Teaching With Technology

Teaching with Technology:
Web Conference Week 1 Reflection:

I always enjoy attending the web conferences. They are informative and give me the information that is needed to complete the weekly assignments. The conferences also allow me the knowledge needed to complete other assignments as well. This web conference we disscussed making our groups for the project that we are required to complete throughout this course. Our group was able to gain another group member, which we were grateful to have join us. We were still able to continue with all but one members of our group from our last class and that member does not have this class with us. We also were able to discuss the issues that everyone has been having with the blackboard program. The disscussion board was not working for some reason, so we are not being required to complete the discussion in Week 1. Some people have also had difficulty submitting assignments. All in all the conference was of great benefit to my weekly assignment.


Assignment Week 1 Part 1:

I totally agree with the statement in “Learning as a Personal Event”, (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, (1999). Learning as a personal event: A brief introduction to constructivism. Retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/tec26/intro2c.html) “Every learner has experiences that influence his or her understanding of the world. Those unique experiences are the foundation for learning; they provide opportunities for personal connections with new content.” All learners contribute to their own education as well as the education of others in many ways. Students as well as educators learn throughout their education careers through each other. Educators can learn just as the students.

Because many new technologies are interactive (Greenfield and Cocking, 1996), it is now easier to create environments in which students can learn by doing, receive feedback, and continually refine their understanding and build new knowledge (Barron et al., 1998; Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1993; Hmelo and Williams, 1998; Kafai, 1995; Schwartz et al., 1999). (Citation: Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school (Expanded edition). Ch. 9, pp. 194-218. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Retrieved from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9853&page=206). Teachers set the pace of the education that is going to be exposed to the students in the classroom as well as all over the campus. Educators even make impressions on students when they see them outside of the campus. All of which can be an educational experience. When using technology most educators are technical immigrants, while students are natives. The use of technology in the classroom will only enhance the educational value of the students and their experiences will grow. The students not only will be able to learn what is in the area around them but they will have access to the whole wide world in which they live. I think that this is an important value of technology being in the schools today.

My Background:
I am from Vidor, Texas and I work in the Vidor Independent School District. I am currently at Vidor High School Campus in the PACE lab, which is credit recovery. I have been in this position for approx. 1 year. In the past I taught in Life Skills at one of the Elementary Campuses. I have been working in the Special Education Department for 8 years. My technology experience is slim. I have learned it mostly on my own with a few classes that I took while working towards my bachelar degree. I received my associates degree in Child Care and Development from Lamar Technology in 1991. I received my bachelar degree in Applied Arts and Sciences from Lamar University in 2008. I went through Texas Teachers to complete my teaching certification. I am now currently attending Lamar University to receive my Masters Degree in Educational Technology Leadership.

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Audiocity and Creative Commons:

Audiocity is a new program for me to explore.  I wish I had been made aware of this program a long time ago.  I can see how it can help an educator with the lessons that are being presented.    Audiocity being free software makes it even that much better of a program.  With Audiocity you can record music and voices as well as editing them.    It is easy to download, and I have already done so and have explored audiocity a bit.

Creative Commons is somewhat new to me as well.  I knew about the copyright laws and was aware that some of the laws were different when it came to the internet, but however I was not sure what the difference was.  This has helped me learn more about the copyright laws and made me more conscious of what I am able to do or not to do with my students.  Creative Commons allows anyone to protect their own work so that they are able to easily have rights to it.  This is easy to use and I will be using this program throughout this program along with the things I will be doing in the classroom.

Web Conferences Reflections and Thought of how it helped me.

First of all I am thankful that we have the web conferences available to us on a weekly basis. With the help of Dr. Abernathy and the other students in the class, I would have had more difficult with this class than without them.

The ideas of other classmates were of great assistance to me and when they had questions that were asked, most of the time, they are questions that I had as well. The recording of the web conferences was also a great help. My computer went down during the duration of the class. So I was unable to attend the way that I would have liked to attend. Therefore, I would make sure that I would go and listen to the recorded conferences as I could get access to computer and the internet.


