed Tech Plan, with Zac Chase

In this episode, we are joined by Zac Chase to discuss the United States Department of Education’s National Ed Tech Plan (NETP). Zac serves as Digital Equity Impact Fellow within the Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology (OET). Zac has led OET’s development of both the 2016 and 2024 National Ed Tech Plans. Zac helps us explore three digital divides outlined in the plan as well as some strategies for moving purposeful and effective technology integration forward in PK-12 schools. Visit AVID Open Access to learn more.

Transcript

#286 — The National Ed Tech Plan with Zac Chase

46 min
AVID Open Access

Keywords

students, plan, teachers, ed tech, educators, tools, learning, educational technology, design, technology, experience, support, folks, conversation, tech, schools, zac, etp, systems, digital

Speakers

Zac (59%), Rena (17%), Winston (13%), Paul (11%), Transition (1%)

Zac Chase  0:00  

Over the last couple of decades, we've made great strides in getting connectivity devices and content where they need to be in our schools. We need all students to be having high quality, actively engaged experiences with technologies.

Winston Benjamin  0:17  

The topic for today's podcast is The National Ed Tech Plan with Zac Chase. Unpacking Education is brought to you by avid.org. AVID believes in seeing the potential of every student. To learn more about AVID, visit their website at avid.org.

Rena Clark  0:36  

Welcome to Unpacking Education, the podcast where we explore current issues and best practices in education. I'm Rena Clark.

Paul Beckermann  0:47  

I'm Paul Beckermann. 

Winston Benjamin  0:48  

And I'm Winston Benjamin. We are educators.

Paul Beckermann  0:52  

And we're here to share insights and actionable strategies. 

Transition Music  0:57  

Education is our passport to the future.

Winston Benjamin  1:02  

This episode's quote is from the Office of Educational Technologies website. It reads: "Technology can be a powerful tool for transforming learning. It can help affirm and advance relationships between educators and students, reinvent our approaches to learning and collaboration, shrink longstanding equity and accessibility gaps, and adapt learning experience to meet the needs of all learners." So just wanted to know what you're thinking about that quote. Rena? Paul? Rena, do you want to start?

Rena Clark  1:35  

I was thinking about how we no longer just communicate verbally. We've had the written word for a while, but we think about we now have multimedia pictures, song, video, code, so much more. And you can really get to know your students in multiple ways, and then create and transform learning from them based on what we know about them, which then that helps strengthen the relationship that you have with students. And then that can also change the way that you approach things because you're better able to provide that more personalized, equitable experience and access because you get to know students a little bit more on an individual basis through those different experiences.

Paul Beckermann  2:19  

I love all that potential that you mentioned there, Rena, and I'm hanging on the second word: can. Because I really believe that technology can do all those things. But it's not like a magic potion. You're in your Hermione pajamas today. Can I say that on the air?

Rena Clark  2:37  

That's fine. It's late, y'all. 

Paul Beckermann  2:38  

You're wearing Hermione, you know, and she does her magic thing, but technology is not magic. You can't just sprinkle that in the classroom and just expect miracles to happen. I've seen tech used exceptionally well. I've seen it used poorly, to be honest. And we need to be intentional about how we use it. We can't just leave it to chance. Every single student in our school deserves an intentional, well-planned use of technology in the classroom. Otherwise, we run into these have and have-nots of who gets to experience tech at a high level, and I think it's really important that it's not just "can," but that we do it for all kids.

Winston Benjamin  3:17  

I like that you've changed that into the action step. That's an important thing. And now this helps us get transitioned into the conversation about action steps. We're excited to have you here today, Zac Chase on our podcast. Zac serves as a digital equity impact fellow within the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology. Whoo,  boyski. That's a lot. Zac led the development of the new National Education Technology Plan. We're so glad to have you here today, Zac. Before we start and jump into the podcast, I'm going to ask you a personal question. Can you give us a little bit about your background, help us ground ourselves in your knowledge, and help our audience actually make sense of who you are as a person? 

