Week 2 Web Conference

The Web Conference is a very good tool to see other students faces, exchange opinions and ask questions related to the program. I am glad this resource is available for us. There is no doubt that being in this program adds a considerable amount of stress to our lives but the sensation of comfort because of one more week of learning and assignments completed is ten thousand times bigger.   The program is as good as I expected or even more and I feel myself completely different and more prepared for going to teach my students every day. I can not imagine how it will be at the end of the program. Assignments have been interesting, challenging  and a constructive source of learning.  The internship is something that I am exited about and I want to complete all the forms and steps required to start it as soon as possible. I look forward for the next week assignments as well as I expect to get to the end of the class this December with a satisfactory grade.

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National Educational Technology Plan

The plan begins reflecting about the importance of education for the future economic growth and prosperity of the United States of America and also affirms what are the goals for raising college graduated students proportion from 39% to 60% and reducing the gap of achievement for all students. The objective of the plan as its name establish is to transform United States Education system and for this purpose it is required to generate new ideas, implement them, evaluate the results and generate a continuous improvement cycle. One of the ideas this plan proposes is the implementation model of the 21 century learner powered by technology. This means to implement new technologies to ensure learned centered instruction adapted to create engaging, personalized experiences for all learners. The plan also gets in deep regarding the analysis and establishment of the required domains and competencies required to become expert learners in order to adapt to a fast changing world. In this scenario, the plan calls teaching to shift to a model of connected teaching where technology is used to help teachers built their new skills trough continuous training and professional development. As instance, providing educators with 24/7 access to data, analysis tools and resources are basic elements of this plan. Connecting teachers is also important to replace isolation with connection to resources that provide options for all learners at all levels. Also, the plan emphasizes the urgency of acting now and calls for the leadership, collaboration and investment at all levels of the education system. The future is here and there is a extremely changing and challenging world and action is required now.

US Department of education, Office of Education Technology. (2005). Transforming American Education: Powered by Technology. Retrieved from http:/www.ed.gov/sites/default/files/NETP-2010-final-report.pdf

School or District Technology Plan

Pasadena ISD has established a technology plan for the next years named “District Technology Plan 2007 – 2010” . This plan establishes goals, and the strategies to accomplish these goals. Goals are very clear and based on an analysis of needs and resources available at the moment when the plan was implemented. It is important to mention that the plan also considers how to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the plan as well as the results and changes required to keep the plan on the right path. Goals and strategies are as following: 1) Students performance will improve annually. Technology use integrated with the core curriculum will help to engage students and increase achievement. 2) Socio-economic status, ethnicity, and gender participation and performances differences among students will be eliminated. In this goal technology is used analyse available information  to detect students special needs and to provide them with the appropriated support. 3) Ensure students success in the academic and business world. So, students need to be exposed to real wold situations with the support of technology. 4) Students will annually demonstrate improved responsibility, citizenship, and value for human worth and dignity. For this goal, leadership from administrators, teachers and staff is strongly promoted.  5) The professional development program will provide ongoing, sustained professional development for all teachers, principals, administrators, and school library media personnel. Technology will align staff development with curriculum, instructional strategies and assessment. 6) Quality, real time information and data will be used in management, intervention, evaluation and assessment. Technology will be used to increase data analysis based decisions. 7) Required technology service will be implemented and maintained. Implement local are and wide area network are critical to achieve this goal.

One of the things I like about the Pasadena ISD plan is that effectiveness of technology implementation will be evaluated upon students' academic achievement and by how students show they are well prepared for the academic and business world. This means data disaggregation tools will be used to make data analysis based decisions. TAKS tests scores as well as other socio-economic indicators like High School Drop Out rates and the percentage of Pasadena population getting to the level of college will be used to evaluated the results.

Regarding the resources required and the availability of them, the plan has been designed calculating the resources required to implement it is goal and its strategies.

District technology plan 2007-2010. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://pasadena.tx.schoolwebpages.com/education/page/download.php?fileinfo=RGlzdHJpY3RUZWNobm9sb2d5TWFzdGVyLnBkZjo6Oi93d3cxMC9zY2hvb2xzL3R4L3Bhc2FkZW5hL2ltYWdlcy9hdHRhY2gvNjc2MDYvMzQwNTlfNjc2MDZfYXR0YWNoXzExOTUucGRm  

Week One Web Conference

I have a great experience meeting all of you during our first week one web conference. It was really exiting to me to have my first virtual classroom conference and see the faces of many of the people that will be having the same educational experience than me during the next 18 months. I think LAMAR has a great program and see ahead to make this the best learning experience possible. The course content is challenging as well as the fact of taking this classes online. I am ready to face the challenge.
 Good luck to everyone and lets do our best.

Teachers' or Students' Knowledge and Technology Assessment

Regarding the implementation of technology in the classroom a question that is important to address is if school districts should give priority to apply resources to access teachers’ technology leadership knowledge and skills or, students’ technology knowledge and skills?  Personally, as a teacher, I do believe it is more important to access teachers’ and students’ knowledge and skills both at the same time and use the same technology to evaluate students’ achievement. Why?  First we need to understand that technology implementation is not optional. “What do students really need to be learning today in order to be ready for an unpredictable future?” (Warlick, 2008) Also, “Dramatic changes in information do not mean that we must change our definition of literacy, but they do point to an expanded notion of what those skills are”  (Warlick D. , 2007); the concept of literacy related skills should change to include the additional skills required for this new era. This means technology needs to be implemented in the classroom.  Second, teachers’ require technology knowledge and skills to have the leadership required to lead students in their own learning of technological tools and new era skills acquisition. Third, students have their own expectation regarding technology.   We have students surrounded by televisions, video games, computers, cell phones and we can not expect them to continue learning the same way we learn decades ago. Students need to become problem solvers and critical thinkers. Finally, according with my experience, technology assessments are beneficial because of its fast implementation and analysis; also they provide students the opportunity to master technology skills. For instance, my students take Accelerated Reading test to improve reading comprehension skills but at the same time the master computer use skills like using the mouse, keyboarding and operative system skills. The test is quick and I get results that help me to personalize instruction according with the student needs. Personally, I do  not see any disadvantages of this technology assessments.

Warlick, D. (2007). Literacy in the New Information Landscape. Library Media Connection , 20 - 21.

Warlick, S. A. (2008). The new literacy The 3Rs evolve into the 4Es. Technology & Learning , 20 - 28.