Dr. Abernathy also went over the weekly reviews that were posted on the classware. She would willing answer any questions that we had for our assignments. She stated that "most were making the group project harder that we needed to". Which that statement helped my group termendously. We were trying to make our project harder that we needed to.

EDLD 5363 Week 5.9 Assignment

1.    Describe how you would implement the use of a video project with other teachers in professional development or with students in a PK-12 classroom.

Implementing the use of video projects is a wonderful idea to have.  There are many ways that they can be used in the classroom and with in-service and many other ways in the educational field. 

When using video projects with the students in the classroom, they get excited when they can successfully create their own production of a video.  It is great to have the capabilities to be able to teach the students how to achieve this satisfaction.  Another way to use videos in the class room is to use the videos to give them instructions on how to complete an assignment.  These short clips would allow them the access to be able to easily repeat what they are suppose to accomplish with the assignment that they are working on.   Educators can also use the videos to show the students information or experiences in larger groups.  Such as if they were having an assembly over drug awareness or cyber bullying, they could make videos using students around campus or others to be able to teach the student body about different subjects.

The use of video projects with educators can be fun and of great use.  The administrators can use the videos to inform the teachers and other staff of information that is needed to be known throughout the campus or district.  They can also have the educators use the videos to teach the students on a different level as I spoke of before.

I think that I will need to continue to work on the use of video projects so that I will have the ability to go through them with ease.  I was not the one in our group that completed the video, Lynlie was the person in our group that was the producer of the project so that was her position.  But however, I was able to contribute and help with the project in other ways, so I have that portion of the project down, and will have to play around to feel more confident with the editing and development of the video projects. 

The new information that I was able to learn about the project will help me in the future when working with video projects all around.  The way to incorporate audacity with windows movie maker was a difficult task, but with the help of my group and others in the class, I was able to achieve that assignment correctly and felt successful with my accomplishments.  Before this class, I had not even heard of audacity, so therefore I had no idea what to do and it was like a different language to me, but know I am more comfortable.  Come to find out, some of my difficulties were not what or how I was completing my assignment but was my computer itself.  Once that was discovered, everything came much easier.

            I not only learned information about how to accomplish a video production but also from the interviews that I held with students.  I was surprised to hear the responses that I was given when speaking to students about cyber bullying.  Some of the information I would have never dreamed that they would either know or have experienced.  They have never mentioned this topic to me before so it was an eye opener.

I learn better with hands on, and I think that is why I agreed to complete the interviews with a camera and speak to the student’s one on one.  When I am trying to accomplish something new, I sometimes need to be walked through it the first time, and then I can get how it is to be done.  I can always just read and understand what is being expected of me.  Working with the colleagues was a great experience.  We worked fairly well together.  We did have some difficulties, such as computer issues, internet issues; one of the group had a scheduled vacation (which she completed all the research for the project before she left).  We corresponded by text, email, phone calls and Google docs.  We had some bumpy times but were able to work through the hard times.  This experience shows me that no matter how well you work or who you work with, you will have difficulties’ of some sort.  This will help me in my future works with other colleagues in the way of to expect the unexpected to happen when a certain task is trying to be accomplished.

One question that is of concern to me, is why doesn’t the school districts do more about cyber bulling?  I found out through the interviews of the students, that when a school steps into the situation, it is not always handled the proper way.  I think it might be that this is so new to everyone and we are technology immigrants, that we are not sure of how to handle these situations correctly as of yet.  I feel this could be researched more to learn more appropriate information to help with this subject.

2.     Reflect and report status upon your progress with your campus-supervised Internship activities and your action research project. How many hours have you completed? What competencies and performance indicators have you covered in this campus-based activity? What have you learned? How will you use this learning in the future?