Zac Chase  4:04  

Sure, first of all, thank you so much for having me on. It is great to be talking with all of you. And it was very surreal to hear a quote that was so personal to lead things off. So I'm still dealing with that. I'm a teacher at my soul. I think in middle school was the first time you know, not the first time somebody asked me, I remember, what do you want to be when you grow up? And I said, I want to be a teacher, which is not what everybody else was saying in class and I was just I was just sure of it. I think learning is powerful and amazing. Started off my career as as a classroom teacher in middle and high school and then moved, did some grad school fun, and then became an instructional technology coordinator. I've had the privilege of serving in the second term of the Obama administration in the Office of Educational Technology. I was an ELA coordinator at the district level, got to co-chair some state standard review and revision committee. I was library and media services coordinator. And now I'm back at the Department of Ed doing this with a title, as you noted Winston, that has as many syllables as I think anything could possibly have. So congratulations for making it through, because sometimes, you need to stop and take a breath.

Winston Benjamin  5:30  

I appreciate you helping us ground your knowledge and experience just to help jump into the actual conversation and the focus for today. For those listeners who are unfamiliar with The National Ed Tech Plan. Could you just provide a little background? What is it and what is the purpose of the Ed Tech Plan?

Zac Chase  5:49  

Sure, the first Ed Tech Plan actually came out in 1996. It was a fulfillment of statute. Congress, in its wisdom about this Ed Tech thing that might be sticking around and called on the Secretary to put together a plan and a report to the President and the relevant committees in both houses of Congress on the State of Ed Tech, and goals, setting some goals. It's been updated every four to six years since then. And actually, during my first stint as a fellow, I was in charge of leading the 2016 revision of the Ed Tech Plan. So this is my second go-round for this particular document. I will say that this one is a little bit different than the ones in the past. This one is very much a problem-and-solution document, where others were perhaps more of a survey of the field, a kind of here's what's going on. This takes stock of where we are in a different way, in a post-pandemic society, and says, Alright, what are the lessons we've learned in sometimes difficult ways in the last few years? And how can we build on them? And reimagine what educational technology can be because it is more than, as you all know, it is more than emergency remote learning. And so this is hopefully a resetting of that vision for what we can hope for all of our students, and our teachers, for that matter. So yeah, that's the the Ed Tech Plan in a nutshell. And they're all available if folks want to nerd out a little bit. Tech dot ed dot gov/NEPT. We've got all the previous plans up there as well. 

Rena Clark  5:50  

Well, I'm hoping we can dive into the 2024 plan a little bit deeper. So could you just give a quick overview of some of the key objectives? I know you talked about it being a problem-and-solution document, but what are some of those key objectives that are in the current plan? And how does it actually aim to address some of those current problems or challenges that we're seeing in Ed Tech?

Zac Chase  8:04  

Sure, yeah, I think everybody's familiar with the idea of the digital divide. This Ed Tech Plan sees that language as insufficient, given where we are today, right? Over the last couple of of decades, we've made great strides in getting connectivity devices and content, where they need to be in our schools. And so, just saying digital divide is perhaps too general. So this pulls that concept apart into three specific digital divides. The digital use divide, the digital design divide, and the digital access divide. And so we spoke with, or heard from, more than 1,000 folks from across the country in the development of this plan, asking questions as to kind of what are they doing with technology? What would they like to do? What's standing in their way, those kinds of things. One-on-one interviews, focus groups, surveys, and then some workshops at conferences and convenings across the country, to get these ideas where we needed to be. We heard from folks, they said, We need this to be practical. And we need examples to have a better understanding of how we can solve these problems without starting at square one. And so, the digital use divide is a concept that we brought forward in the 2016 plan, and that is that is around students and the use of technology to support learning. There's a body of research that says that students from historically marginalized backgrounds are asked to do much more passive things with technology than their peers, and then that passive use of technology can have a neutral or negative effect on their learning. And so, that first divide is we need all students to be having high quality, actively engaged experiences with technologies. Are they creating? Are they producing? Are they analyzing? Are they collaborating? All of those skills I think you were probably all involved in this 21st century learning. I know it's out of fashion now to talk about it now that we're deep in that 21st century, right? But we talked about and we still talk about the importance of those those skills. So are we using technology to bring students together and to facilitate active learning and to connect them with opportunities they wouldn't otherwise have? The middle divide is a new piece. It's a conception of kind of an intersection of a number of things. And that is, do all systems support all educators in building their capacity to be effective designers with these tools? I think that it was a key component that you brought up, Paul, about the can, right? And so any TP conceptualizes the idea of design and effective instructional design as being a key component of getting to that equity of active use. You probably are all, I think it's safe to say, some really good nerds, right? And so, I hope everybody owns that in the same way I do. 

