Texas Star CharT

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Infrastructure for Technology

Without a doubt, Texas has made tremendous strides during the last decade in connecting schools to each other, to external resources, and to the Internet. However, the state must plan for a 21st Century educational environment. Texas will need a truly high-performance infrastructure to take advantage of new technologies that can significantly reduce costs, increase student access, and improve communication and collaboration among all stakeholders.
A 21st Century infrastructure will offer high-speed connectivity among schools, colleges, medical facilities, libraries, businesses, and homes and will be equipped with ample digital tools and resources for learners. This robust state-wide infrastructure is critical to provide equitable access to all learners. Districts must have an infrastructure that is safe and secure, flexible, scalable, and reliable. The campus infrastructure will integrate voice, video, and data and will have the capacity to host large volumes of digital content and powerful applications.
Our District Superintendent is totally technology oriented. He is striving for home schooling, distance learning, and virtual learning communities. Despite being on the job only for two months, he has made clear to all members of the community that changes are coming soon and we have to get ready. Nationwide, we are going in the right direction in order to integrate technology with instruction. Finally, I believe that the school community leaders, starting with principals, must create alliances with third parties to ensure the procurement of technology either for free or with significant savings. Open Source should be considered in the schools whenever possible to free students of dependency on expensive commercially developed software.

Before PreK It Is Just Wonderful You have to See It!

I had to share with you this amazing video. This is just to remind us that great things can be accomplished anytime, anywhere, by anybody. The kid displays amazing skills and when you find out her age you will not believe it, even though you are watching it with your own eyes.

Please click on the link http://www.dukejones.com/UploadFiles/video.mp4 and be transported to the land of achievement.

Pre-K Technology Applications TEKS

Prekindergarten guidelines for Technology Applications were made available to schools in December 1999. They articulate what three- and four- year old students should know and be able to do using technology. The learning experiences of the preschool years provide a foundation that guides children academically, socially, and emotionally. These experiences can influence the rest of a child’s life. Children’s learning and intellectual growth are affected by the specific experiences (e.g., instruction, guidance) they have in a preschool classroom. Curricula, educators, and early care settings all contribute significantly to children’s learning and development.

Teachers should always consider five key interactive behaviors that support a child’s emotional and cognitive growth.
• Respond promptly and appropriately to a child’s needs.
• Respond with warm sensitivity.
• Maintain rather than redirect children’s focus.
• Provide rich language input and explanations.
• Avoid restricting children’s behavior too frequently.

The Technology Applications TEKS are designed as a dynamic, spiraling curriculum. Effective learning activities are purposeful, planned, and playful. Misbehavior is not reprimanded; teacher always displays a positive attitude. Students receive attention and appreciation. Their sense of success is promoted by giving students a chance of learning the same concept in different ways.

Finally, shared writing activities are a perfect example of how to extend the lesson and address outcomes from multiple domains. It is a great hook to keep children engaged, when the teacher writes down kids’ quotes she is promoting ownership. It also promotes phonics when the teacher makes the sounds out while reading aloud, can be used also for clapping the words.

Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020

This part of the assignment was a “good news bad news” kind of announcement or may be a “bitter sweet” situation. The bad news would be that I was not aware of the existence of the Texas Long-Range Plan at all and when I went around asking my colleagues about it, they were clueless as well. This definitely can’t be good and we should do something to get the word out and get everybody on board. The good news is that I am now aware of the plan and I can start working hard to serve my students’ technology needs following state standards.
I agree with the vision statement, in that we must expand the learning beyond the classroom boundaries into the home and into the broader community. We need to get creative with those families that do not have access to technology at home and make them aware of the availability of resources in places like public libraries. We could even offer the resources available on campus. Another key element is distance learning, without a doubt a powerful tool, providing students across the state with equitable access to quality education and instruction. Distance learning enables schools to overcome the potential limitations of their local resources.
Students require skills that allow them to communicate in a technology-enriched society. They need technical as well as traditional reading and writing skills, and they need analytical skills for accessing and applying information. The educators must do whatever it takes to make this a reality for our students. Continuous professional learning is essential, teachers need to learn to incorporate technology appropriately to support the curriculum and bring about learning opportunities that would not be possible without the technology.

Technology assessments in Week 1

This class started with a very interesting assignment, we were asked to take a couple of technology assessments. The very first one is called “Technology applications Inventory.” It is a 58 statement survey divided into four domains: Foundations, Solving Problems with Technology Tools, Information Acquisition, and Communication. After carefully reading the statements I had an opportunity to reflect on how powerful and useful the technology can be. I consider myself technology literate; as a matter of fact I have been using it since the late 70’s. I feel confident using the technology both in my personal life and in the classroom. I can surf the net to find information, I know how to operate the hardware and the software installed in my computer including the peripheral devices. However, I am aware that I have some room for improvement in some areas. For instance, publishing tools, virtual reality, simulation, online collaboration. The second assessment is called State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) which is a lengthy survey about technology use at the school. It covers three aspects, your own technology use, the availability of technology at your school, and some school/district policies or resources related to technology. In regards to this survey outcome I would have to say that I have a good knowledge of technology and how to use it. The school/district provides a very reliable Internet service and good educational software is available. The problem is that the training or staff development does not teach teachers how to integrate technology with instruction. On the other hand, there are not enough computers to effectively serve the students; we should have one computer per student. Finally, the state and all other stakeholders must work harder in making technology a part of the daily routine in the classroom, some think that the public school system resists integrating technology with the curriculum when in reality a lot of resources have been invested in technology, but we have failed in making technology available 24/7 for every single student.