The U.S. National Education Technology Plan, Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology, has a goal of raising the proportion of college graduates so that 60 percent of our population holds a two-year or four-year degree by 2020.

Sloan-C sees this as an opportunity for online learning.  In a blog posting, they said:

Over the next decade, we will need to accommodate 53% growth in the student population.  Most institutions could not accommodate this kind of growth with their current physical infrastructure.  Online learning—both on-campus in hybrid courses and at a distance in fully online courses—allows us to achieve this kind of learning at the scale that will be needed as the number of students increases.

I agree with Sloan-C.  This is a great opportunity for online learning.  This plan is also a great opportunity for educational technologies.  The U.S. Department of Education’s plan progressively states:

Many students’ lives today are filled with technology that gives them mobile access to information and resources 24/7, enables them to create multimedia content and share it with the world, and allows them to participate in online social networks where people from all over the world share ideas, collaborate, and learn new things. Outside school, students are free to pursue their passions in their own way and at their own pace. The opportunities are limitless, borderless, and instantaneous.

The challenge for our education system is to leverage the learning sciences and modern technology to create engaging, relevant, and personalized learning experiences for all learners that mirror students’ daily lives and the reality of their futures. In contrast to traditional classroom instruction, this requires that we put students at the center and empower them to take control of their own learning by providing flexibility on several dimensions.

Beyond creating more generationally appropriate learning experiences for 21st century students, the report goes on to state how the implementation of various educational technologies will better prepare students for their futures as lifelong learning knowledge workers:

Whether the domain is English language arts, mathematics, sciences, social studies, history, art, or music, 21st-century competencies and such expertise as critical thinking, complex problem solving, collaboration, and multimedia communication should be woven into all content areas. These competencies are necessary to become expert learners, which we all must be if we are to adapt to our rapidly changing world over the course of our lives. That involves developing deep understanding within specific content areas and making the connections among them.

How we need to learn includes using the technology that professionals in various disciplines use. Professionals routinely use the Web and tools, such as wikis, blogs, and digital content for the research, collaboration, and communication demanded in their jobs. They gather data and analyze the data using inquiry and visualization tools. They use graphical and 3D modeling tools for design. For students, using these real-world tools creates learning opportunities that allow them to grapple with real-world problems—opportunities that prepare them to be more productive members of a globally competitive workforce.