Winston Benjamin  10:57  

Absolutely, nerds all day.

Zac Chase  11:01  

So we know that there are the teachers who are incredibly keen on understanding the new technologies, how to use those new technologies, really having that learning. And oftentimes in the system, they take it upon themselves, right? These are the folks who are maybe paying their own way to conferences. These are the folks who are staying up late to listen to podcasts. These are the folks who are attending these webinars on their lunch hour, those kinds of folks. And then right next door, same subject area, same age level, are the teachers who just don't have that capacity. They're focused on other things, right? And so systems that leave these things to chance, rather than saying, what is it we expect and hope for all of our educators? And how are we going to make time for all of them to build those capacities so that everyone can design, using all of the tools that are available? And when I say design, I want to really hone in on a key piece of this plan. And that's the Universal Design for Learning Framework, right? So are we creating multiple pathways for all students to get to the learning they need to and then to show their learning through multiple pathways, as well. So we've got use, and then we've got design. And underpinning all of that, is this idea of access. And this is rooted in that, our basic understanding of the digital divide. Right? It's still about connectivity, devices, and resources. But it's also about more than that. And so this in ETP says, are we setting a basic expectation of accessibility for all of those tools so that these diverse learners we know are walking through every door in our schools, and logging on in our schools with these diverse needs, are we making sure the tools that we are buying, the tools that we are subscribing to, the licenses that we are buying, have a baseline of accessibility features so that we don't have to pause student learning to retrofit the tools that we're purchasing? The other piece that's new in this access divide, kind of a level two problem as we start to bring connectivity devices and resources, is the idea of digital health, safety, and citizenship. I bet you all knew who you were going to take for Driver's Ed. And if you went to a small school like I did, you knew who your driver's ed teacher was going to be. Right? Mine was Mr. Sullivan. But if you were to ask students in our schools who's responsible for digital safety? Who's responsible for teaching you digital citizenship? Or if you were to walk into a faculty meeting and say, hey, who in our building is responsible for digital citizenship? You would get either crickets or lots of pens or names thrown out there. And so this conception of the access divide says that as a part of giving keys to these digital cars, right, if you allow the metaphor, we need to make sure we have a version of driver's ed that helps kids stay safe, healthy, and learn how to be good digital citizens as part of creating the access that they're getting. Because in the same way, you wouldn't say here, here's the keys to the car. Somebody will come along at some point in time and teach you how to use it. But go ahead, do whatever you need to in between, and then I'm being kind of hyperbolic there. But the plan does call for a greater need to look at digital health safety inspections. Oh, I should also say, in response to the field saying, Hey, give us give us these things. We have examples in the plan. One example, at least one example from every state in the country, as well as Guam, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, the juvenile justice system, because we wanted to make sure that if we're calling it a national educational technology plan that folks from across the nation are able to see themselves and the work that we're doing throughout the pages of the plan.

Paul Beckermann  14:38  

That's awesome. I love how you've broken it into those three divides. It's easy to get my head around that and it makes sense at different levels of equity. right? And I think that doesn't always get called out. I'd like to maybe dive into the digital use divide just a little bit further. You know, like I mentioned in the intro, I've seen tech used well and not well, and it seemed like, to me, as a digital learning specialist, the students who struggled the most got relegated to drill and kill kinds of things. And then the kids who were doing so well, they got to do all these creative, critical thinking, problem- solving activities, so they could continue to grow. So it became a divide in the use of how it was being used. I guess my question is, how do we address that kind of a thing, when our tests are saying, well, if our students are not passing the tests, we better drill and kill them, so that they can get up to this basic level, but then they lose access to this rich experience. Do you have thoughts on that? Did the tech plan dive into that at all? 

