Working Together; Building Tomorrows

See more presentations by amalone1 | Upload your own PowerPoint presentations

Teachers and Technology Goals

In the Long Range Plan, educator preparation and development describes how educators provide a key link between availability of technology applications and access by learners. Educators must be knowledgeable of the technology TEKS and ensure that their students are mastering these expectations. Students must be prepared with the knowledge and skill that will allow them to make a positive contribution to the global economy. In order to accomplish this goal, teachers must be technology literate and be capable of selecting the appropriate use of technology for the curriculum being taught. Professional development for technology use must be updated on a continual basis and educators must ensure that instructional strategies being employed lead to improved student achievement. Student directed learning and cross-curricular projects that make use of technology offer teachers an excellent opportunity for students to improve critical thinking skill by interacting with peers or collaborating to produce a product. The teacher’s role as a facilitator to instruction carries with it the responsibility to ensure that students actively participate in activities and model appropriate uses of technology.
On our campus, our teachers seem to be divided into three groups. The first group includes teachers that are embracing the use of technology in the classroom and finding ways to use technology to enhance student achievement through activities that are open-ended, promote critical thinking, or allow students to research and communicate findings in a meaningful format. The second, and largest of the three groups, includes teachers that routinely use technology themselves to create lessons for their students that integrate technology at some level. The third group includes teachers that are technophobes with a low level of personal technology skills and resistance to letting students use technology they are unfamiliar with.
As teachers have been working together in PLC’s, there has been more willingness to try new things and positive changes are occurring on our campus. Professional development opportunities are becoming more abundant, and more teachers are taking advantage of these opportunities. The use of technology and integration of technology into classroom instruction is somewhat limited by both the constraints of classrooms that are outdated and a shortage of computers for students to use in collaborative projects.
Our district has instituted a plan to provide one-to-one computing for all students. Currently, two of the schools have adopted the practice and the third school will be on board next year. Unfortunately, our campus does not support wireless technology and until the campus is renovated, we will be unable to take advantage of this opportunity. Our teachers are making an effort to move forward in the area of technology integration and are keeping pace with the state and nation.