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More PowerPoint presentations from LaToya

The Plan

Education is important to the success of this county.  We are constantly changing and the way our students learn has changed tremendously.   Technology plays a great deal in this change and because of this the Department of Education has released a draft of the National Educational Technology Plan.  “The Plan” as I call it has goals in which we can aspire to, to ensure that as these changes are happening we are preparing our students to success.

 The Obama administration is the driving force for the technology goals.  One of the goals is to raise the amount of the nation’s population of college graduates from 39% to 60%.  The goal is aligned with President Barack Obama address to Congress, February 24^th, 2009 “By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” (Obama, 2009)   The second goal is to close the achievement gap so that all students who graduate can succeed in the future.  According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “Enrollment rates are unequal: 69% of qualified Whites…58% of comparable Latino and 56% of African American graduates” (National Center for Education Statistics, 2007), actually enter 2 year or four year colleges.  The Plan involves actions to not only raise those percentages but make them equal across the board.

The Plan is focused on not just addressing the issue of students entering college but setting a foundation for all students (K-12) to have the ability to progress throughout school into their college years. The Plan says we can make this happen by focusing on five areas: Learning, Assessment, Teaching, Infrastructure and Productivity.  We can change our standards and learning objective to include technology in different domains to engage and empower learners.  We can constantly assess, revise and research technology to find creative innovative ways to ensure improvement. The way we teach can be changed if educators work as a team and allow the student to become the center of the learning environment.  We would also need to address the infrastructure by ensuring that all educators and students have access to technology in and outside the classroom and ensure that students are making progress thought out there school years.  I find that this plan does work towards changing the way that educators teach in the 21^st century.  If we align teaching the way students learn then it is bound to be a success.  Check out the full plan at http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf

HISD Technology Goals

This year marks the fifth year in HISD Long-Range Strategic Plan for Technology. Was the plan a fail or a success?

HISD goals were to: increase student achievement, increase management efficiency, improve public support and confidence in school, create a positive district culture and provide facilities to standard program.  HISD put a lot of thought into how they could best make this plan work for students and teachers alike.  They even went as far as to ask the teachers what they felt was needed.  I know asking the person that does the work is a stretch but that’s who else would know best.  (Go figure!)  Teachers weighed in and I think that this just may have helped this plan succeed. Teachers asked for more technical support and data management.  The strategy was to increase the help desk function and at time have trained personnel on campus to assist with tech issues and system updates.  They asked for a unified system that allows data exchange.  They responded by working on obtaining software that would allow effective collaboration of student record and eliminate repeat work.  After looking over the plan I can see that goals are met and can’t wait to see what other improvements that will be made. 

Unfortunately, I am not able to access information about the professional development available with the district but after speaking with several HISD employees I have learned that there are professional development opportunities available on the HISD employee portal.  I would really like to see what the plans are for HISD in the coming years.  With the budget cuts and the teacher layoffs how much of the technology budget will be affected?

Educator and Student Knowledge and Skills

Technology is all around us and weather we are tech savvy or not, just face it, we all use technology.  Many think that just typing a paper or checking your email make you capable of teaching others how to use technology.   I think that it is extremely important for educators to have the knowledge and skill to operate the material they will be allowing the student to use.  I am not saying this to say that a teacher must be an expert but they should have a working knowledge to know how to best use the technology to enhance the students learning. 

I find that it is important to find out what knowledge and skills a student has before starting a project.  Many times we underestimate a student’s knowledge of technology because as the teacher we are here to teach them.  This a huge mistake because as teachers we are also learners and learning can come from anywhere even a first grader showing us how to use a tool on the new software program.  

This is where I find technology assessments useful.  They help you to understand the skill and training in an area. This can help the person self assess what they feel that are okay, good or proficient at.  In every way I advocate for using assessments to determine the level of help that is needed.  Now having the time to compete a detailed assessment can cause a problem.  When assessments are used you are getting what the person perceives to be their level of skill.  If a student was asked if they knew how to use the computer there response may be “yes” but if that same students was asked if they knew how to use the page stroll, shortcut, email, word or excel.  You would get a better understanding of what they are capable of doing. 

I think that when ever we are working with technology it is important to know the level of the person you are working with educator or student.