Texas Progress Report on the Long-Range Plan for Technology

The 2010 progress report on the Long-Range Plan for Technology 2006 -2010 was very interesting. It broke the STaR charts down into it is four categories and described how the state school districts were doing in each. In the area of “Teaching and Learning”, the state schools have been moving from a low-tech area to more of the target tech area. The majority of the schools are in the middle, in developing tech and advanced tech. In “Educator Preparation and Development”, most campuses are moving towards the target tech level and are currently in the developing tech and advanced tech. In “Leadership, Administration, and Instructional Support” again most schools are in the developing tech and advanced tech. In “Infrastructure”, most schools are in the advanced tech area with a few in the developing tech area. With each of the sections, the report also went over all of the programs that are in the state that help that section. I was amazed at the number of programs that the state offers to help in all of the areas. I have not heard of most of the programs. There are several programs that school districts can take advantage of to increase technology in the district, and a large number of grants that schools can apply for advancing their technology. Overall, the state is increasing the amount of technology that students are using in the classroom. I really liked the quote from a student that the paper started with: “Every time I go to school I have to power down” (p.3). Not because I want the students to power down but because it shows, how integrated technology is to our students but not to the administration in the schools. Most students love to work with technology but the districts are holding them back because they are not ready to teach with technology. This needs to change. Lets let students use technology to learn; fund the schools so they can buy the technology needed to teach the students.

Resource:

Scott, R. Texas Education Agency, (2010). 2010 progress report on the long-range plan for technology, 2010 Austin, TX: Retrieved from http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=5096&menu_id=2147483665