EDLD 5352 Blog Post #1 (week 2 assignment)
The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology is composed of four parts: Teaching and Learning; Educator Preparation and Development; Leadership, Administrations, and Instructional Support; and Infrastructure for Technology. Texas has the goal to provide all students with access to the digital tools and resources that are designed for their individual learning styles at anytime and any place. This plan includes parents, allowing them to be more directly involved in their child’s educational progress. Included is much needed help for educators in which they can access student information at all times, allowing educators to prepare for students the most individualized instruction ever.
The Teaching and Learning section demonstrates the impact technology can have on student learning as it provides the tools for students, educators, librarians, and administrators. The Technology Applications strands concerning TEKS for Grades K-12 are: Technology Foundations, Information Acquisition, Work in Solving Problems, and Communications. The ultimate goal is that the Technology TEKS will be integrated within all other core content areas.
In the area of Teaching and Learning, the state is showing a positive trend. However, our campus has seen from 2008-2011, a negative trend. I personally believe this is due to the fact that when we first begin the Campus STaR Chart, we responded to the questions with the present technology tools and skills we presently possessed at that time. In the past few years, technology has advanced quickly, and it has taken our school perhaps longer to acquire these tools. However, now we have many of these resources which we are developing our skills of utilizing these tools for the best benefit of our students. This explains how we went from Advanced Tech for two consecutive years, to Developing Tech.
My recommendation for improvement in this area of technology is two-fold. First, I would provide hands-on professional development and training utilizing these tools several times throughout the year. I would “require” my staff to demonstrate knowledge and skills in technology concerning classroom instruction. Second, I would do formative assessments of all the classroom instruction, assessing where my educators are as being Early, Developing, Advanced, or Target Tech. Any teacher rated within the Early or Developing Tech area, would be partnered with a teacher that is Advanced or Target Tech in order to be mentored.
The value in assessing educators' technology leadership knowledge and skills is vital as this is the only means of assuring our students are afforded the opportunity to learn and become technology knowledgeable and skillful. The great thing about technology assessment is that it allows us to chart our progress of growth. In my opinion, there are no cons to technology assessment, because our state and nation must be assessed continually to push ourselves closer and closer to being fully equipped and technology savvy as the Texas Long Rang Plan for Technology has mapped out for growth and success.
No comments:
Post a Comment