Instructional Leadership Week 1 Part 4

The technology TEKS from K-8 are continually spiraling and provide the necessary framework to educate the student in the field of technology. After reviewing the TEKS from PreK to 8th grade I was astounded at how advanced they were and what a young age they were expected to be taught and preform complex tasks.
Spending time studying these TEKS really wrapped this week's work up for me and tied a nice little bow on what I have learned. There is such a push to continually keep up with a technological world that is moving at lightning speed. The generation that we are trying to educate is moving right along with them and their ability to learn advanced technological applications is astounding yet to them is just like second nature.
Starting students in Pre-K familiarizing them with the hardware, teaching them the vocabulary, and using age appropriate software really lays a valuable foundation for the furthering of their technological learning. My opinion is to start them as early as possible. I started my daughter at the age of 2 and her proficiency on the computer and the Internet simply astounds me.
The Technology TEKS provide an excellent example of a spiraling curriculum in that as you follow the expectations from Pre-K to 8th grade you see skills introduced then applied to acquire and practice new skills then reviewed, and applied to master higher level skills. When spiraling occurs students are not taught skills in isolated instances and then never reviewed or given the opportunity to apply their knowledge. They are constantly revisiting, re-learning, and re-applying what they have learned. Within the communication domain of the Technology Application TEKS numbers 11 A, B, and C do just this. In Kindergarten students are introduced to publication of information using the printer, and the monitor, storage files and video. After practicing this through 2nd grade they then move to using the Internet, video and begin to use software to design presentations for a specific audience in grades 3-5. Then as they move to grades 6-8 they continue to practice publishing via printed copy, monitor display, Internet documentation, video and electronic presentations. They apply interdisciplinary multimedia such as audio, video, text, and graphics to their presentation software and use telecommunication tools to publish such as Internet browsers, video conferencing, or distance learning. This series of TEKS is fully developed from it's foundation to it's mastery and spirals with each grade level reviewing previously learned skills and apply their knowledge to acquire new skills and information.