A Retrospective on Twenty Years of Education Technology Policy

TLDR

This article analyzes two decades of U.S. K‑12 education technology policy reports, highlighting the challenges and opportunities of integrating technology. The study investigates why educational technologies are invested in, the rationales guiding those investments, the steps needed for effective implementation, the priority recommendations, and how underlying assumptions about technology’s impact on teaching and learning have evolved. The authors review policy reports to identify investment rationales, implementation steps, priority recommendations, and evolving assumptions about technology’s role in education.

Abstract

This article provides an analysis of 20 years of key policy reports addressing the challenges and opportunities in integrating technology into K-12 education in the United States. It summarizes recommendations made in these reports, and comments on the shifting rationales for and expectations of educational technology investments that have shaped those recommendations. In undertaking this analysis, we have been guided by three key sets of questions: a) Why do we invest in educational technologies? What rationales have shaped these investments? b) What are the requisite steps to ensure that technologies are effectively implemented? What specific recommendations have been given priority? c) What assumptions underlie our vision for how technologies can impact teaching and learning, and how have these changed?