The Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020 (2006) contains a plan for educator preparation and development. The challenge for teachers lies in being prepared to integrate technology that is not familiar to them. Teachers must continue to develop the technology skills through professional development opportunities and collaboration. The teacher education programs must train new teachers in the correct use of technology as well. Teachers, especially in critical shortage areas, should learn to provide distance learning courses so that all students will have an equal opportunity for these courses. The report provides recommendations for educator preparation and development.
In my opinion, teachers are not being pushed hard enough to adopt the use of technology in their classrooms. Our students deserve the best teachers with their best effort to teach students how to use these new tools for education. Too many teachers still believe that the students should be able to learn as they themselves learned in the classroom. Teachers still think that students should be able to sit and passively receive information from the teaching expert. On the other hand, I think that there are issues with the quality of professional development opportunities provided for teachers and educational leaders. By the time a workshop is developed, some of the technology is no longer current. In addition, some teachers will become comfortable with a software program and its implementation in their classroom and then they will not want to use a different product. The work for teachers who use technology does not end because there is always some new product to improve learning. Veteran teachers have been accustomed to developing a curriculum based upon a textbook. The curriculum would not have to be changed until a new textbook is adopted. The textbook adoption process takes years so these teachers did not have to really “work” on how to best present the content of their courses except in ten-year intervals. New teachers who have grown up with technology will also have to be taught how to use these tools appropriately. They will need to change their mindset from abbreviations and text shorthand to suitable and correct adult language. But most of all, teachers will have to learn to depend upon each other to share technology strategies so that our students will get the very finest education possible.
References
Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020. (November 2006). Retrieved from http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=5082&menu_id=2147483665.
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