This week in my Masters class I gained much needed insight and learning regarding Instructional Leadership and Digital-Age Teaching and Learning. I am now familiar with Texas Long-Range Plan for Technology, The Technology Application TEKS, and their four domains. Before I was able to fully understand technology in public education and what it takes to be an administrator (who will provide adequate support and knowledge regarding technology) I had to complete two technology assessments in order to assess my own weaknesses and strengths in this information age.
The first assessment I completed was the Technology Applications Inventory. This is a self-assessment of requisite knowledge required for implementation of the Technology Applications TEKS. By completing this assessment I assessed my knowledge and skills in the four strands: Foundations, Information Acquisition, Solving Problems, and Communication. Before I began the assessment, I believed that I would perform greatly, after all I am only 28...how out of touch could I really be with technology? HA! That was a long shot. I wasn't terrible, but I wasn't what I would consider technological savy either. I fared better in some domains than others. Seems like Foundations and Solving Problems seemed to be the areas where I need the most work. However, after analyzing my responses to the assessment, that I still don't understand how "exactly" the Internet works today....all I know is it works! I attribute this to my personality and social spirit. Figuring out how and why something like the Internet worked, was trivial and boring to me. I knew I wasn't ever going to be a computer technician so therefore, I didn't ever take the time to learn. Acquiring information the second domain, that was a breeze. I acquire information and apply it daily on my campus. I am the Reading Recovery Teacher and recently this year we implemented a new Accelerated Reader program....guess who was in charge of setting the whole thing up and "acquiring all the info?" I feel pretty confident and secure in my knowledge of acquiring information. Domain three seemed to be another area where I was weak and could use improvement. However, this one is more specific than Foundations, in Domain Three Solving Problems I struggle with anything that has to do with Excel and spreadsheets. I have no excuse, I learned this in school and from what I understand it is so easy I could easily re-learn it...which I am going to! Of course in the communication domain, I fared really well. I absolutely love to email and communicate through technology.
The second assessment was The State Educational Technology Directors Association Building Survey. Honestly, this survey was not nearly as informational or comparable to the first. I wasn't able to come away knowing what I needed to improve upon, or what specifically the assessment was measuring like the Technology Applications Assessment. I believe my campus and district is very technological advanced and we strive to put technology first and foremost within our classrooms and learning environments. But, after I completed the assessment I don't feel that my district/campus or any other surrounding districts in Central Texas measure up. My district/campus uses technology in the Math and Science classrooms daily, but not as much in the Reading/ELA classes, which is something we need to work on. We also need to apparently according to the assessment collect data to determine whether technology is impacting student achievement in one or more core content areas. I also believe that my particular campus could benefit from offering more substantial lessons and content for the Computer class which our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students attend at least twice a week. This would give us ample ways to improve our scores on this assessment.
After completing these assessments I now know what is in store for me and my students in the future. I have determined personal professional development goals for technology for the future. These goals will help me to increase the knowledge and skills for success in the information age.
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