Zac Chase  15:48  

What you're talking about is the outcome within the use divide. What I would argue is that it is the design divide that is leading to the practices we're talking about, right? And so, if the extent of learning about educational technology is the training on how to upload your roster, assign your assignment, you know, pull down grades from a great book, if all your learning is the training on a tool, but systems aren't providing equitable time and space for all teachers to learn how to use that tool to its fullest advantage, or to be creative in thinking about new ways to use that tool, then I'd say we're going to just kind of keep seeing folks do those same things. And so, this is where we've seen—and there are a number of examples within within the plan, there's one from Brigantine schools in New Jersey—where they thought really creatively about their master schedule, to give their teachers more time to be learners. Right? And so Paul, what you're talking about, to me sounds like and I think what we see, is we need more time for educators to be able to learn from all these tools, right? If you think about the last five years of existence, where we've put more devices and connectivity into classrooms and schools, and we haven't had the time because it was an emergency to stop and say, let's think about being effective educational designers here. We're gonna see a replication of that process. So I wouldn't say that it's, that's the outcome side of things, that's the product. I would say that the middle piece of giving teachers the support that they need and are asking for, and the time that they need to do those things is why we're having this kind of limited approach to the use of technology. 

Winston Benjamin  17:36  

I was gonna follow up with that because I like your point of focusing on this design, because that's like putting the emphasis not on the students, but on the actor, right? The educator and how they're designing and planning. From the '90s, my teachers didn't know what world I was gonna walk into. I don't know what world my students are going to walk into. 

Zac Chase  18:02  

Absolutely. 

Winston Benjamin  18:03  

So how do you support a teacher who has their current experience? How do you help them design experiences that step outside? Through this tool, do you have any suggestions about how to help a teacher break down and move back to the design portion? Because, again, many times we're thinking about the student outcome. We're not really focused on the the former that determines outcome. So how do you support that aspect, including time, and all that? 

Zac Chase  18:37  

There's a hypothetical example within the plan because we we anticipated this particular question, or some version of this question of a teacher who has used a UDL framework to design a unit and said, all right, I think it's a third grade classroom in the example, right? And so trying to move forward with a science lesson and saying, oh, we need multiple pathways because not all of the students in this classroom are reading at a third grade level, but I don't want that to keep them from getting to the science knowledge, right? So using multiple tools at one time, that right in and of itself can be—it doesn't matter what the tools are—I'm just saying we can use more than one thing to support learning at a time. It's funny I was having a conversation similar to this with a group of educators, and I said, you know, one of the pieces we need to work toward is getting teachers comfortable with more than one tool being used in a classroom. And I mean technology analog. More than one tool being used in the classroom at a time, so that there are multiple pathways so that all students' needs can be met. And afterward, a teacher pulled me aside and said, I'm actually really comfortable with using more than one tool at a time in my classroom. But when my evaluator walks through, they feel uncomfortable. And so this is the language of an ETP is educators, at all levels. If you are a classroom teacher, or if you are responsible for the learning of the adults in the building, or if you are responsible for setting the educational vision of a building or district, that kind of comfort of multiple pathways to get to the thing. And an example that I tend to use frequently is an eighth grade student with an identified reading disability who walks into an eighth grade science class, right? And the teacher has assigned a reading in, let's say, an e-textbook. But because that student has a reading disability, they're not able to access that text. And let's say we don't have accessibility standards, right, so there's no text-to-speech that's available. So then all of a sudden, it looks like this student has a science disability, quote, unquote. Right? And so, in that same system, and Winston, to your point, there are multiple tools, right? So, let's say we're talking about food webs. I'm using a for-instance. Your listeners who might be eighth grade science teachers are like that's not what we teach. I apologize for not knowing all the curricula. But let's say that it's food webs. And we know that within a district, there's thousands of tools available for science. So let's say that there's a 3-D simulation the student can take part in. Let's say that there's a podcast, some sort of rich video content. Let's say that there's hands-on manipulatives. Let's say that there are print books that have graphics of food webs that are available. So the first step is saying, how can we incorporate all of these pathways for students to access content in ways that get them to the same goal using multiple pieces of forms of technology? And the UDL framework would be the same. And at the end, any ETP quotes a piece of research, right, it's going to be a survey of students that says most students say that they use technology for quizzes and tests. But let's say that we rethink that, right? If this student has a print disability, has a reading disability, I should say, and then we come to all right now, write an explanation of a foodweb. Again, that reading disability is going to show up as a science disability. So let's say that, for this particular instance, this student is able to record an audio conversation, a conversation with a grown up they trust. Let's say that they create some sort of visual, let's say that they create something analog, right? That there are multiple pathways using all of the tools that are now at our disposal for students to show their knowledge. This isn't to say that we don't help that student learn how to read; it's that we don't let the fact that they can't do it yet, stand in the way of them becoming a scientist. That is the path that they need to head down.