What parts of your action research project have you completed? What has been successful? What would you do differently? Do you need to change some of your processes or steps to complete your research? What changes will you make if any? What steps are remaining to be completed? Is your work beneficial for your campus and in what ways is your work beneficial?

I have been currently working on my internship as well as my research project.  I have completed approximately 30 hours of internship at this time on my campus.  I have completed Standard I. Technology Operations and concepts.  I have also completed Standard IV. Assessment and Evaluation.  I am taking in much needed information from my mentor and advisors as well as my coworkers.  I have been able to experience different ways to communicate and share ideas with other educators as well as students.  This information will be of great benefit in my future as an educator.  Being able to show coworkers how to use electronic devices properly and be able to use the programs that are provided by the district to make their job easier, is rewarding.  I feel that I have learned as much from them as they have from me. 

At this current time it is summer so I am concentrating on my action research project more than my internship.  My action research project is coming along fairly well.  I feel that it is not all successful, due to me running into road blocks with the use of the devices that I would like to use with the students.  I am planning on making an appointment with an organization that might be able to help me purchase some devices that the students will be able to actually keep in their classrooms and have to use as they are needed.  I know of two students that are benefitting from iPads at this current time and they are being able to learn and relax more with the devices than they were before they had them.  I am finding out that I may have to use a few different devices and not only iPads for the project.  I know that the Kindle fire can be used by some of the students and the students will be successful with those devices as well as the iPad.  It will all depend on what the student needs to be successful to communicate and learn more appropriately.  The Kindle is also cheaper than the iPad; this is an aspect that will allow more students to have access to the electronic devices.  At this current time I am researching apps that will be of great use for the students that are on my campus and can benefit from the project.  I am also trying to get access to enough devices that will show true results for my project that I am trying to accomplish.  Therefore, I am not seeing any benefits at this time; I am hoping to start seeing benefits within a month of the school year starting when the students are able to have the use of the devices in a classroom setting.

Girl Scout Troop 6432

My Classroom of the future

            The classroom for the educators’ future would feature a wonderful world of technology.  There are many ways to look into the future especially when discussing education.  There are things that we have not even heard of yet that will appear in the educational environment in the future of our students.  It is amazing as to how much things have changed over the years, and seem to be changing at a higher rate as the years go by.  With education going towards the use of more technology daily, the educational environment of the future needs to include but not be limited an individually based plan for each student.  No two students learn the same way and at the same rate.  With the use of technology the educators will be able to have a large classroom of students with all of them having different educational paces, while learning the same information.      

            The future holds a tremendous amount of technology in the classroom.  A class without paper and clutter, because it is all electronic, the students having the capabilities to go on virtual field trips and work in groups even from home without having to leave their home.  When the student walks into the educational environment, they should feel a sense of security and have the want to be in school.  Technology is a way to help the students achieve this need.  The room will have tables in groups of four around the room so that the students can have to capabilities to work in groups if and when they are needed.  The tables are tall enough that if the student would like to stand they would have the opportunity to do so, and they would have stools in the chance that they would rather sit down or just lean on something while working.  The Educator will have a computer desk with a desktop PC, iPad, printer, scanner and a laptop.  The teacher will also be able to overtake and control the student devices to assist them in showing them what needs to be done and how to do it, if necessary.  The educator will also be able to send and receive messages to and from the students individually or in groups to keep them up to date and allow them assistance with assignments. (The technology classes at Vidor High are capable of this at the current time)

