The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology specifies visionary goals in four key areas; Teaching and Learning, Educator Preparation & Development, Administration and Support Services, and Infrastructure for Technology. Upon examining the most recent three years of the Texas Campus STaR chart for my campus I found the area of Leadership, Administration and Support Services particularly interesting as it revealed a steady increase in improvement.
In the area of Leadership, Administration and Support Services, administrators are expected to emerge as leaders in the integration of technology as they model implementation into their daily tasks. They should pave the way for their teachers to become proficient and are the key component in cultivating change. They must incorporate technology into their vision and campus plan, and create an on-going technology committee representative of all community stakeholders. Leaders must budget for and monitor continually changing needs, create environments that are conducive to innovation, offer a variety of instructional opportunities to students, and provide teachers relevant and continual professional development.
By these definitions I would not have expected my campus to receive a score of Advanced Tech. As a district we have become more technologically advanced, however as a campus I don't think that the leadership is supporting technology as it should. I have examined the campus improvement plan and there are provisions for technology improvement however, a technology committee does not exist on the campus level. There are budgetary funds allotted to technology but continual professional development is not offered. If teachers seek out the opportunity and request support it will be granted yet the administration is lacking leadership in that area. Lastly, the leaders on my campus have not created an environment that is conducive to innovation and allows for the variety of instructional opportunities. We are forced to adhere to a scripted cookie cutter curriculum that is then reinforced by homogeneous practice. Every student in every classroom gets the exact same lesson, exact same classwork, and exact same homework. I would not call this innovation and advancement by any means.
I will say that as a campus and a district there have been numerous advancements in the area of technology over the past 4 years. Our curriculum is ea sly accessible online to be utilized at any time either at work or at home. This has greatly improved planning as it frees up a teacher's schedule to plan from home as well as limits the amount of materials that are required to be transported if planning is to occur outside of the classroom. Secondly, the installation of interactive white boards in all classrooms K-8 has dramatically changed the face of classroom instruction. Student attention and involvement has improved, instruction has improved due to the endless possibilities the white board offers and teachers are planning more engaging lessons with the use of the accompanying software provided with the white boards. Lastly, this year my district moved to a new student management software that is accessible by parents as well as by teachers from home. Again, this improves teacher's home time as they can complete data entry from their computers at home. There are technological improvements happening throughout the district that positively impacts my campus however, I do not feel as though my campus is leading the way for their own advancement.
At the state level the majority of the campuses are in the Developing Tech designation in the area of support as well as staffing. Texas trends and national trends are very similar in that there the most frequent technology use at school is the Internet followed by the school website, creating presentations and finally taking tests online. Hindrances are the same both nationally and within the state with not enough computer time at the top of the list. followed by inoperable equipment and not enough computers for everyone.
My recommendations for improvement at the campus level would be for our leadership to cease their micromanagement and open themselves up thus opening the campus up to innovation. Professional freedom in decision making should be afforded to the teachers and encouragement should be given to teachers that are planning engaging and technologically advanced lessons that are differentiated and individualized. For the state and national level, efforts should be made to improve support staff at all levels. Budgetary funds should be focused on technology improvement in all areas from hardware, software, training and support.
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