Web Conference #3

Getting on the web conference is getting much easier. Tonight we discussed in greater detail the handbook and our internship. Mrs. Borel also spoke a little more about our reflections. She helped some get on the wiki page to edit. Feed back during discussions was not as bad. The meeting ended early.

Are You a STaR?

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Texas S Ta R Chart

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Draft of National Educational Technology Plan

The National Educational Technology Plan has recommended goals in five essential areas of learning hoping to raise the proportion of college graduates from 39% to 60% and close achievement gaps so that all students regardless of race, income, or neighborhood graduate from high school ready for success in college by 2020. These five areas should be powered by technology using individualized, personalized, and differential instruction that goes beyond the 3 R’s to include critical thinking, complex problem solving, collaboration, and multimedia communication that is woven into all content areas.
The five areas are:
· Learning that will match what and how we teach to meet the needs of what students need to know and how they learn with technology.
· Assessment that is new and better in its measure of what matters, diagnosing strengths, and weaknesses to improve student performances.
· Teaching will provide use of technology to help the educators’ abilities in teaching by enabling a shift to model connected teaching.
· Infrastructure that provides every student, educator, and level of our education system with resources they need when and where they are needed.
· Productivity to redesign our education system by applying technology to implement
The Federal Government recognizes that the primary responsibility for education remains in the hands of the state and local government and views its role as a leader who provides a clearinghouse that matches experts’ advice and services with those who need it.
In breaking down the five areas there were many good examples and explanations on how to improve in the areas. I found the assessment area to be the most fascinating. The move for online assessment with problem solving and not just multiple choice would be a great way to assess true learning.

Report on Long-Range Plan for Technology 2006-2020

The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology report is a wealth of information, starting with a breakdown of how grade levels use technology. There is a detailed report on the Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP) program. The report shares information on the schools that participated and links to articles about some schools’ programs. This report shares the successes for improvement and gives recommendations for other schools wanting to follow a similar example for their schools.
A report on the Texas Virtual School Network system gives examples of online learning courses. It also provides information about the Central Operations region, professional development for TXVSN, a funding report and funding recommendations, and a timeline of accomplishments.
The important information is analysis of the Star chart. The Teaching and Learning strand showed a 1% decrease in the number of schools developing technology and a 4% decrease in the developing technology classification. There was an increase of 5% in advanced technology while the target technology classification stayed the same
The Educator Preparation and Development strand showed a 3% decrease in early technology, and a 3% increase in the advance technology classification. The developing technology classification and target remained the same. There is data to support that Texas schools are moving in the right direction toward the target technology goal.
The Leadership, Administration, and Instructional Support strand showed a 1% decrease in early technology and a 6% decrease in developing technology. There was a large increase of 6% in advanced technology and a small 1% increase in target technology.
The Infrastructure for technology showed a 1% decrease in early technology and a 4% decrease in developing technology. Encouraging is the 4% increase of advanced technology and a 2% increase in the target technology.
Though it would be best to see greater gains, it is heartening to see improvements toward the target technology classification goal for all districts.
The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology Report ends with information from many of the Regional Service Centers.

April 22, Web conference

The 1:00 conference had quite a few technical difficulties. We were able to communicate through the Chat Pod but that was about it. It was nice to see some faces of classmates and we were about to talk with microphones to each other. One classmate was in the classroom with her class. The kids expressions at seeing us on the computer wa priceless, it made you realize how great technology is. It would be even more awesome to witness students on a web conference where they could communicate with other students from other schools. A new time was set for early conferences.The 8:00 conference went much better though some individuals had trouble with their systems. Technology is just wonderful when it works. After a while of trouble shooting we were given more information on the internship and instructions to read the handbook carefully. Mrs. Borel then tried to help those of us that could not edit the wiki pages to ienter email and blog addresses. Overall it was an enjoyable experience.

Texas Long Range Plan for Technology 2006-2020

Educator Preparation and Development is the weak area of our school. The target goal in this area is for teachers to be able to participate in, or mentor others in, the use of technology. They should be able to promote learning through a variety of delivery systems, create new interactive, collaborative, and customized learning environments and online content and have taught content units or courses on line. Our key classification is on the high side of developing technology but we are far from the target tech classification and have made little to no progress in this area the past 3 years. Despite the fact that we rank in the top 74.2 percentile of schools in this classification, it is an area of concern.
Our campus has made and continues to make great strides in developing our infrastructure to provide an avenue that will allow teachers to reach the target classification in our weakest area. Although our infrastructure classification is still below the target area I feel we have enough in place that we should be able to provide more professional development and make more progress than what we have in the past 3 years.
In order to reach the target classification our professional development will have to increase. Teachers must be provided the opportunity to learn not only how to use this technology but also how to implement it in the classroom. I would stress the implementation of technology even more than the learning of it. Students can provide many learning experiences to each other and the teacher while the teacher acts as a facilitator.

Web Conference Experience

I have experienced my first 2 web conferences this past week. The first after a few trial and errors went very well. The second was a good example of how things can go wrong with technology. Despite the advances that have been made it was a good reminder of the fact that technology is not perfect. The more we come to reli on technology the more we have to be prepared for times when it is not functioning properly and how to over come those times.

New Experiences

Hello, this is my first blog I am trying out this new experience. I am taking a graduate online class for the first time. Tomorrow is a new day is how I'm living my life right now. Everyday is bringing new challenges with this class.