E-Rate & HISD

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National Educational Technology Plan - Summary

The National Educational Technology Goals set to be achieved by 2020 that have been defined in their Plan are: to “raise the proportion of college graduates from where it now stands [39%] so that 60% of our population holds a 2-year or 4-year degree” and to “close the achievement gap so that all students – regardless of race, income, or neighborhood – graduate from high school ready to succeed in college and careers” (U.S. Department of Education, 2010).
In order to achieve these two quite sizable (and might I say valiant) goals, there must be quite an innovative transformation in their approach, pushing the [education] system to be unambiguous, work effectively and efficiently in all collaborative efforts; to ensure measures are taken to rate and monitor progress and to “hold [themselves] accountable” (USDE, 2010) for that progress (or short-falls).

In respect to teaching and learning, technology allows educators to access and implement the “connected teaching model” (USDE, 2010) which enables teachers to become a part of online learning communities to help forge a higher teaching and learning capacity for them. It shifts isolated teaching to a “team activity” (USDE, 2010) in which all participating educators connect not only to data to learn from, but also the tools for using that data. For student learning, the main challenge for this plan is to reshape the structure of how the students learn. To give them the freedom to take the reins on how they learn, by incorporating the technology they use in their everyday lives to have a more tailored experience with learning, which will then motivate and encourage them beyond the traditional style of learning information (lectures, books, writing, and so on) (USDE, 2010).

The plan also states that there must be a mutual/shared, sound, and on-going approach taken in respect to professional development and training for educators. This entails unifying traditional person-to-person workshops and trainings (most prevalent currently in our education system) with the new online learning environments that are rich with resources and collaboration with fellow educators (USDE, 2010).

The main concern that I see with this comprehensive, proactive plan is that there are such a high number of socio-economically challenged school districts that will struggle financially to acquire the technology they will need implement to become a part of this plan. More specifically, it is not that they will not qualify for assistance, but many schools of this nature lack the personnel needed to take the appropriate steps to document, report and receive funding because often these small/underprivileged schools struggle to hire “experienced” staff that is well-versed in this area or even care to take the steps to move forward with new technology.

Reference:

U.S. Department of Education. (2010, March 5). Transforming American
             Education: Learning Powered by Technology. Retrieved from

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

Huntsville Indepedent School District Technology Plan

For Huntsville Independent School District, there are four main goals included in their Technology Implementation Plan. They are:
“Goal 1: Technology is used to reinvent and reshape curriculum and instruction, changing the way teachers teach and students learn.
Goal 2: The professional development programs in technology are designed to advance the school’s goals for student learning.
Goal 3: Technology is used as an efficient and effective management and administrative tool to support the instructional program.
Goal 4: The deployment of resources advancing the school’s vision for technology and student achievement” (Newman, 2010).

All of these goals are accompanied by many different strategies that ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ are far too in depth for summarization but can be viewed by visiting HISD's Technology Plan (Newman, 2010). The professional development opportunities that are/will be available are coordinated by  the Career and Technology Education Director  and the Instructional Technology Specialists from the District Technology Department; they focus on different areas of what competencies the teachers and administrators will have to be familiar with and master through an “HISD Technology Staff Development Plan (TAP)” (Newman, 2010) but the specific trainings are not dated or defined. I kept a keen eye to look for the local Education Service Center (Region VI) to provide some of this professional staff development; however it was not mentioned. There appear to be limited financial resources and time to ensure the staff is kept up to date in learning new technologies, but they are allocating their funds to be the most cost efficient as possible. 

The telecommunication services, hardware, software and other services are assessed by the Technology Director to ensure improved student learning. The evaluation process than enables the district to monitor progress toward specific goals and make mid-course corrections is both formative and summative and the Technology Director is responsible for submitting these monitoring reports to the Superintendent mid-year and at the end of the fiscal budget year. The District Technology Committee then “compiles the data to evaluate the effectiveness of the Technology Plan and make recommendations to the School Board and Superintendent for revisions and needed updates.” (Newman, 2010)

Reference:

Newman, E. (2010, June 29). Huntsville Independent School District Technology Plan
             July 2010-July 2013. Retrieved November 26, 2010 from Huntsville Independent
             School District’s website:
             http://www.huntsville-isd.org/pdf_files/TechnologyPlan2010-2013.pdf

The Value of Technological Assessments for both Educators as well as their Students

The value of assessing the educators’ as well as the students’ knowledge and skill levels in technology is very useful and very much needed; because in every application, you have got to know at what starting point each is at before moving forward new plans and goals. You simply cannot put the “cart before the horse,” as my mother used to tell me when I would get excited about weekend plans when I still had a week full of chores to complete. The same applies with technology education—you cannot simply hand a teacher a technology curriculum to integrate within their classroom if you have not first assessed their own level of technology skills in which they will be required to teach with, nor can you assign an entire classroom of students a homework assignment to be completed on the Internet if you have not first assessed whether or not the students can even operate on that technological level (depending on grade level, of course). Assessments are a good way to gain some insight on what you are working with on a knowledge and skill basis.

However, with almost any topic, there are both pros and cons to these assessments. On the “Pros” side, if the assessments are answered both honestly and accurately, one can gain a fairly decent, overall grasp of the strengths and weaknesses of the individual taking the assessment and can get an overall direction that the individual can work towards technologically. Answering dishonestly and inaccurately would definitely be a “Con” that completely skews the usefulness and application of even giving the assessment and further sets back that individual in their growth towards becoming more technologically skilled, which would be like a Butcher applying for a Banking position—nothing good would come from it. Another downside of the written assessments is that they do not confirm that the individual actually has the skills that they could say they have; having an actual set of skills to be performed (i.e. creating a PowerPoint or Blog, etc.) as part of the assessment would be a better confirmation of where that individual stands in their knowledge and skill
level.

In summary, I do still believe that having these assessments does play a positive, critical part in the overall success of teachers as well as the students in the area of technology.  What do you think?

First Blog -- Coming soon!

Wooo hoooo! I have made it this far, but now the hard part: What, oh what, to Blog about? This will indeed require some soul searching and just a little bit more time than I currently have today. Please come back soon and I'll something for you to read. :) Until then, my Mom and I say "Goodbye" and "Goodnight!" (which is, of course, just an excuse to put another picture on here...you caught me. Haha.)