Texas Long Range Plans for Technology & Me

This section of the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology gives practical and important information regarding the need to provide students with teachers and leaders who can give them the technology training they need. I agree that teachers must be trained appropriately and adequately and, also, continuously. I also agree that there’s an urgency in this regard. My campus is sorely behind in training teachers and integrating technology into our curriculum. When I started working there two years ago, the school owned two data projectors—and they were stored in a closet unopened! No one knew or cared about using them. And another funny (sad!) thing is how they acquired them…the P.E. teacher told me that she was instructed to choose a health text, and when she had narrowed her decision to two, she asked each sales rep what perk they would throw in—one of them said he’d give us two projectors. So there you have it. Thankfully, those projectors are now being used by two of our science/social studies teachers on a daily basis.

The recommendations to LEA’s are sound. The first three address the issue of educator training. This is really key to the success of any technology initiative. My district offers little professional development. We are a poor district and our lack of tools, perhaps, makes training seem a little useless. I don’t see evidence or hear talk of the development of strategies to help school personnel master the technology standards. I am rather new to the district, and I need to learn more about what’s going on—maybe I’m just missing something (?). Likewise, I don’t see any documentation going on as to any progress teachers may be making toward this mastery. To my principal’s credit, I am always allowed to attend training that I find to help me learn what I need to know. I am given a minimal amount of money toward this and end up using mostly my own money, as I will when I attend the Texas Library Association Conference next week in Houston. My campus does not have a technology coach or mentor of any kind. When I have a question, I go to a young man who teaches on our campus and is pretty patient with my questions. Besides him, I can only think of two other teachers who are interested in using technology effectively in their teaching.

We have a long way to go, and the challenge of documents like the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology and the Texas Star Chart will surely help us understand the vision, the process, and the assessments necessary to reach the goals set in our technology standards.

Simulations Software

My son-in-law left for Iraq on Valentine’s Day. When I read this chapter, I couldn’t help but think of him as I read about simulations. As a navigator in the Air Force (who also has a pilot’s license), he surely experienced many flying simulations in the course of his education. Without these, he would not have been able to learn his skills in as safe and realistic of an environment.
Simulations are computerized models of a real or imagined system that is designed to teach how the system works. Simulations can teach about something such as how electrical circuits operate, or they can teach how to do something, as in the case of navigating an airplane. When using this type of software, learners interact with the simulation, and it reacts to them.

Simulations are often used in science and social studies. In Science students can experience the conditions and appearance of a chemistry lab or can dissect a virtual animal. In social studies, students can interact with decision-making processes for another civilization and then watch to see the results of their decisions.

A beauty of simulations is that they can make the impossible possible. When a teacher cannot provide the real situation, they can turn to simulation software to enable students to learn in a next-best way. Simulations also give the benefit of providing certain learning at a fraction of the cost and capturing students’ attention by getting them involved in their lessons.

Simulations are an amazing facet of educational technology!

Desktop Publishing Software--My Friend

When I need to make a quick invitation for a reward party in the library or when I want to inform parents of what is going on in our K-Kids organization, I turn to MicrosoftPublisher. Since it is readily available on my school or home computer, I always have quick access to this valuable publishing resource.

Desktop publishing software is a useful tool that enables students and educators to create professional-looking printed or electronic pages. It allows users to mix text and graphics on each page and can be mastered easily with a little practice.

With it teachers can make flyers, reports newsletters, brochures, and student handouts. It is also useful to students who can use it to create cards and letters to give to parents, produce attractive hard-copy additions to group projects, write up a field trip report, and make banners and homework calendars.

Instructional benefits include increase in motivation and task engagement. When students publish their own work, their self-esteem is enhanced as well as their writing skills. It also lends itself well to small group collaboration projects.

One popular example of a desktop publishing project used in social studies is to have students create travel brochures describing a region. This type project that results in their work being published is popular with students.

Examples of desktop publishing software packages include the already mentioned Microsoft Publisher, as well as Adobe Pagemaker and InDesign, and Quark Xpress.