Week 2 Assignment, Part 4: Creating and Posting a Slide Presentation

Presentation-erate

Blog Posting #3 – National Educational Technology Plan

Compose a 250-word executive summary and reflection of the Plan. In your summary include the goals and what the plan says with respect to teaching and learning as well as professional development and training. Reflect on any issues or concerns you noticed in the Plan.

The National Educational Technology Plan has set goals and recommendations to empower learning with technology. These goals and recommendations are set in five areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity.

Learning:
Instruction should be engaging, relevant, and individualized to meet the needs of all the students. It should give students opportunities to become lifelong learners. Instruction should be available to students 24/7 and allow them to pursue their passions in their own way and at their own pace.

Assessment:
Learning assessment should be collected to evaluate the current technology and update the technology based on the needs of the learners. For this to be effective, data must be made available, educators and leaders must be provided tools and training to manage the assessment process, analyze relevant data, and take appropriate action.

Teaching:

Educators should have an access to technology 24/7 to individualize their instruction. Distance learning opportunities should be provided to educators to connect with other educators and provide them with learning tools and resources that make professional learning timely and appropriate as well as an ongoing activity that continually improves practice and evolves their skills over time.  Online learning options should be provided to enable best teaching practices and making high-quality course options available to all learners. Educators should be provided high quality online professional development and they compelled to integrate technology into all content areas not as separate curriculum.

Infrastructure:
Support student should be in place to provide students, educators with 24/7 access to the resources they need. Development and use of open educational resources should be promoted to creative opportunities for all learners and accelerate the development and adoption of new open technology-based learning tools and courses. The value of open educational resources is now recognized around the Building this infrastructure is a far-reaching project that demands rigorous and synchronized effort.

Productivity:
Technology is available to use but specific measures should be taken to ensure that technology is used in the in all content areas. Data should be collected and analyzed on how and when technology to improve outcomes and the productivity of our education system. To increase productivity, we must reformat and change our educational system at all levels to take benefits of the power of technology, to improve educational outcomes, and create a more efficient use of time, money, and staff.

Blog Posting #2 – School or District Technology Plan

Compose a 250-word summary/reflection of your school’s or district’s technology plan. Identify the goals included in the plan and the accompanying strategies. What professional development opportunities are available, who is in charge of coordinating the professional development opportunities and are there the financial and time resources to ensure staff is kept up to date in learning about new technologies. How are the telecommunication services, hardware, software and other services assessed to ensure improved student learning.  Is there sufficient budget to acquire and support the non-discount element of the plan?

In this information age, the ability to gather and distribute information through electronic communication is vital. Therefore vision of L. A. Morgan, School of Science & Engineering is to help students become comfortable and proficient in using technology. The school’s plan is flexible and dynamic and is constantly updated due to changing developments in technology.

Below is the summary of technology plan for Morgan Elementary-

·        Technology is not an independent curriculum area and should be integrated into current curriculum

·        Teachers are assessed on the basis of technology tools for expanding learning opportunities for students

·        Teachers are offered training opportunities to realize the potential that technology holds for enhancing student learning. Staff development opportunities to assist each staff member to become fully competent with technology utilization for learning

·        Making sure significant funding is available to accomplish our vision

·        Providing support framework to monitor the progress of students and teacher

 Professional development opportunities are offered at Morgan every Thursday, from 3:30-4:30PM throughout the year. Professional development is designed for teachers to learn and become more effective with additional technology resources. The trainings are focused on usage of computer equipment, necessary software, computer maintenance related upgrades to handle simultaneous uses. Teachers are given opportunities to attend technology conferences like sxswedu, TCEA, ISTE, Technology for tots to stay current with advances and to replace and upgrade technology on an ongoing basis.

 The school has an on-campus technology specialist who designs and offers the professional development based on the needs of students and teachers. Morgan received a magnet grant from MSA (Magnet Schools of America), the grant provides financial resources to buy new and updated technology.

 The evaluation process that enables our school to monitor the progress and make mid-course corrections in response to new developments are-

• Assessing the ways of communication: Ways the students are expressing themselves, are they using multiple ways such as audio, video, animation, and design software to complete assignments independently.
• Data interpretation: Are students able to compare, and choose among the data available Web-based and other electronic formats.
• Manage and Prioritize Tasks: Are students able to manage the selection, and prioritizing across technology applications that allow them to move fluidly among assignments.
• Security and Safety: Are students using strategies to acknowledge, identify, and negotiate 21^st century risks.

Week 2 Assignment, Part 3: Blog Posts

     Compose a 250-word opinion piece on the value of assessing educators’ technology leadership knowledge and skills as well as assessing the knowledge and skill of student technology skill levels and their perceived needs? What are the pros and cons of technology assessment? The opinion piece should include supporting details and/or examples.

In today’s world, technology is changing and improving so rapidly that it is not only important to monitors students’ progress but also evaluate teacher’s knowledge of technological skills. If the teachers lack ability to teach students and utilize technology in the classroom, the students will never be successful and the results will be frightening. As teachers are held accountable for skills such as classroom management and knowledge of curriculum, they must be held accountable for their technology skills. Teachers should be offered professional development opportunities to update knowledge, skills, and understanding of related technology. Students’ knowledge of technology should also be monitored on routine basis. The students should be able to apply the knowledge they are receiving to accomplish projects independently. The assessment of technology should further guide the instruction to meet the needs of all students.

The pros of technology assessment are that it will help the teachers and leaders to evaluate the needs of the campus. Based on the campus needs, professional development opportunities can be offered to encourage campus leaders to incorporate technology in their content area. Thus leading to classrooms that tend to run more smoothly, and more student centered. Technology proficient classrooms will in turn, help districts to make great strides in the area of technology and thus preparing the students to be lifelong learners.

The cons of technology assessment are that it requires a high level of investment, both in technology and in staff training. Lack of funding to implement the needs of the assessment can lead to detrimental results. Also the lack of support to monitor the implementation of technology can lead to loss of cost, time and effort. Although it may require funding to implement technology, I believe that the pros of assessment far outweigh the cons.

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