Technology Action Plan

Click on link below to look at my Technology Action Plan

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XTIW88tD_i7WJI3g8ljGXL2cr8pOcGnDv3SYk3h2eDI/edit?hl=en#

Texas STaR chart

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Texas STaR chart

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The National Educational Technology Plan

The Office of Educational Technology along with the U.S. Department of Education have come up with a plan to improve technology use in the education sector.  The Obama administration has a couple of goals that it wants to achieve in regards to education.  The administration wants to increase the number of people graduating from college and wants to close the gap in achievement among all students.  That is where the National Education Technology Plan (NETP) comes into play.  The plan has set goals and has made recommendations in five areas.  The areas are "learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity" (Office of Educational Technology and the U.S. Department of Education,  2010, p. vii).  According to the plan it "...calls for engaging and empowering learning experiences for all learners...focus what and how we teach to match what people need to know, how they learn, where and when they will learn, and who needs to learn" (Office of Educational Technology and the U.S. Department of Education,  2010, p. vi).  In other words the plan wants for educators to provide a learning environment that will enable learners and educators to work and collaborate with one another.  Educators must change and adapt the way they teach to meet the needs of the 21st century learner.  In order for educators to do so, they must be provided with professional development that will help them facilitate and implement the use of technology in the classroom. "Episodic and ineffective professional development is replaced by professional learning that is collaborative, coherent, and continuous and that blends more effective in-person courses and workshops with the expanded opportunities, immediacy, and convenience enabled by online environments full of resources and opportunities for collaboration" (Office of Educational Technology and the U.S. Department of Education,  2010, p. viii).  Ideally this technology plan is great for all stakeholders in meeting the set goals.  The only concern I have with this is the fact that not every school has the resources or technology available needed to meet the goals. How are campuses expected to meet these expectations when the technology and resources are not in place?

Progress Report on the Long-Range Plan for Technology

The progress report for the Long-Range Plan for Technology is based on infomation from September 2006 - August 2008.  The progress repost gives information on progress that was made during this time period along with accomplishments that were made during that time. TEA (2008) says the "progress report highlights legislatively mandated programs that were implemented through the 2006-2008 timeframe" (p. 2).   These programs are the Technology Immersion Pilot and the Texas Virtual School Network.  The TIP program gave teachers the opportunity to incorporate technology with their teaching.  The outcome of the study was, the more that technology is implemented in a school, the more successful the school.  All stakeholders were provided with the necessary resources to help make this program a success.  Unfortunately, that is not always the case with all the schools.  As much as one would like to implement more technology on their campus or in the classroom, the thing holding schools back is the lack of resources.  Not every school is able to provide the resources needed.  The Texas Virtual School Network also known as TxVSN has had many accomplishments since its inception.  These achievements range from awarding contracts for online courses to getting all the components necessary for online courses.  According to the Texas Education Agency (2008)  "the Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020 made recommendations for the various stakeholders targeting the areas of Teaching and Learning; Educator Preparation and Development; Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support; and Infrastructure for Technology"  (Letter from Commissioner of Education, para. 1). All this is necessary to prepare learners for the technological global market.  Technology has never been more important than now, and will continue to play a vital role in everyday life for all stakeholders.

Educator Preparation and Development in Technology

We are living in a world that seems to be changing at a fast pace.  The advancements we have seen in technology have been tremendous and has impacted all of us in one way or another.  Today's student is very technology savvy.  For that reason it is important that we as educators familiarize ourselves and become knowledgeable of the technology out there.  According to the Texas Education Agency (2006) and their long range for technology plan "teachers must be able to prepare students for their future in a manner that assures that all students will not simply survive, but truly thrive in the world that awaits them" (p. 23).   In order for the students of today to be able to compete in the global market as adults, they will have to know how to navigate and use technology to collaborate and interact with others.  Before educators can step up to the plate they must first familiarize themselves with this.  As educators we have to keep up with the current trends in education.  For this reason the state of Texas has put an emphasis on preparing teachers for the 21st century learners.  New teachers are required to meet the technology applications educator standards and veteran teachers are required to have ongoing professional development to master SBEC technology application standards.  I believe that ongoing professional development is vital for all teachers.  Without appropriate professional development, teachers will not be able to meet the needs of the 21st century learner. The type of professional development that I think would be most beneficial to teachers would be those that are done face to face using technology.  Not only that, but it would also be beneficial for these to be done in a span of a few days, as opposed to being done in a few hours.  This would give teachers the opportunity to ask in depth questions and will provide them with time to "play" with the different programs, so that they can get a better understanding.