Texas Long Range Plan (Opinion Piece)

The following is a description of one of the four areas in the The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, which consists of Teaching and Learning; Educator Preparation and Development; Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support; and Infrastructure for Technology. For my opinion piece I will speak about Teaching and Learning. This domain measures the patterns of classroom technology use, the frequency and design of the instructional setting, how technology is making connections to content areas, the correct TEKS implementation, student mastery of technology applications, and on-line learning. Progress in this area has been slow at my campus. That comment is based on the fact that this domain has remained steady and is currently not experiencing any growth. At the state level we see that close to 70% of schools (5327) are currently classified as Developing Technology. The trend locally shows us that there will probably be little or no growth in this area in the 2009-2010 school year. The state trend, however, indicates that a small minority (25% or 1947) of schools have managed to achieve the higher classification of Advanced Technology. My personal recommendations to improve in this area is to provide professional development in reinforcing the Technology TEKS K-8 that students have acquired before coming to the high school. Also, I would promote proper technology training as to encourage the more timid teachers ot increase the patterns of technology use in their classrooms.