Department of Education's Plan to Close the Three EdTech Divides

In January 2024, the US Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology released the 2024 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP): A Call to Action for Closing the Digital Access, Design, and Use Divides. The NETP examines how technologies can raise the bar for all elementary and secondary students. The 2024 NETP frames three key divides limiting the transformational potential of educational technology to support teaching and learning: The Digital Use Divide, the Digital Design Divide, and the Digital Access Divide. As has ever been true, educational technology holds vast potential to improve teaching and learning for every student and teacher in the United States. In recent years, driven by the emergency of a pandemic, schools have found themselves with more connectivity, devices, and digital resources than at any other moment in history. The nation can close the digital access, design, and use divides. The NETP includes examples from every state in the country where schools, districts, and their partners are proving it’s possible. For this possibility to reach all students will require an understanding that the kinds of instructional tasks students need to prepare them for the world they will inherit cannot rely on content alone.