Rena Clark  22:33  

We've had a few guests on before. You all can remember where we talked a lot about architecture of design. And I believe we were talking with Katie Novak and maybe Catlin Tucker, just around UDL and blended learning. And this is really connecting for me, that idea of architecture design and how important it is to provide access. And it plays right into this digital design divide that we're talking about. And Zack, you brought up actually, my question as I was thinking about this, when you talked about the teachers maybe being more comfortable. But I'm curious how we can support administrators and other folks within districts that are actually in charge of providing the professional learning and thinking about how do we provide support for teachers to try this on, and have opportunities to get comfortable? Because I really feel like that is a huge thing that's missing right now.

Zac Chase  23:33  

The first recommendation in the design divide section actually follows after the use first. Actually the first recommendation in each of the three sections has to do with profiles. So in the use divide, we say there's a recommendation of the plan of develop a profile of a graduate or learner, right? This is not an uncommon concept. For the design divide, we take that step back and say we have a clear vision for what we want for our students, and we're thinking about educational technology, what is the profile of an educator? And so, Rena, I think that is my answer to that question. It's are we coming at it with a clear vision of what we hope all of our teachers are able to do and be? And then are we measuring the systems we have built against whether or not they will build the capacity of all of our educators to do that thing? So, if we say we want every educator to be an effective designer, using multiple technologies within a lesson plan, then are we giving the time and space and support for them to do that from a professional learning standpoint? I would be remiss if I didn't then go all the way down, or not all the way down, but to the access divide and say, do we have a profile of a learning environment, digital and physical, that says are all of our spaces built in such a way that they will support that vision of an educator? If we want our educators to give multiple opportunities for students, if we want all our educators to do X, Y, or Z, have we set a standard of learning environments that allows for that to happen? So, for those leaders that you're talking about Rena, I would say, what do we want for all of our educators? Inclusive of those principals, superintendents, one of the pieces of the plan says, if all you do is put together a profile of an educator, that's a fantastic start. If you have the ability and capacity, what's your profile of a principal? Right? What do we expect our principals to know and understand around educational design and educational technology? Because we haven't made that explicit, then we will kind of allow all of those things to happen.

Paul Beckermann  25:45  

I really appreciate that approach to it, to really define the outcome. Right? Where are you headed? What's your agreed upon standard for that? I'm curious, as you were putting this plan together, did you have conversations as a team as to what you thought this ideal should look like? What an ideal classroom should look like? What ideal tech-empowered learning should look like? And I know there's so many variables in that. But did you have that conversation about what that might look like? And if so, what what were your visions?

Zac Chase  26:21  

We did, and the answer was, there's about 14,000 school districts across the U.S. And if you include DoDEA, and the territories, then it's even more than that. So context matters. And where you are matters, and your community matters, and your culture matters. Right? So that all of those pieces are incredibly important. So I think that that we thought about it, and we also realized that people need to build the systems that support their communities. Because that is the idea of local control. It's building schools and systems that support folks where they are. So it is that it is much more kind of raising the question, and then leaving it up to leaders in those spaces to to come up with the answers as they move forward, with a baseline of like connectivity devices and content, right? So that students aren't left behind by those who may have access that they don't have. 

Paul Beckermann  27:22  

Personally, I think there's wisdom in that approach because you can't possibly step into everybody's context to know everybody's situation. I guess what I'm wondering is, what role did you hope the examples in the tech plan would play for those districts who are trying to design their own vision?

