Web Conference Reflection October 27, 2010

I logged on about 8:10 pm Wednesday evening because I had just come in from church.  I almost did not make it.  I really appreciate that we have an opportunity to meet with our instructor during this course.  I also like the fact that we can meet other classmates and converse with them. Meeting with Ms. Borel and having access to the Power Points are helpful in clarifying questions about this course and the internship.  I am grateful for the Power Point posted to the class website.  Using a web cam is so convenient for distant learning opportunities. The web cam is probably something that is second nature to the students I am teaching in high school.  Although I am a bit nervous about the work load for the internship, I am excited about learning the Web 2.0 world and all that this program has to offer.

District Technology Plan

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The National Educational Technology Plan Summary

The National Educational Technology Plan Summary

What a coincidence to summarize the NETP this week.  Last week I was asked to facilitate the PSAT test to all sophomores at my high school.  The entire sophomore population was tested, which by the way was funded by TEA.  Our campus was one of the pilot campuses to test its students.  To my understanding, the state of Texas is ranked number 47 for college gratuates graduating with a 2 or 4 year degree. Not a good place to be.  As a result, TEA has funded a number of high schools to assess our students using the PSAT to analyze student academic ability. After talking to counselors, it is clear that educators need to encourage our students to further their education by attending a college or university after completeing high school.  

According to the Obama Administration, the United States has a college graduation rate of 39%.  Apparantly the state of Texas is assisting in this low number.  Consequently, the National Educational Technology Plan has several goals to improve student achievement via technology integration and implementation.       

The National Education Technology Plan is focusing on five main core areas. Those areas are learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity.  Let's take a closer look at each focal point.

Learning: All learning should be engaging and empowering for all students from early childhood to college graduates.  The emphasis should be how teachers are conveying their subjects and how they are matching what the students need to learn, how they learn and why they need to learn it.  Technology driven instruction will provide tailored learning enviroments to all students no matter their background, languages, or differences.

Assessment: Critical thinking, complex problem solving, collaboration, and multimedia communication – in all content areas can be measured with technology based assessments along with teacher lesson plan outcomes and curriculums. By determining the students' strength and weakness, this will aid the instructors in developing lessons and activities that will enhance the students' ability to use these skills.  As a result, students will be more successful in the classroom and improve their test taking abilities; thereby transferring these successes to the college level courses as well.

Teaching:  Teaching with technology in the classroom will engage the students and help them be active learners.  Students are more likely engaged by incorporating technology in all subjects.   Educators need to utilize every technological tool available to them. This includes the on-line environment, the textbook technology support, the equipment provided in the classroom, in addition to the professional development offered via their districts. By equipping the teachers with the tools necessary to teach the 21st century learner and training them to use technology cohesively, the teaching will transfer the learning to our students.    

Infrastructure: In order for students to be more engaged and thus more successful with their education, school districts need to implemement infrastructures that will meet the needs of all learners anytime of the day.  Not only do the students need this support but the educators as well as the supporting staff need this in order to provide a more suitable envirnoment for a technology driven culture.

Productivity:  Despite the fact that our society is in econmic tormoil, this is no excuse for slowing down our productivity goals for our students.  In fact, we should be driving educational productivity goals even more.  Technology implementation should increase productivity for students' learning in every facet of the environment, from the basics of elementary courses to distant learning at that middle school and high school levels. Technology investment will by far be one of the biggest expenses a district will incurr. However, if allocated correctly, this will be the best return on investment (ROI) with educational aptitudes that can be effectively measured.

In order for our students to be prepared for their future, we need to take all aspects of the education into account.  It starts with their home life and continues at school, after school, at work and on weekends.  Learning should be continuous life-long processes and embraced with enthusiasm for what lies ahead for the future of our students.  

Source: http://www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf 

District Technology Plan Summary

             Bridge City ISD has an all inclusive technology plan outlined for all students and teachers.  The district has 2486 students with 5 campuses and an economically disadvantage rate of 46.30%.

            BCISD has a vision for all students to have access to technology for all courses.  This keeps the students engaged and active learners.  The school district uses a vigorous infrastructure available for all students and educators.

            Bridge City ISD goals are to continue to integrate technology across the curriculum and increase the number of Smart Board Stations for all classes.  This will take place once the new school is completed in May of 2011.  At the present time, all teachers at the high school and middle school teachers have a Smart Board, a data projector, and a state-of-the-art sound system integrating all technology components in the classrooms. The district will continue to encourage and support curriculum based applications.  BCISD will increase the number of PC stations for elementary students.  Another goal is to increase high school curriculum options by offering more distance learning course.  Implementation of a four year PC replacement program is another objective.   

