Blog Posting #1:Texas Long Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020: Teaching and Learning; Educator Preparation and Development; Leadership, Administrati

Leadership, Administration, and Instructional Support:

Leadership, Administration, and Instructional Support could be summed up as a campus leadership team providing all the necessary support needed to both students and staff in regards to technology. Support such as providing on-going professional development to the staff to make certain that the staff is continuously kept up to date with our changing world of technology. Strong Leadership, Administration, and Instructional Support will include developing a technology plan that supports the needs of the 21st century learner, create environments to enhance technological growth, offer various opportunities for students to use and learn from technology, i.e. distance learning, collaboration among students in other schools and eve other countries, incorporate technology into staff development, use data when making decision regarding the plan, and provide continuous professional development for staff to maintain a level of knowledge with all the changes that occurs with technology.
At my campus, we have a very technology savvy leadership team. Having this kind of leadership team gives us an advantage in that whenever there is a change or something new to learn regarding technology, they are excited about introducing the concept to the rest of the staff. Our leadership team ensures that they provide as many professional development needed to make certain that we are knowledgeable in technology and how to apply it in our classroom to provide our students with as many learning opportunities as possible regarding technology. Notable trends in this area will always remain that we love technology, specially our kids, so why not use this love to our advantage and apply it to our everyday instruction? We know that kids love the latest “new toy” out whether it is a smart phone, an iPad, kindle, mp3 players, etc. We could really build on that, specially knowing that as we follow trends in our technology world, it is always going to include some type of technology for advancement.
The one recommendation that I would suggest is to expose kids to technology as early on as possible. We should not wait until they have reached middle school or high school to expect them to be technology savvy if they haven’t had the proper exposure starting in elementary. An example would be that we could start using blogs for our elementary students instead of their traditional journal writing.