Leadership, Administration, and Instructional Support of the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology

One of the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology is Leadership, Administration, and Instructional Support. In this area, the plan urges administration and other educational leaders to open the doors for technology so that students will be fully prepared to take on the changes of the 21st century. It also places a direction toward everything being online instead of being stuck on paper. I do see much progress in this area. There has been more technology classes offered for educators in expanding classes such as multimedia or web mastering. Students are encouraged to take more of these courses because the world is coming to a paperless, technology driven world (more than it is now). There also has been more technology training within my school district due to new products being purchased for use in the classroom, such as the SmartBoard. Our district is also giving parents access to student grades via the internet. This allows for more collaboration between the school and home. I could see more trends like this where parents can see more of their child’s progress in the classroom. Having teacher websites with current projects and updates on classroom activities is also a growing trend. As far as recommendations for improvement, I believe that administrators should coordinate with teachers of varying grade levels as far as getting the latest technology to put in the classroom. I also believe that the state should require keyboarding and other novice technology classes to be taken earlier in the educational careers, such as middle school. We need to work on these skills earlier to prepare for the future.