EDUCATOR PREPARATION & DEVELOPMENT
The area of Educator Preparation & Development is one of the most important areas of the Long Range Plan for technology. The goal of the plan is to have educators aware of the new world that they are sending todays students into. They must not only be aware of it, but they must also be able to help students be able to function in the world.
For this to be accomplished educators must also know what is expected and what needs to be learned themselves. They need to know how to implement the most current and everchanging technology into their classrooms and instruction. On a national level, state, and local level, funding is one of the biggest barriers that education will face. There are allotments set for these purposes, but will they be enough. Each of them are encouraging educators to take online trainings, to explore for themselves at times and not be a stagnate educator. Be willing to find upcoming trainings that are offered through correspondence and allow students to do the same. They want teachers to make their classrooms a virtual space and not limit them to a paper and pencil world. At a state level, Texas has their own technology plan, as well at our local level. Texas gives specific tasks that need to be accomplished to meet NCLB standards and then they pass on these standards into their local districts. Texas has also passed these into their new and upcoming educators and incorporated them into a requirement for the TExES for Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities. This requirement shows the importance of the technology and by doing this they are bringing in teachers to districts that can help the educators that are already there, to be more informed. I believe that this is a road block that districts face. Many of the experienced educators that have been teaching for quite some time are reluctant to incorporate the technology for fear of not doing it correctly. Their knowledge of the technology is minimal and they have not found a need yet in their subject. Many of them have the "if its not broke, don't fix it" mentality. But they have failed to see what their students are facing in the future.
This is the reason that I have chosen this area to discuss. I feel as though, it is not that ecuators do not want to use the technology, but it is that they do not know it and without proper training they never will. Educators need to be trained, and then checked up on to see how they are using and doing with the technology. Educators want to know how to incorporate the technology into their classroom, not just told that they can adapt it to any curriculum. We are just like our students, we want to see the importance.
