The Educator Preparation and Development area of the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology deals primarily with making sure educators are provided the tools and skills to become more proficient at implementing technology into the classroom. Unlike Teaching and Learning that deals directly with using the skills in class, this area would actually show them how to use these skills. Examples of this area would be professional development for technology applications, training for use of electronic tools, implementation strategy development, and teacher collaboration on how to improve technology in the classroom.
Over a two year period, my campus has not seen any improvement in this area. Campus leadership has not made a visible, dramatic push towards improvement. We have not increased professional development opportunities and therefore technology implementation has not occurred in the classroom. This trend mirrors the trend around the state. The only improvement in the state was in the Early Tech and Advanced Tech groups with decrease of 3% for Early Tech and increase of 3% for Advanced Tech. The other two categories stayed the same. This shows little to no improvement over a two year period.
It seems the trend around my local area and state is push more technology, but don’t fund it. It seems that what the state wants and what it is willing to put out there financially are two different things. They want more, but are giving less. This is a practice in futility and is frustrating for public educators.
In my opinion the only way that politicians will fund technology is if it is part of the standardized testing system. If the TAKS were taken by computer, it would save the state millions of dollars in supplies. Results could be determined quicker and schools could see what they need to improve on sooner. This would force the state and districts to integrate technology into the classroom.
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