The National Education Technology Plan

In the National Educational Technology Plan 2010 the U.S. Department of Education sets out goals for schools and educators across the country. The most basic of which is for the production of students who are ready for the rigors of life in the real world and have the skills to effectively problem solve in real world situations. The goals set forth that for this to occur, the learner must have advanced skills with emerging technologies. According to the report, for this to happen, we must provide ample support to educators, who often lack the experience or skills to use these emerging technologies themselves. While accountability for student learning is necessary for educators, it is often over emphasized when evaluating the effectiveness of these educators. The report proposes that we need to lighten our reliance on accountability and spend more effort supporting educators needs for training and developing them. It is difficult to expect an educator to be responsible for teaching a skill set to our students, if that educator lacks the fundamentals associated with the skill set. The report goes on to insist that this support should come in the form of collaboration with other professionals, not just in your district but also from around the globe. The use of online collaborations and communities is recommended to help educators reach out to others and share experiences of successful teaching. These suggestions are not only made for teachers that are currently in service, but also for students that are training to be teachers. Many of these pre-service teachers come into the profession without the proper training in classroom technology and are forced to learn as they go. This causes many of them to abandon the profession before they even get their feet wet. Supporting them before they reach graduation can only help to strengthen them once they are hired into a district.
Providing support for the advancement of the teaching profession, as the report suggests, is something I would welcome. However, as it all to often seems, it will probably prove difficult to change the emphasis from accountability to student progression.

Long Range Plan for Technology Progress Report

The Progress Report on the Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020 shows that Texas schools are progressing towards the goals set forth in the long range plan. Not surprisingly the biggest advancements have happened in the area of Infrastructure for Technology. As would be expected, many school districts have placed an emphasis on this area due to the fact that you have to have a solid infrastructure before you can really apply the other three areas to your classroom. Leadership, Administration and Instructional support is also an area that is moving ahead. Its progress, like Infrastructure, can also be expected because of the fact that leadership roles would be the first to promote technological progress throughout the districts.
As Infrastructure and leadership are expected to advance quicker, Teaching and Learning should be expected to advance much more slowly. The state is seeing a gain in the development of the area of teaching and learning, but due to the fact that it requires more training of teachers and more time to implement good technological teaching and learning practices, these gains cannot be expected to happen rapidly. It can also be said that Teaching and Learning goes hand in hand with Educator Preparation and Development. For teaching and learning to progress you also have to develop a technology foundation in your teachers. Many educators that have been teaching for years seem to want to resist the need to change their teaching style to adapt to today’s learner. Many districts also fail to promote the use of technology to their teachers and many others fail to provide necessary training to teachers who are not proficient in the use of modern technology.
For the plan to continue to be successful, leadership at the state and district level need to continue to promote Infrastructure and Instructional support, while shifting their main focus to promoting preparedness among educators and students.

Texas Star Chart

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Online Video Conference

On Thursday June 3rd I attended the online videoconference for EDLD 5306. It was the first experience I have had with online collaboration for a college class. I was surprised at the ease of using the software. It was nice being able to see those I will be working with and also receiving answers to some of the questions I had about the course, but I felt a little awkward talking to people I don’t know well. I do think this is a very interesting way to bounce ideas off of others that are in the same situation as myself. I did have a few technical problems with my sound but it did not hinder my ability to gain information from the conference. Overall I feel like the videoconference helped temper some of my fears associated with the class work and requirements forthcoming. I look forward to more interaction with others from my cohort group in the future.

Long range Plan for Technology

As the state of Texas proceeds to implement the Long Range Plan for Technology, one area of concern is the preparedness of teachers and if they will be able to handle the rapid changes in today's technological world. From the inception of the public education system until as recently as 15 years ago, teachers have always been the major source of knowledge in the classroom. With the rise of the Internet, digital media and other technology advancements, teachers need to become more of a facilitator of the information rather than the source. Although the availability of hardware and software and the resources to provide them is a concern to many districts in the State of Texas, the primary concern should be supplying teachers with training needed to use these resources in their classrooms. Many districts have adopted technology focused professional development into their yearly in-service days. But from this we can see another issue arise. Is the training meaningful and will teachers be able to apply the training in their classes?

At Hardin-Jefferson I.S.D. it has become common for teachers to be required to complete one or two days of technology training each year. These days are in addition to once a month training sessions held after school for all faculty. To help make the training meaningful the district takes a yearly survey of students, parents and teachers to determine what types of training would improve classes. These surveys provide the basis for technology leaders to know what each surveyed group feels is important, and allows them to focus on providing the best possible training for teachers.

Going forward though, educators are going to have to become proactive in acquiring the training they need to keep up with the ever-changing face of technology. They will need to see the direction in which technology is going and the speed at which it advances, then adapt their teaching styles to accommodate these advances. Without the proper preparation and training of teachers, students will suffer and many will not be sufficiently prepared for life in the real world.