            Each group of tables will have one laptop computer and an iPad.  The students will also have the option to bring their own technology devices to school if they have them.  “The class, and the Kyrene School District as a whole, offer what some see as a utopian vision of education’s future. Classrooms are decked out with laptops, big interactive screens and software that drills students on every basic subject. Under a ballot initiative approved in 2005, the district has invested roughly $33 million in such technologies.” (The Classroom of the future, New York Times, Matt Richtel, Sept. 3, 2011)   Allowing the students to bring their own devices will allow the students the opportunity to be able to store all of their educational classes on their device and carry it to and from school.  The students having the chance to use their phones as educational devices will put a whole new spin on the view of phones in the school day.   “Mobile learning will revolutionize school as we know it, with interactive textbooks, videos, 3D animation, and illustrations at students’ fingertips, bringing concepts to life,” said Raymond Ward, Pearson vice-president for Texas (Classrooms of the future: New Digital Textbooks and other Mobile Technology to help prepare Texas students for College and Beyond, Chron.com, Feb. 16, 2012).  Around the room will be more pieces of technology for the students to experience.  Instead of chalk boards, the educational environment will have smart boards so the educator will be able to lector from her own computer as well as have the students interact with the lessons on the smart boards.  The room will have flat screens on every wall so that the students can watch videos, have web conferences with other educators as well as interact with students from around the world.    The room will have a pull down screen available for slide show presentations that are built by the students for projects that are necessary for their educational needs as well as other things that they could be used for.  “The classroom of the future would resemble a room in Second Life - a total virtual experience with avatars.==>with collaborations, vconferencing, sharing, wikis, and podcasts. An amazing environment - on the internet.” (Classroom of the future: Learning Trends, Jan. 17, 2008, Anonymous)

            Each group of tables will be connected to a printer, scanner and a fax that will be located along the back wall of the room.  These items will also help the students with their interaction with others around the world as well as around their own town or school.  The town would hopefully have a city wide wifi, so that the students can continue their educational needs at home and be able to work in study groups while at home.

With the advances that we face in our future are the way of the world and the way that our students of today will be living.  With this information it is vital that we are open minded enough to allow them to expand their way of thinking to be able to adapt to what they are facing in their future careers, whether it be as an educator or any other occupation.  Our schools are even being judged based on the ratio of students to computers.  “This ratio has been used to determine the ability of schools to provide “quality” education.” (Classroom of the future, Human-Computer Interaction Lab, University of Maryland)

References:

(Classrooms of the future: New Digital Textbooks and other Mobile Technology to help prepare Texas students for College and Beyond, Chron.com, Feb. 16, 2012)

(Classroom of the future, Human-Computer Interaction Lab, University of Maryland, copyright 2006)

(The Classroom of the future, New York Times, Matt Richtel, Sept. 3, 2011)   

(Classroom of the future: Learning Trends, Jan. 17, 2008, Anonymous)

(Vidor High School, technology plans and goals, vidorisd.org)

Research Project

Goal/Idea/Objective: How can the iPad benefit students with special needs?  Can the teachers incorporate the use of the iPad into the curriculum to help benefit the students with special needs?  Will the students be able to become more successful with the iPad, such as the students that are non-verbal?  Could this be correlated into the students home to allow them to become more successful?

Action Plan
Action Steps	Person Responsible	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Introduce some students to the iPads	Lori Dyess	May 2012/ Dec. 2012	iPads and assistance from teachers and paraprofessionals	When we start to see the students use the iPads on their own successfully.
Have non-verbal students work with iPads	Lori Dyess	January 2013/ May 2013	iPads and assistance from teachers and paraprofessionals, specified apps.	Find if there was any improvement in social and educational situations.
Have some students work with iPads on their own	Lori Dyess	January 2013/ May 2013	iPads and assistance from teachers and paraprofessionals, specified apps.	Find if there was any improvement in social and educational situations.

My project will help me answer the question of “How can an iPad benefit the students with special needs?” I will use a few iPads in the special needs classrooms to complete my project. I am going to use the lowest life skills class and the lowest inclusion class to complete my project. These classes have students with a large range of disabilities. I will only have about 30 students between the two classrooms to work with. The students will be studied at different times so that I can cover them all. Some of the students I want to focus on the most are the non-verbal students and the students that cannot express their feelings as well as the others. I will work with the non-verbal students and then work my way up to the other students as the time progresses with the project.

