Blog #2

Good Grief! This is an endless document that only a governmental entity would come up with and think it could actually do some good. Filled with legalese and endless add-ons, as best I could tell, The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology is broken down into several areas, the first of which is legislative mandates for technology in Texas. There are two interim reports on TIP (Texas Immersion Pilot) and Texas Virtual School Network. These reports include all the data gathered from these reports. Other areas of the report represent sections highlighting progress made in each of the following categories: Teaching and Learning; Leadership, Administration and Instructional Support; Education Preparation and Development; Infrastructure for Technology. This endless tome also includes data from the Texas STaR Chart for Students as well as the ever popular Texas STaR Chart for Teachers. The conclusion of this report is a summary of the recommendations for all of the state’s regional education centers. It emphasizes that these same educational service centers are vital in disseminating the vast amounts of information from the state to the many local school districts that they serve. The results from the NetDay Speak Up 2007 survey are also included in this report. It is represented in the report by student voices for different grade level ranges. One should take note that for every grade level, students responded that technology was a very important part of their life and how they function at home, at school, and in the world at large. Parents were included in this survey and felt that they, too, had better communication with their children and with teachers and schools because of technology. Happily, only 10% of teachers considered themselves to be beginners in technology, while 59% of educators felt that their computer skills were average.