This blog is a reflection on the 2008-2010 Progress Report of the Texas Long-Range
Plan for Technology, 2006-2020. Enjoy.
Read the Report. That’s what our assignment so innocently said. Read the Report. Now, I don’t want to sound like a member of Congress, but the Report is 152 pages long! I failed the Wood speed reading course last summer so I guess I’ll just skim the Report.
The Report is divided into two major parts. The first part covers, rather vociferously, the four key areas of the Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology: Teaching and Learning; Educator Preparation and Development; Leadership, Administration, and Instructional Support; and Infrastructure. The second part is less verbose and summarizes the services provided by the twenty regional education service centers in meeting the recommendations of the Long-Range Plan.
The Teaching and Learning section showed that most schools in 08-09 and 09-10 are in either the Developing Tech or Advanced Tech areas. Some few schools are still in the Early Tech phase while even fewer have arrived at the ultimate destination Target Tech. The section also identifies some exciting opportunities that were offered, are being offered, and will be offered to Texas schools in an effort to meet the goals of the Plan.
The Educator Preparation and Development section outlines the various opportunities educators in Texas have for professional development in the area of working and teaching with technology. The section outlines several stimulating resources for teachers and the community at large such as Project Share and Texas Education on iTunes University.
The Leadership, Administration, and Instructional Support section highlights the impact that technology has had in this area from 2008-2010. One such impact is the information provided to instructional leaders by the School Technology and Readiness or STaR chart. In determining at what level the teachers and students feel technology use to be, leaders can make adjustments to funding or planning to encourage each teacher to reach the Target Tech plateau. As in the case of Teaching and Learning the STaR chart shows most to be in the Developing and Advanced Tech stages. However, unlike the other, the chart shows more Administration and Support at Target Tech than Early Tech.
The final area of the first section of the Report outlines the improvement to technology infrastructure from 2008-2010. Infrastructure has to do with the access to what makes technology work: electricity, broadband connectivity, networking, etc. The STaR chart for Infrastructure shows a large number of schools at the Advanced Tech level of infrastructure while some are Developing, a few are at Target, and very few are still at Early Tech.
The second part of the Progress Report summarizes the services provide by the twenty regional education service centers. The report for each service center differs slightly in format, but basically addresses how the ESC provides support in each of the above four areas for the schools it services. Of particular interest to me was the report offered on our local service center. I recognized less than half of the services mentioned, but perhaps that is the fault of our local school’s leadership or possibly my own fault for not taking the time to avail myself of all our ESC has to offer.
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