These Pre-K TEKS are fascinating. I have a daughter that is three and I feel like I have really not been letting her get on a computer as much as she could be. I'm thinking about how much she should be able to do in a year and a half, after her first year of Pre-K and it is amazing. These students should be able to basically navigate through programs and be able to use the basic parts of a computer including a touch screen.
One of the scaffolding opportunities that I am seeing is in the ability for students to appropriately use the hardware and software of a computer. In Pre-K it starts off by being able to use the mouse, keyboard, recording parts and other basic hardware. By the time they are in high school, they have built on to use the hard ware for much more complicated processes like sharing information between each other. Students are also able to use much more complicated software by high school. They are no longer navigating through programs, but actually building programs.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Assignment 1 Long Range Plan New Information
To begin with, I did not even know there was a plan for implementing technology into school districts. It makes perfect sense that there would be, but I had just never seen it before. I remember at my previous school district, they were very strict about everyone meeting the technology standards of the district. Each year we had to increase our "technology level" by performing various tasks that we could then later use in the classroom. At the end of the year though, I do remember completing the STaR evaluation and there were many things we were able to check off as having knowledge of or being able to use in the classroom because we had already done it in our own self-paced training. It became a part of our evaluation. Now I see that it was clearly connected to this long range plan for the state.
I really believe that today's students are so different than those of 10 years ago. These students learn so differently because they have been exposed to such a wide variety of technological advances. They grew up knowing how to burn cds at an age where I was buying my first one. They learn so much better on technology and they need to learn how to use it appropriately.
I really believe that today's students are so different than those of 10 years ago. These students learn so differently because they have been exposed to such a wide variety of technological advances. They grew up knowing how to burn cds at an age where I was buying my first one. They learn so much better on technology and they need to learn how to use it appropriately.
Texas Long Range Plan for Technology
Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support
Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support has a vision of school leaders doing everything they can to support teachers in implementing technology during instruction. School leaders hold the responsibility for setting a vision for their school in terms of technology use in the classroom. They are to model using technology and train teachers in professional development in effective technology based instruction. Administrators should be completing needs based assessments and making decisions based on the data they receive. At our school, we implemented a technology committee, however I am not sure yet what strides this committee has made. We also have distance education programs where students are able to gain college credit for their coursework. My recommendation would be to closely monitor these two resources and see how they can best fit the needs of our students.
The trends in both state and national progress are that schools are improving their technology use, but not at the rate that fits the needs of our millennial learners. Teachers old and young are working to implement technology use in their classroom, however, students are so far ahead that often our efforts are lacking. There is so much available to teachers that it can be overwhelming to begin digging in. Another issue is that teachers often try to use new technology in the old ways. They are not really getting the full potential out of programs and technological equipment. If teachers would give students more freedom to use technology the way they know how, and train them as to what is appropriate, they would find that students really can learn so much!
Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support has a vision of school leaders doing everything they can to support teachers in implementing technology during instruction. School leaders hold the responsibility for setting a vision for their school in terms of technology use in the classroom. They are to model using technology and train teachers in professional development in effective technology based instruction. Administrators should be completing needs based assessments and making decisions based on the data they receive. At our school, we implemented a technology committee, however I am not sure yet what strides this committee has made. We also have distance education programs where students are able to gain college credit for their coursework. My recommendation would be to closely monitor these two resources and see how they can best fit the needs of our students.
The trends in both state and national progress are that schools are improving their technology use, but not at the rate that fits the needs of our millennial learners. Teachers old and young are working to implement technology use in their classroom, however, students are so far ahead that often our efforts are lacking. There is so much available to teachers that it can be overwhelming to begin digging in. Another issue is that teachers often try to use new technology in the old ways. They are not really getting the full potential out of programs and technological equipment. If teachers would give students more freedom to use technology the way they know how, and train them as to what is appropriate, they would find that students really can learn so much!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Technology Assessments
In the Technology Applications Inventory, I realized many areas where I did not realize I was lacking. In the Foundations domain I answered twelve questions with a check in the “yes” column and six under the “no”. Within this section, there are many technical terms that I do not know such as cross platform, RAM requirements, various digital file formats, and how to capture files with fewer than 125k. I may be able to figure these things out if I needed, but I have not looked into that. In the Acquisition domain I only did not know the difference between vector graphic files and bit-mapped graphic files. Under the Problem Solving domain I simply had not used linear or non-linear multimedia projects with text, audio, video, and graphics. My weaknesses under the last domain of Communication include matching chart style to the data and creating multimedia presentations. I also had not used procedures to track trends or set timelines.
The SETDA building survey was very eye opening. We are lacking technology and the monitoring of student progress in use of technology as a campus. We are not tracking any data on how technology affects student performance and we are not mandating that teachers use any particular type of technology in the classroom with any minimum frequency. Part of the problem lies within the fact that we are an extremely old school and will be rebuilt within the next five years. The district is unwilling to pour money into technology before we get our new facilities. This will be difficult as we are moving to Career and Technology Academies next year and will not have enough technology to support that change.
I agree with the assessments. It was a great exercise for me because I was able to pinpoint not only my own weaknesses, but our weaknesses as a school and even district.
The SETDA building survey was very eye opening. We are lacking technology and the monitoring of student progress in use of technology as a campus. We are not tracking any data on how technology affects student performance and we are not mandating that teachers use any particular type of technology in the classroom with any minimum frequency. Part of the problem lies within the fact that we are an extremely old school and will be rebuilt within the next five years. The district is unwilling to pour money into technology before we get our new facilities. This will be difficult as we are moving to Career and Technology Academies next year and will not have enough technology to support that change.
I agree with the assessments. It was a great exercise for me because I was able to pinpoint not only my own weaknesses, but our weaknesses as a school and even district.
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