Strategies include the following:

Integration of technology applications TEKS into all curriculum areas in K-12 program by including electronically delivered materials in instruction.

All students will be held accountable for on-grade and age appropriate level Technology Applications Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.

Assess the students' academic performance by utilizing test scores, and local assessment tools.

All teachers will develop instruction strategies that integrate the use of online resources, research methods, digital literacy and productivity.

Focus curriculum on higher order thinking skills which allows students to access, process and evaluate digital information more efficiently.

Plan and implement a Cyber Safety Week to enable students to be good Cyber citizens.

Professional development opportunities will include the follow strategies:

Continue to provide guidance to assist teachers, librarians and administrators in meeting the SBEC principles for technology literacy to encourage curricula and teaching strategies based on analyses leading to improvements in student educational accomplishments

Develop a core group of educators at each campus to mentor and assist other teachers with integration of new technology tools or programs.

            The Technology Director is charge of coordinating the professional development opportunities for all educators.  Yearly hardware inventories are conducted to ensure adequate hardware availability for teachers and students.

            The current technology plan is for the next three years from 2010 through 2013.  The budget amounts are $379,764.00 for 2010, $279.764.00 for 2011 and 2013 each.  This is a total budget allotment of 939,292.00 for a three year time span.

            One of the processes used to monitor the progress is the Campus Texas School Technology and Readiness STar Chart which all teachers participate in.  In addition the district submits surveys periodically throughout the year.  These surveys are used to assess and evaluate the teachers' perceptions of professional development and technology use in the classroom.  In addition to the STar Chart and surveys, the technology committee meets in the spring to assess the progress of all campuses.  TAKS scores are also evaluated to determine the additional necessary technology measures to take and improve on at the campus level.

Source: http://bridgecityisd.net/assets/files/District.pdf/Tech/BCISD_Tech_Plan_2010_2013_final.pdf

Assessing Technology Skills

There is unquestionably a substantial value in determining educators’ technology leadership skills along with determining students’ technology skill levels. By assessing the technological skills of both teachers and students, this evaluation will determine where the digital gaps are located.   Students are learning in ways that we as digital immigrants never thought possible. For example, cell phones, internet, internet TVs, GPS systems, iPods, iPads, MP3 players, On-Star voice activation emergency services, automobile automation, gaming devices, podcasts, et cetera are all part of our students’ everyday lives.    

Instructors should be preparing students for careers that do not exist today.  This may not be happening because of technology compounding exponentially on a daily basis and because of the age difference.

The advantages are that once assessments are conducted, administrators will be able to see where the gaps are and fill the needs of the students by developing professional development courses for educators.  Educators will need to incorporate every technological article in the market place and continue to do so, so they will not fall behind.   .  Teachers not only need to catch up but stay on the same wavelength as the students.  By utilizing the devices and services list above, this will help bridge the gap furthermore.

On the other side, once we determine the difference, this may make no difference what so ever. Educators may never reach the students’ level of technological knowledge due to the rapid technological growth that we are experiencing in our modern day world today.   Students will continually take in technology at a faster rate than their teachers will because they have the mental capacity to attain information at a quicker velocity.

Although knowing this difference is valuable, closing the gap is essential. However, in this day and age, we may never catch up to our younger successor.  It will be a constant race to keep up.  

First Real Blog

Tonight was my first real web conference and this is my first real blog.  I love this technology.   Very impressive.  I have done this one other time about seven years ago.  We tried this with my in-laws in Sachse, Texas (just outside of Dallas) and us here in Orange, Texas.  The bandwidth was so slow; it was not worth the trouble.  The video kept buffering the entire time.  Tonight was a totally different story. Adobe Connect is much better.   

About me:

My husband and I moved from Dallas to Orange about 15 years ago.  When we moved, we had never even heard of Orange.  I cried the first 2 years. I just wanted to go back home - to the Big D.  I wanted to have a mall nearby my home and lots of different choices of restaurants to choose from.  No such luck here. You see, I am a city girl and this was not my idea of city living.  Then something happened and things began to change.  God was and still is working on me. Now we love it here.  I am extremely blessed.  We have been married for 16 years and have three fantastic children.  Their ages are 13, 12, and 9 - boy, girl, boy.  When my husband was transferred to Orange from his plant in Garland, we always thought we would go back. 

About five years after we moved here, the Dallas plant shut down.   There is no going back now. That is Ok because we love our church family and the many wonderful friends we have here.  Now we realize this is home.  This area is now are permanent home and we love it.