Week 2 Blog 1: Educator Preparation and Development

The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology maps the goals for educational technology for the 21^st century learners in Texas schools. The plan also provides recommendations for creating technology rich classrooms by focusing in the areas of Teaching and Learning; Educator Preparation and Development; Leadership, Administration, and Instructional Support; and Infrastructure for Technology.  When I did the STaR chart analysis for my school I noticed that we are strong in the area of infrastructure for technology. I agree with this result because we do have a very technology rich District.  We have mobile computer labs, clickers, promethean boards, and digital projectors in each classroom as well as document cameras.  Though we are strong in infrastructure we are behind in the areas of Teaching and Learning and Educator Preparation and Development.  I would like to focus in the area of Educator Preparation and Development because I believe that if we do a better job of training our teachers to use the technology we will improve in Teaching and Learning.

According to the Texas Long Range Plan the goals for Educator Preparation and Development is for all educators to develop learning environments that use and integrate technology throughout the curriculum as a tool for learning  in a collaborative, interactive and customized manner. It also calls for educator preparation programs to train teachers how to effectively implement technology in their classrooms. This is the area that in the past three years teachers at my campus, district and across the state have been classified as developing tech.  This is also the reason why in the area of Teaching and Learning we are classified as early tech.  The technology in the classroom is mostly teacher-centered instead of learner-centered.  I believe that we can improve in the area of Educator Preparation and Development by providing teachers with sustainable professional development that models the implementation of technology in the classroom.  We need to move from “how does it work and how can I fix it” to how do I integrate this in my classroom to meet my students educational needs.  We need to encourage teachers to attend professional development in the area of integration of technology in their daily instruction and monitor their progress as well as provide them with the support they need for their efforts in creating technology rich classrooms.  By doing this we will make significant improvements in the area of Teaching and Learning and our 21^st century learners will be better prepared to succeed in our digital world.