Action Research Plan

Week Three Assignment, Part 1 – Writing an Action Research Question(s) or Problem Statement: How can the iPad benefit students with special needs? Can the teachers incorporate the use of the iPad into the curriculum to help benefit the students with special needs? Will the students be able to become more successful with the iPad, such as the students that are non-verbal? Could this be correlated into the students home to allow them to become more successful? Week Three Assignment, Part 2 – Developing an Action Research Plan Action Plan Goal: To find the benefits of the iPad with Special Needs students Action Steps Person Responsible Timeline: Start/End Needed Resources Evaluation Introduce some students to the iPads Lori Dyess May 2012/Dec. 2012 iPads and assistance from teachers and paraprofessionals. When we start to see the students use the iPads on their own successfully. Have non-verbal students work with iPads Lori Dyess January 2013/ May 2013 iPads and assistance from teachers and paraprofessionals, specified apps. Find if there was any improvement in social and educational situations. Have some students work with iPads on their own Lori Dyess January 2013/ May 2013 iPads and assistance from teachers and paraprofessionals, specified apps. Find if there was any improvement in social and educational situations. Week Three Assignment, Part 3 – Steps to Follow in Your Action Research Plan ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT PROCESS OVERVIEW 1. Examining the work: Setting the Foundation – in other words, identifying needs or topics for action research and this may emerge from the Site Based Decision Making Committee, or from needs like those identified in your intern plan. Through meetings and interviews with the teachers and paraprofessionals and other key stakeholders involved with the students that have special needs, it is known that these students could be a huge benefit especially for the non-speaking students and also a benefit for the other students as well. 2. Analyzing data – you have had many opportunities to do this, and you examined at least 9 data gathering strategies from your text in Part 2 of this week’s assignments. Research online how the iPad can benefit special needs students. There is a person that is trying to accomplish 500 iPads in 100 schools online, his name is Gary James. Look up articles that have information about the iPads with special needs students. Go to library and discover the information that can be acquired about the use of the iPad with special needs students. 3. Developing deeper understanding – these are additional data collection techniques, as well as, examining qualitative data through active listening, focus groups, etc. May come across situations where I need to find other ways to introduce or teach the iPad to the students. Possible find other questions and/or answers that I am not planning on at this time. Interview with teachers and other staff members to find the best way that the students could become successful and how they could incorporate the iPad into the curriculum. 4. Engaging in Self-Reflection – this summarizes much of what you have been doing in this course, and throughout the program, beginning with your many self-assessments of leadership in EDLD 5311. Did I find the correct way to introduce the devices successfully to the students? Did I communicate what was needed of the teachers and other staff members? Could I have done anything to make it better? What could have been done to make this more of a success? Does anyone need any more information about the project? Are the students, staff and teachers prepared to start the project? 5. Exploring Programmatic Patterns – This includes asking the appropriate questions, identifying data patterns and gaps, and learning to address equity issues. Discuss with site mentor and supervisor the pros and cons of the reflection. This will help me find more feasible solutions to any problems that I have encountered at this point. What areas need to be reexamined? 6. Determining direction – Working collaboratively to address action research questions, monitoring progress, and assessing achievement. Do I know what I want to achieve? Have I addressed the resources? Do I have a mutual approach to the project? Will the timelines be able to be accomplished? How successful will I be able to monitor the project? How can the level of success be measured? Will I be able to effectively rework and advance the progress on the plan based on the evaluation? 7. Taking action for school improvement – Using appropriate steps or templates like the SIP or PIP Plan of action to guide the action research. Develop a plan of action. Monitor the project and complete a summative evaluation of the results that I find upon completion of the project. 8. Sustaining improvement – Learning to use the tools of action research as an on-going process for professional development and school improvement. If the students are successful in the educational environment, I will share with others on my campus as well as others in the district that has students that could benefit from the use of iPads. I will also share with the other students in the class as well. Week Three Assignment, Part 4 – Sharing Your Action Research Plan, Progress, Findings, and Recommendations When sharing information about the project I will make sure that it is shared with my supervisor and my mentor. If the project is a success, I will share the information with the district administers to allow them to share with the other campuses as they see fit. In sharing this information, I will make sure that the people receiving the information will be aware of the reason that I chose this project. I have a special place in my heart for the special needs students and think that there are many other aspects in the world that could help them become more successful in the educational environment. I will make sure that I share the information that shows where I got my information from. To help back up my information that I give out I will have include how I achieved the outcome that I came up with in the end. I will have my resources listed along with the statements that back up my findings in my project. I will have a clear case as to why or why not the iPads are successful with the special needs students. To finally sum up the project, I will go through the process that I completed to find out the end result. In order to complete the summary I will have to analyze all aspects of the project as I complete each section and sometimes while doing the area is in process.

