Educator Preparation and Development

Educator Preparation and Development is listed as the second key area on the Texas Campus STaR Chart. This area is composed of the professional development experiences teachers are exposed to, how administrators and other authority figures model the use and importance of technology, and the capabilities of educators. Moreover, it includes elements such as access to professional development, whether or not online learning is used as a source for professional development, the level of educator understanding of technology and the general pattern of use. In general, progress and trends in this area are improving across the board; however this is happening at a slower rate. Overall, in the statewide STaR Chart assessment summary, this key area has the highest amount of schools still being reported as developing. According to the state, this means that most schools are using technology for classroom management and administrative tasks with only some using other online resources. This paints a very bleak picture and illustrates that our students are not going to be as prepared as they need to be if we, as educators, do not rethink our strategies. Technology can be overwhelming and educators can be reluctant to attend technology based professional development sessions. To relieve some of this reluctance I believe it would greatly help to create online "support" groups based on subject where teachers can go to find video how-to tutorials that contain step-by-step instructions on how to use certain technological tools. Furthermore, we need to obtain more support of online blogs where teachers, grouped by subject, can discuss how to incorporate technology into their new and improved digital classroom. If teachers had more professional support across subject areas, I believe they would be less reluctant to use the technology themselves and incorporate it into their lessons.