Zac Chase  27:43  

Our hope for the examples was that folks would see the problems they're facing, and see a road that someone else has already taken, someone else has already paved, and say, Oh, we don't need to start from the very beginning on solving this problem. Somebody else has already done it. I think there's also shared value in the adjacent possible. I think a very powerful example in the plan comes from a study for of incarcerated youth and the use of educational technology in reducing recidivism. And so they used educational technology, and they gave students access to kind of social-emotional support, behavioral support, academic support. They had access to an adult who could help them navigate systems. And then once they were released, these students had maintained access to those tools into that person. And I believe I'm remembering this right, it's been a minute since I've looked at this example, that students who did not have that treatment and access were 201% more likely to recidivate than those folks who had access to the technology. And then through kind of, they applied some statistical analysis, and there was no clear responsibility for any of the individual pieces of the program for what they were seeing, right? That it was that kind of a combination of all of those things that seemed to lead to the result that they had found. Now, this is the first study, right? And so, we're hoping that these are findings that can be replicated. What that is to say, though, is that even though this is a juvenile justice example, this is also, I would look at it if I were a district leader, I think, and say, Hmm, how might we mimic some of those supports to make sure our first-time graduates or our first-time college students have the support that they need once they leave maybe a high school setting, and they're in college and feeling perhaps untethered? So right there, so that folks could see Oh, technology was used to do this over here. I bet this sounds a little bit similar to what we're thinking through. How might we apply that? So that's the other hope for the examples. One, a problem that seems incredibly parallel to what folks are experiencing in their setting, and two, reading an example that might say, Oh, this isn't exactly us, but I can see part of what we need within that example. I'd say the other piece is that these examples can bring great hope. These examples illustrate the great work that's going on across the country, that there are educators doing very difficult things after several very difficult years, to make things much better for students and families and caregivers and their colleagues, as well.

Winston Benjamin  30:42  

I appreciate how you talk through the action, purpose, thinking, intent. And the way you can break it down in one word is intentionality. So my question to you is like, as people are looking through this is a quick yes or no? Can you start with one of those three areas based on what you think you need? Just real quick, just like, if I think I'm at design. Okay. Now, my second question to you is, where are the next questions or concerns or issues that are coming up in the horizon that could be supported or answered through the National Ed Tech plan? Is it forward thinking to be able to help support our teachers to look forward to the next possible issues or concerns that they may have?

Zac Chase  31:42  

Let's take AI, which none of the three of you has brought up, which is perhaps the longest I've gotten into any conversation about education in the recent weeks without AI being brought up. And I'm usually not the first one to bring it up. If folks look for a deep dive into artificial intelligence within the ETP, they will not find it. We started clearing this document or so that means the kind of review within the Department of Ed multiple offices to sign off on. We started that in the fall, and it didn't come out until January. If you've been following AI and education, you know that the changes in that number of months were intense. So trying to capture that particular lightning in a bottle was not something we were interested in or thought we could do. But what I think folks will see, Winston, in answer to your question, is a call for folks, for systems, to have a plan for emerging technologies. AI caught us unaware. It will not be the last technology that changes our thinking overnight. There will inevitably be another. But if a school or district doesn't have a plan for how they handle emerging technologies, if they don't stop and say, what's our incubator for new things? If they don't stop and say how are we going to handle teachers who are bringing new tools into these classrooms? And are we going to give them some freedom? Are we going to make sure there are guidelines for Terms of Service, all those kinds of things? If there's not a plan for emerging technologies, we're going to get a very messy situation. So I would say that that's the piece that I would point to from this plan. It's like, Do you have a plan for the unknown and how you're going to handle it? Not tool X or tool Y because we don't know what innovation will look like. But do you have a plan for when that next thing happens? And what are the steps? 

Rena Clark  33:50  

No, because this is interesting. AI has come up a lot and even looking at our own Responsible Use Policy because people want new guidance or policy, which policy is a big strong word that involves a lot of things. And the thing is, we reevaluated our responsible use, and we do have guidance in Washington state around AI from the state, which is helpful. But when we looked closer and had discussion about it, we then were able to apply those things to AI. And I think that's true, too, with this plan, because I believe the idea of use design and access can all be applied to AI but it's about having a framework to have those conversations. So I appreciate this idea for emerging tech because there's constantly going to be emerging tech, all the time. But I do think it can still fit. 

Zac Chase  34:48  

It's kind of built into the definition of technology.

Rena Clark  34:52  

But it's a good place to start and have conversations. If we have this foundation around our beliefs, and what we think is going to be good, especially for educators and students.