Reflections

This week has been insightful in many ways. I have been nervous about doing a research project. I think it is the unknown that bothers me. I feel more confident with the way that I am thinking about my project. Especially after listening to Dr. Kirk's interview, it helped me know more areas to be able to find information. I will be able to be positive about performing this research project.

Lori Dyess' Action Research

The weekly readings have enlightened me on the use of action research. Action research is an important aspect of the education field. When using action research everyone benefits from the information. When the educators conduct an action research plan individually on their environment, they can prosper from the results as well as the students. The teachers are motivated to make changes that they recognize as a downfall upon themselves. I can see how my action research could help show the administration of our district the details as to how the special needs students will benefit with the use of iPads in everyday life. If they will take this information and allow it to improve the function of these students, some of these students will not be as needy as they are now. I also see a benefit of a group of educators working together on an action research project. Having more people working together, you would have a variety of ideas to use and to scale as to what would be the best way to go. Action researches can be imperative to a principle to help them stay on task and step back and reflect on the areas that need the improvements. 

Action Research Reflection 3/31/13

At this point and time, I am working on the finishing up of the project.  One of the classes that I have placed devices in is done with their part of the project.  The other class has come to depend on the devices, and I found that interesting.  The students and the teachers in the lower level special education class want to make sure that they will continue to have use of the devices for the remainder of the school year.  I was going to stop my research project by the end of March, but the teacher of the lowest special education class has asked me to continue until mid May.  She has even been able to use the devices to help with the students with Math, History, Science, Art, Music and many other subjects.  She has come to rely on the devices to teach her students the different subjects. 

I have done a bunch of research planning and finding the appropriate applications that can be with the students in these classes.   Also, I had to find the applications that were at each of the student’s levels after speaking with the teacher, the paraprofessionals and working with the students to know what level was best for them as well as their interest.  At this time I have spent 254 hours working toward the completion of my research project.   I feel that I have several more hours to go, but it is coming to an end.

Web Conferences

I have now attended two conferences within this 5 week class of 5306 Educational Technology. The required web conference was very informative. The discussion of topic was how the class was going to go for the five weeks. One of the main topics was the internship and the paperwork. We were told what we could do with this degree upon completion. Such as become a principle if we take and pass the correct test to do so. We also continued to discusse what the requiremnts are for internship again. We were also informed as to what classes to expect for the remainder of our prgram. The 5th week web conference was insightful as well. I was able to learn more about the internship and what was required to complete the class. The conference didnt last that long and not many people attended it. But we found out more information about how to fill out the internship plan and the requirments. I hope that I figured it out how to fill it out, I am still unsure.

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School or District Technology Plan

The Vidor Independent School District has many goals for the students to reach to be sucessful with their education.  One of the main goals is to teach the students technology that wasnt even thought of before now and prepare them to be capable to achieve what hasnt been discovered yet.  Some of the goals of VISD is as follows:  1)improve student achievement 2)fully integrate technology into teaching and learning 3)ensure that all students are technology literate.

