Texas Long Range Plan for Technology

I reviewed the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology and also my campus Star Chart and I chose the area of Infrastructure to discuss. Our campus has been in the category of Advanced Tech for the past three years. This category is described as having a campus where there are four or less students per computer, there is direct connectivity to the Internet in 75% of the classrooms and library, web-based learning is available, all rooms are connected to a LAN/WAN, there is one educator per computer and there are shared use of other resources. I have to agree with these findings because there are ample opportunities for our students and educators to use technology in every classroom. As a computer teacher, I have knowledge of what technology we have in the classrooms and help the teachers, if needed, to understand that technology.

Looking at our local campus results, it shows that our teachers have put us in the Advanced Tech category which in turn compares to the state average. The state average for 2007-2008 is 57.2% of schools are in the advanced stages. This shows that schools are experiencing a strong technology influence in their schools. I believe that is all campuses goals to reach the Target Tech but only 6.7% of the states schools are at this level now.

My recommendations for our school district would be to maintain the Advanced Tech level and shoot for the Target Tech level. I believe our campus has done an excellent job of keeping up with technology trends and our students are given an opportunity to succeed with the technology given. One area that I wish our administration would address would be for professional development. Our district has many technology opportunities but some of our teachers are having trouble with using and teaching that technology to the students. Some of our "old school" teachers are set in their ways and do not embrace the technology that is available. Having more professional development opportunities would allow them to see that advantages of technology and how easy it is to learn and integrate them into the classroom.