Zac Chase  35:07  

I think there's another component that maybe doesn't come up quite as often. And that is conversations with our educator preparation programs. And so how are we making sure that there are partnerships between institutions of higher education, and PK-12 systems, so that there is an understanding of the environments into which these new teachers are going to enter. And in a partnership, to create the capacity that's necessary there. And I think that that can be a really amazing space for growth and mutual understanding of how things can move forward. 

Paul Beckermann  35:51  

And is there ample opportunity in those programs to teach what needs to be taught? My wife and I actually were adjunct professors teaching like the tech class for teachers. Two credits. That's it for an undergrad degree. That's not enough time. So I think we need to look at our college systems and make sure that there's enough opportunity being offered to those undergrad kids, too.

Zac Chase  36:19  

Ed Tech has a partnership right now with ISTE ASCD around what we shorthand is the "EPP pledge." And so asking institutions of higher ed teacher preparation programs to sign on, to say, Yes, we are going to make steps, take steps, to better prepare our new teacher candidates and new educator candidates to thrive in a tech-enabled space. And we've got 102 institutions from across the country, across the world, actually, who have signed on to this pledge and said, Yes, we're going to take those steps. So I think folks are moving in that direction. It's just, we have to have those conversations. I got the chance to speak last week at the AAQEP conference, to a number of folks in the educator preparation program. And the piece I said was, everyone is using an LMS. Right? You have an LMS experience as a college student. You have an LMS experience sometimes as early as elementary school. Are we talking about effective learning design of your LMS? I'm not even talking about learning experiences or tasks of our schools and Ed Tech prep program, saying, How are you going to make this container accessible for all learners? How are you going to make sure that it's easily navigable? How are you going to make sure that what students need to find, they can find? And so I think there are some really rich possibilities in saying what are the common experiences in a PK-16, PK-18 ecosystem, where we can develop some shared language and understanding? Where we can all come and say, Hey, here's a problem we haven't solved. 

Rena Clark  37:57  

I love that. And like you said, they have so much, I would say a lot of our younger teachers coming out of college have tons of experience with use, compared to some other educators, but it's really the design in access that they need more experience with.

Paul Beckermann  38:14  

And that's maybe a good time to transition into our toolkit today. 

Transition Music  38:20  

Check it out, check it out. Check it out. Check it out. What's in the toolkit? What is in the toolkit? So, what's in the toolkit? Check it out. 

Paul Beckermann  38:30  

All right, toolkit time. Winston, you want to start it? What's in your toolkit today? 

Winston Benjamin  38:37  

I think for me, in my toolkit, is just a resource. So, AvidOpenAccess.org has tons of resources to help teachers investigate their starting point, because again, trying to figure out where you are, if you're the design portion, the use portion. I think sometimes taken a step back and trying to figure out where you are, is beneficial. And I think AVID gives you an opportunity with the information as well as the plan to really find a place to where you are.

Paul Beckermann  39:07  

Awesome. Rena, what about you?

Rena Clark  39:10  

I really appreciate that talking about having profiles. So I like the idea of using that as a tool, creating profiles for your students, for educators, admin, et cetera. And really, it's that backwards planning that we're all used to, by having a clear profile of what we want outcomes to be, and then working backwards from that. 

Paul Beckermann  39:32  

Yeah, mine's similar, but it's it's sort of like having some sort of a tech integration scope and sequence. It goes to that profile. Like, what do we expect every student to experience in every classroom? What are like the baseline things that every teacher should know how to do and know how to design for their students, so that we don't run into that teacher lottery where you just happen to get the techie teacher you know, and you get all these cool experiences. How can we level the playing field for everybody and empower teachers so that they all feel confident and ready to offer those experiences for kids. Zac, you want to jump in? You got a tool you want to add? It could be a strategy, it could be whatever you want it to be. A mindset, whatever. 

Zac Chase  40:17  

I'm gonna go kind of along the lines of what you offered up, Winston. In concert, concurrently with the release of an ETP with our Office of Safe and Secure Schools, OT released a database of federally created digital citizenship and safety resources that are far reaching. They're for classroom teachers, they are for building administrators, they are for district administrators. So I oftentimes feel guilty when I talk about digital health, safety, and citizenship, and then people are like, but what am I supposed to do if we're supposed to have a plan? So I want to offer up its rems.ed.gov/digitalsafety And I'll drop the link for you all. But I would say that that is a key component to kind of say, when we think about digital health, safety, and citizenship, what's the big problem we need to solve first before we kind of get to smooth sailing? And I think this is a strong collection of resources to get us there.

