My thoughts on the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020

Educator Preparation and Development is the area that I am most interested in improving on my campus. This is where my school, Manvel High School has scored the lowest on our state Star chart. We have scored a 2 or lower on all areas of professional development on this chart for the past 3 years. From this data it is quite obvious that teachers feel they are not getting the time or information they need in regards to professional development in technology. According to the plan 55% of Texas teachers rate their technology skills as average, in schools where tools aren’t the problem people seem to be. This is a bit ironic since we are striving in Texas to provide new equipment in order to fit the Long Range's plan for school Infrastructure, yet we are falling behind year by year in training our educational leaders. The results of correct and useful training are obvious as evidenced in Eric Jones article titled How to put Instructions Ahead of Technology. In his article he states a positive result of quality educator training, “The increased use of technology has helped ignite excitement in teaching and learning while building students’ critical-thinking and problem-solving skills."  After speaking with our technology leader on campus I understand that there is little funding for staff technology development.  Even less available is the time needed to allocate for training. So what can we do when the current plan is obviously not working?   I am hoping to propose a monthly technology skill workshop.  This would be incredibly informal, most likely including a snack potluck.  Teachers would come in like an open house into my computer lab and learn a useful techno based teaching tool each month.  An example may be how to start your own class blog or how to make your curriculum interactive.  With any luck this could start to level the playing field and give educators on my campus the skills they want and need. Would you come? Why? Why not?