Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020

Texas has devised a plan to make sure that all students are technologically savvy by the eighth grade. This plan is called the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology. One of the key areas in this plan is Educator Preparation and Development. This is an area that is developing on the local, state, and national levels. This area is developing for a couple of reasons. One of them is a lot of teachers, especially veteran teachers, tend to be resistant to change. They have done something a certain way for so long that they want to continue to do what works. Since using technology in the classroom is something that is required, they tend to do the bare minimum in this area in order to meet that requirement, and then continue to do what they have been doing. Another reason we are developing in this area is because a lot of teachers aren't technology savvy themselves. This key area is designed to address those teachers, but it hasn't been very effective thus far. Professional development is offered, but it isn't pushed, and isn't really required. This key area is described as an area to assess the teachers technology level, and provide them with training and modeling needed to address their deficiencies. This key area could improve if there was less emphasis placed on paper based standardized tests, and if professional development was designed in a different way. There needs to be more professional development on technology as it relates to specific disciplines, opposed to just programs that you can use in the classroom. There should also be time to practice using the programs in the area the teacher teaches during the professional development. I love to teach Social Studies. I have never seen a technology based Social Studies professional development opportunity. When I teach Social Studies I rarely use any form of technology. If I knew how to integrate it, I would be able to do so.