Too Many Plans!

While reading all the different technology plans at the school, district, state, and national level (lions, tigers, bears, o my!) I really started to think about what I wanted and what the “world” wants.  At first, it was a very daunting task with too many words to even comprehend.  After I found my groove of scanning for key words and then copying/paste into a document so I could highlight, I felt better.  I might be a wordy blogger, but words can be scary.  To start at the top, the national plan had key phrases that stood out to me like “for all content areas,” “to reach all learners anytime and anywhere,” and “provide more options for all learners at all levels.”  It is important to keep the learner in the forefront of the plan and not to lose them within the cool new toy obsessions.  The end goal is to help the learner no matter how that occurs (besides bodily harm of course).  When reading the state technology plan, I felt it was very similar to the national plan.  They both had similar themes, but the word choices made them different.  One thing that stood out to me with the state plan was the goal that focuses on teacher proficiency with technology.  How is the learner supposed to improve by using technology incorporated into the standards if the teachers do not know how to turn on their computer?  Teacher proficiency plays a huge role in the integration of technology.  I know certain teachers that do not understand how to delete emails, so how are they going to survive if we do not get them up to par?  Sink and swim is not the right mentality right now when education needs good teachers who just might not be tech savvy yet.  

I liked the breakdown of the national plan compared to the state/district plan.  The breakdown of learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity is very concise and accurate.  Everything seems to fit nicely into those categories.  It also helps lead my thinking into those categories instead of where it was, focused on the learner.  Technology plans cannot be too narrow where they only fit into the triangle hole.  Technology plans need to touch all aspects of education and school life so it can fit into multiple holes and cover all the possible bases. 

While looking at the district plan, it is obvious that it is narrower than the national and state plan.  The wording is very different from the other plans as well.  The district plan uses terms like “increase student engagement,” which was not as prominent in the state or national plans.  I know that all of the plans mentioned something similar to this, but it only really stuck out to me in the district plan: Increase cyber citizenship awareness for students and staff when using the Internet.  Being in the 8th grade and teaching Science, I have never really encountered anyone who talks about this issue.  I am making a huge inference when saying I assume that this is tackled at the elementary level or in the computer Connections class the students take.  However, I am sure that this standard cannot be over taught/stressed.  It should play a more prominent apart of any class that does anything on the Internet.  My classes have to sign a plagiarism contract going, which covers basic Internet rules and regulations.  However, I am sure my students could use more of a reminder and discussion every time we use a computer. 

 

The different technology plans, ranging from the National level to the district level, has helped me identify what is important to me and what is important to the experts. I find it important for technology to be used by a staff of teachers who are knowledgeable and properly trained.  If the work force is not trained, then they will not properly do the job that is expected of them.  Teachers are being told to be highly qualified in content subjects so they can effectively teach, so why can they not be expected to be highly qualified in technology?  A magic wand cannot be waved and everyone knows what they are doing.  It will take dedication, hard work, and support from both the teachers and the administration to create a technology heavy environment.  Another important factor for technology in education is using the technology available and not dreaming of the technology of the future.  Wasting time training and planning for technology that the school MIGHT find money for is not an effective use of time.  Training and planning for what IS available and in the building is a more effective use of time and resources.  You do not need every piece of technology out there when you do not use what you currently have.  It works the same for kids at Christmas time…they see all the new toys on TV, but they do not play with the toys they currently have!!!  We are in a budget crisis, so no more new toys! Fix the old ones and pretend they are new.