The State of Technology in Texas 2010

The Texas Education Agency's Progress Report on the Long-Range Plan for Technology suggests that, as of 2010, students in Texas are making substantial progress in toward the goals set by the State Board of Education. Three grant programs have been especially beneficial in making the students in Texas more "technological."

The Technology Immersion Pilot, of TIP, provided selected schools with laptops for every student, staff development for the teachers, tech support, and online summative and formative assessments to monitor progress. The TIP program had positive results. In 2009, middle school students in Texas had closed the achievement gap with the national average to less than 2% on technology application assessments. What makes this program stand out and actually work, is the provision for staff development for the teachers in the selected schools. While providing all students with laptops is an excellent move, it is imperative to teach the "digital immigtants" how to integrate the technology into daily lessons and projects.

Vision 2020 grants also provided schools with laptops for each student, and teacher, but also focused on the utilization of Web 2.0 tools, such as podcasts, to inhance instruction. I was fortunate to work at a Vision 2020 school in which we created 10 podcasts per year and attached them to our blog, located on the school district website. The problem is that we did not know why we were doing this - it was not explained sufficiently. Many teachers, especially the older individuals, became frustrated, and in isolated cases angry, because no one understood the goal and barely understood the possible benefits. Having read the progress report, it all makes sense to me now. I very much wish I had access to the to the podcasts I created.

Embedded within the Vision 2020 was the creation of the Virtual School Pilot, which allowed students to take online TEK-aligned classes for credit, and allowed Texas teachers to collaborate and submit course content for the virtual school program. Dual credit courses, among other offerings, could be taken by students of participating school districts. It is my goal to access the TxVSN to hopefully integrate some of that material into the courses I teach.

Progress in Texas is obviously being made. However, there is one fundamental problem: many teachers, like me, do not know enough to reach the Advanced tech level. I need more staff development to be able to use Web 2.0 tools to make my classes more in line with Long-Range Plan. I also need staff development to help me align this "new" way of teaching with the TEKS that are in place currently.