Paul Beckermann  41:19  

Yeah, and we'll definitely link that on the description for this podcast, as well. 

Rena Clark  41:24  

So, this takes us into our next segment, which is one thing. 

Transition Music  41:28  

It's time for that one thing. One thing. One thing. Time for that one thing. It's that one thing.

Rena Clark  41:41  

So what is the one thing you're still thinking about? Or the one thing we're taking away? One more thing. Winston.

Winston Benjamin  41:50  

I think for me, going back to the idea of not looking at the use first, because the use puts the blame on the students about what they can or cannot do, I really like starting with the idea of teachers thinking about their designs. How do they provide access in different pathways to students? So I really liked that thought.

Rena Clark  42:14  

How about you, Paul? 

Paul Beckermann  42:15  

You know, I'm really impressed with the way that the tech plan has been put together, and how flexible it is. I mean, I think the targets are clear, but it empowers local districts to use those guidelines to develop something that makes sense for them and their context. So I think it's flexible within its guidance, if that makes sense. So, I really think that that's a wise direction to take it. And I encourage people to go check out the tech plan.

Rena Clark  42:47  

So both a one thing and another tool. 

Paul Beckermann  42:50  

Did I do that?

Rena Clark  42:53  

It's okay. I think it's important. Lots of good things. I don't know. I'm gonna go back a little bit in the conversation and just this idea of educators just being comfortable with being uncomfortable. We talked about being comfortable with more than one tool being used. Being comfortable. I've talked about being a lead learner, but it's kind of that embracing the change and being comfortable with different things and different approaches, and embracing change. And understanding that it's different in how students are able to both receive and create and share other understanding in lots of different modalities. And that is a good thing. Zac, the last one, the most important thing ever to share with us. Or just a good thing.

Zac Chase  43:54  

I would say that it's not on teachers. Right? So and Winston, you're incredibly right. It's not the fault of a student, whether they're doing these things. But NETP I think takes great pains to say, what are the systems setting up here? Do we have systems that allow teachers to build these capacities? Do we have systems that support their development of these design skills? Do we have systems that make this kind of space? Rather than just saying we expect teachers to do this, saying Have we created systems where teachers can do this? And I think that's hopefully a powerful message of the NETP. It's not just asking teachers and educators to do a thing. It's asking have we given them the space and the tools and the support they need to be able to do those things?

Rena Clark  44:45  

And so that has me thinking... I think of the analogy, you know, teachers are down here on the dance floor making things happen, but up above on the balcony are those other systems that are providing the space, and the DJ creating the music to make the dance happen. 

Winston Benjamin  45:04  

It's valuable in that way, right? You need to know how to move the people. But I, like Zac, I'm gonna close out the episode with saying thank you so much for bringing attention to the new plan, the National Education Tech Plan. If you are interested in looking at it, please check it out. It's a valuable tool. The conversation that we've had about the different layers of engagement and how to push on equity to provide not only opportunities, but to figure out ways to systematically shrink long-standing equity gaps and accessibility issues. I also really appreciate Rena's conversation about remembering that we need to have some people be conductors to figure out how do we make the dance happen. So the educators and those who have the opportunity to plan systems, let's think through how we can utilize these three levels of engagement and access and use so that we can do better and design for our students. So I just want to say again, Zac, thank you for your time.

Zac Chase  46:05  

My pleasure. Thank you all. Thanks for some great conversation.

Rena Clark  46:12  

Thanks for listening to Unpacking Education.

Winston Benjamin  46:15  

We invite you to visit us at AvidOpenAccess.org where you can discover resources to support student agency, equity, and academic tenacity to create a classroom for future-ready learners. 

Paul Beckermann  46:30  

We'll be back here next Wednesday for a fresh episode of Unpacking Education. 

Rena Clark  46:34  

And remember, go forth and be awesome.

Winston Benjamin  46:37  

Thank you for all you do.

Paul Beckermann  46:39  

You make a difference.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai