Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology

The Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology promotes academic excellence for all learners and is divided into four areas. Visions of the Teaching and Learning area are for all students to have access to digital tools and resources on demand; that they be able to use technologies to research, collaborate, and find solutions to real-world problems; and be able to communicate effectively in a variety of formats (TLRPT, p. 15).

I'm fortunate to work in a district that has empowered their administrators and teachers with the tools to make this vision a reality. All of our teachers have a desktop computer with internet access and multiple curriculum and student management systems. Our campus has multiple computer labs and laptop carts for use by the students. We have incorporated SmartBoards and slates in our Math curriculum, our ELA classes are use blogs, power points, and wikis. All our students have e-mail addresses and can e-mail their teachers with questions about assignments, or put them in a dropbox for grading.

While we are increasing the connectivity and use of Web 2.0 tools, we have room for progress. We still have teachers who incorporate the minimum of technology because the students are more comfortable with it than the teacher. Filters have been installed to provide security and safety for the students but they still manage to get around some of them. Cell phones offer technology that we are not ready to allow in our classroom. Our students need to learn more about on-line safety and etiquette. I would like to see our students be able to use these technologies to collaborate on projects and assignments, to fully participate in their learning and not rely on someone else to do it for them (cheating).