2011 - 2020 is the Decade of Educational Transformation

The Capital Region Society for Technology in Education (CRSTE) today announces its designation of 2011 - 2020 as the Decade of Educational Transformation (d.e.t.). This is in direct response to the attention public education has received over the past six months through the announcement of the proposed National Education Technology Plan 2010, the release of the film  “Waiting for Superman,” NBC’s ongoing series Education Nation, and the ed reform discussion that has proliferated in the blogosphere. The program will kick off on January 1, 2011 with a year-long focus on the definition of transformative education, moving from the standardization ideal of the industrial age to the Individualization Ideal of the Information Age.

Fundamental shifts in society and the ways we work, interact, think and create have brought us to this point. Data proliferation, virtualization, globalization, collaboration and economization have all contributed to these shifts, driving markets to customize offerings to successfully meet the needs and demands of customers. While this trend has taken hold in the private sector, public sector institutions have been slower to adapt. But we are at a point in time where institutions such as public education must begin to transform in order to accurately reflect the changes happening within the society it serves.

Successful completion of this process will allow schools to:

• Tightly align K-12, higher education and the workforce
• Foster creativity and problem solving across the curriculum 
• Model 21st century skills of global empathy, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity and productivity across all areas of study
• Promote visual, ethical, media, information, cultural, economic, scientific and technical literacies in all subject area disciplines
• Integrate education with community health, housing, public safety, recreation, and private sector businesses 
• Provide educators with the training and support they need to transform instructional practices
• Sustain the basic principles of a free and appropriate public education for all children, and
• Build strong consensus for education across all stakeholder groups

In order to accomplish the transformation, the dialogue must move from reforming the Industrial Age model by:

• Redefining use of instructional time
• Performance-based, time-flexible assessments
• Equitable access to virtual data and digital tools
• Funding models that provide incentives for student success, and
• PreK-through-graduate-school educational offerings free of age or grade requirements

By 2020, transformed educational institutions will value and support:

• Flexible, anytime, everywhere learning
• A redefined and expanded role of "Teacher"
• Project-based, authentic learning
• Student-driven learning, and
• Mastery-based pacing

CRSTE invites educational professionals, organizations and institutions from around the world to join in this commitment to transforming education in the next ten years. We encourage everyone who is committed to this goal to display the d.e.t. logo on websites, media feeds and digital publications. Get your d.e.t. logos at http://crste.org/det.html