Thoughts on Texas Long Range Plan for Technology 2006-2020
The Texas Education code requires a Long Range Plan for Technology. The No Child Left Behind legislative act of 2001 spurred an update to the existing plan that expanded it to its current length. It comes as a surprise to me that even back in 1988 there were people looking ahead to what technology could do for our schools and students. I wonder if they thought it would go so far so fast.
The plan is based on four key components: teaching and learning, educator preparation and development, leadership, administration and instructional support and infrastructure for technology. Having a plan such as this, I believe, has Texas on the correct path to ensuring that all of the students in this state become 21st century learners.
Teaching and Learning: What is going on inside the classroom?
Today’s students are like no other that we have ever encountered. They are not smarter nor are they less intelligent. They are not more motivated or less motivated than students from 25, 50 or 100 years ago. They are simply different. Today’s student does not know a time without satellite TV, cell phones, computers and internet. They learn, they adapt, they use what is at their fingertips. They understand and are frustrated when they know they are not getting what is available. Many of today’s classrooms, in some regards, look much the same as they always have, students in rows of desks all facing the teacher who is pouring out knowledge onto the “board”. Students respond in unison. But the question today is this: Is that the best and most effective way to prepare our students to be 21st century learners. Coming from the teacher at the front of the room, I can tell you that the answer is definitively “NO”! With enormous amounts of technology at our fingertips, it does not make any sense to ignore the possibilities that have opened up for us both as teachers and students so that we can continue to do what we have always done. Students deserve more. Teachers deserve more. Students know what is out there. Give it to them and they will learn how to mold it and shape it and make something new and better from it. Deny them those opportunities and watch as they either shut down or seek it elsewhere.
Educator Preparation and Development: Is the teacher keeping up?
The time of the teacher knowing the most information in the classroom is gone. Students have the latest and most up to date information about any and everything before the teacher steps into the classroom. Teachers who stick to the “old tried and true” methods of presenting information are losing their students ever shortening attentions. To continue to be effective today’s teacher must adapt. I believe the teacher has to become the facilitator. Student’s no longer need the teacher to provide everything and then ask the students to give it back. As the facilitator it has become our job to ask them questions, to spark the interest to find the answer and then help them package it into a way that communicates the meaning of it.
To do this, teachers must undergo a paradigm shift of great difficulty. Teachers who grew up with party line phones and that new fangled thing called a television, even those of us who remember getting their first computer and being amazed at what appeared on that black and green screen, must seek out ways to integrate the laptop, the internet, the smart phone, email and text into our teaching. We have to throw out the same overhead notes that we have used since our first year of teaching and find ways to let the students learn. Some schools have become very proactive, others have not. It is up to us as facilitators of the 21st century learner to catch up and keep up.
Leadership, Administrative and Instructional Support: Need it say more?
Teachers and students can only do so much on their own. There are, no doubt, many, many teachers, or facilitators, that have gone out on their own, brought their own technology into the classroom, learned how to share it with other students and teachers and been very successful. I would surmise that there are quite a bit more that are hesitant, resistant or all out oppositional to the same. The school leadership must take charge and not only seek out but continually support the integration of technology into the everyday learning of our students. I have seen schools that are actively engaged: my former district issues laptops to every student from 4th through 12th grade. Every teacher has a laptop and smartboard system in their classroom. I have seen schools that try and make it look good but provide no real substance and I have seen schools that do their very best with the limited resources available. Regardless of which district they are in, the school leadership must be proactive in educating our 21st century learners in the best way that they possible can so that they will be prepared for their future.
Infrastructure for Technology: The tools for the future.
Even with all of the technology and information that is out there, if cities, towns, communities and schools do not provide the avenues for that information to reach the students, then we will continue to produce students who are unprepared to be 21st century learners. We see computer companies like Microsoft and Apple giving millions of dollars to education to ensure that the students have the tools to open their minds to the future, to once again become the envy of the world. With continued and increased efforts to install, monitor and upgrade the technology infrastructure and by fervently continuing to get the technology into the hands of the young minds that need it most we will become again what we once were: The country that sets the standard for the world. We will produce the 21st century learner that will shape and direct our futures into the 22nd century.
No comments:
Post a Comment