EDLD 5352 Week 2 Post #2

As I read the report by the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology and their report card released in 2008, I cannot help but wonder if my school is truly aligned on the right track. Our schools fill out the STaR Chart surveys as we are expected but there is no accountability on those charts. There is no way to determine if the teacher is being honest of true when filling the STaR Chart out as it is not carried with the educator everyday to evaluate the use of technology within the classroom. A best you are dealing with a estimated projection of how we "feel" we are doing in the field of technology. A field that is so rapidly changing that what is released yesterday is far obsolete by the time I finish this post. How can we ever hope to compete in this world with variables of change so high. Everyday we are faced with the impossible in the classroom and are expected to make do, struggle on and find results where others have given up. This battle reflects those. Our answer cannot simply be to throw up our hands and do nothing as time and technology progression without us. Investing in this form of human capital is so directly correlated with our future and our potential for growth in this country that surrender cannot be the answer. A suggestion that I have after reading this report is to incorporate the most important stakeholder into the fray. Bring the student on stage to help us the educator introduce technology. Most often students are more familiar with technology then we as educators will ever be so why not use that to our advantage. Through this mentality I have been able to bring new ideas in to the classroom such as prezi presentations and xtranormal films. These were all done with the help of students who want to be taught how to properly use these tools successfully not just what to do with them. These progress reports are valuable information but we must change the culture of the classroom if we want them to give us meaningful data.