Texas Long Range Plan for Technology: Educator Preparation and Development

One of the areas of the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006 – 2020 is Educator Preparation and Development. This area is, in my opinion, more important than the others. Technology has influenced our society in a very huge way, particularly in the past couple of decades. The influence of technology can also be seen in our schools, though to a lesser extent.

We are at a critical juncture now, where the practices that have stood the test of time are being matched with cutting edge technologies. One of the main challenges that schools face in this area is providing adequate staff development. This is proving to be a difficult task due in large part to the varying degrees of support that teachers need. A campus wants to provide the staff with all of the training and support that they need but while a session on how to use Microsoft Word to create worksheets may cater to the needs of one group of teachers, that same session may bore a more technologically savvy group.

One trend that is highly visible in this area is the technology training that in included in educator preparation classes at the college level. As a huge number of “baby boomer” educators move into retirement state and federal guidelines such as the Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology are helping to ensure that the young educators taking their place are adequately trained and prepared to make the shift from traditional schooling to 21^st century education.

This change is apparent is nearly any campus across the state. Step into most classrooms and you will be greeted by one or more computers, smart boards, digital projectors, powerpoint presentations, teacher created websites, etc…

While we are on the right track I feel that so much more must be done to ensure that the students who attend these campuses are getting a well-rounded education with a strong technology understanding. Schools need to devote more time and resources to ensure that they are keeping up to date on the latest trends and keep up with the latest technology. Schools also need to take the time to ensure that the technology that they have on campus is being put to the very best use possible. Much of this boils down to training teachers on the capabilities of the available technology on a given campus. This training cannot be general but needs to be, instead, individualized to the extent possible to ensure that the individual teacher’s needs are met. The 21^st century job market demands that those who enter it have at the very least a basic understanding of how to use technology and we owe it to our students, and the society we serve, to ensure that this happens.