The core competencies of technolgy go along with Level 1: Foundations, such as accepting use agreement, internet, email and word processor.  Level 2: Intermediate, Presentation, Spreadsheets and Database.  Level 3: Advanced, Teaching and Learning integration.  These levels are very important to the base of teaching and developing a base to allow the students to develop with the use of the technology.  While training the staff in these levels it is crucial that the teachers get all three levels of core competencies, while the instructional aides, board members and the other mis. staff (such as, transportation, warehouse, maint, and etc) recieve only the level 1 trainings.  And then the staff that include the libraians, counslers, nurses, administrators and paraperfessionals recieve the Levels 1 and 2 core competencies.  The goal to have this reached was to have all staff trained by 2010.  The district did successfully complete this goal. 

All assessments where completed as well as the goals that the district had set.  With this being said the district has stated on their powerpoint containing information about thier technology plan, a statement that I liked well enough to add to my blog. "We are now at a point where we must educate our children in what no one knew yesterday, and prepare our schools for what no one knows yet.  by Margaret Mead"

National Educational Technology Plan

The National Educational Technology Plan of 2010 has five goals.  Theses five goals include assessment, learning, teaching, infrastructure and productivity.  All of these goals have set recommendations for the districts, states, federal government and the stakeholders.  With these goals the plan also would like us to be clear with what we want and to clearly monitor the progress of the district and campuses individually.

While learning different subjects at school, the students need to be technology literate.  It doesnt matter if they are in music, math, language arts or any other subject, technology is used in some way.  At our campus in the music class for example:  the band directors have a computer program that can have the students site read music that is projected up on the wall and automaticly grade the student upon their performance.  When in the language arts class the students are needed to look up information on sites such as wiki, for some of their classwork along with some getting online to read ebooks for their accelerated readers.  The possiblities are enormous as to how and why the different subjects could and are able to use technology to instruct the students so that they are capable to learn and be successful in thier future college career.


Perfessional educators are needed to help our students explore life as they develop and grow.   With technology and the perfessional educators combined, it will allow the students to be prepared to be successful in their future college careers as well as their life ahead of them.  While the educators are teaching with technology they are able to corrolate with other educators and have the oppurtunity to provide a wider view of what is avaliable for their students to succeed.

Blog #1 Technology Assessments

In order for the students of today to make in the world around us they must be technology literate.  All of the classes that they have facing them throughout their years of their education will include technology in some form.  With that being said, teachers are to be responsible to stay on top of the new technology.  The educators that are just entering the field are full of the knowledge of technology while the educators that have been in the schools for awhile are not.  Teachers not only need to be responsible to keep up with technology for themselves but also to be leaders in the technology field so that they will be able to teach the students the technology skills that are needed at the  present time where they can advance successfully in the future.             

One of the pros of technology in the class rooms is the fact that they students are more prepared for their college careers and/or their employment futures.  The educators that are more familiar with the technology field are more prone to use technology in their lesson plans and have it more readily available for the students more frequently.  The more educated the teachers are in technology the better their class turns out being.  In the long run this makes the campus and district improve more rapidly and stay up to date with technology.

Some of the cons can be easily identified in many districts across the state with assessments.  Some technology assessments mention that all teachers have full access to technology and professional growth.  But this is not always the case in many school districts.  If the educators do not have access to the materials and supplies that is needed to stay up with the technology needs of today, they should not be responsible for keeping the students up to date with the needs that are required.  Another con is that the districts can only address the parts of the assessments that are within reach of the districts financial and knowledgeable needs.   Some times the assessments are also found to be incorrect.  Some of the educators may not answer the assessments to the best of their ability.  They may be only answering the aspects that they are concerned with and not so elaborate on the other areas.  I feel that the assessments are still of great value to the districts, in the way that they are able to try to meet most of the demands that are needed throughout the technology department.

Vidor High School Swim Team 20012

Hi everyone,  Our High School Swim Team has a District Meet this Thursday at 6pm at the Beaumont Natartorium.  Come out and Cheer them on as they kick some bubbles.  YEAH!!   Go Pirate Swimmers