Infrastructure for Technology (Week 2)

As today's society advances more and more into the use of technology, it becomes more and more evident that the use of technology needs to become a daily part of school life for students. The Texas Long Range Plan for Technology is a method to ensure the advancement of technology standards in the classroom that are to be completed by the year 2020. It requires that students become technology literate by the end of eighth grade.

In order to accomplish this our school infrastructure for technology must remain updated and efficient. The infrastructure is the lifeblood that ensures the movement toward full technology integration in the classroom. My campus does a great job of hiring quality technology specialists that are always available to answer technology related questions, as well as keeping our software up to date. This is a highly necessary part of the infrastructure. Without highly qualified technology personnel, the district cannot take steps forward in any of the other categories. I would like to see technology personnel be given professional status, as well as be compensated as if they were another administrator with similar professional development responsibilities.

The Campus Statewide summary data in the area of infrastructure shows that 57% of all campuses in Texas are in the advanced classification of infrastructure. At this stage there is web-based learning available as well as very small numbers of students to each computer, and there is a shared use of other resources. My campus currently lies in this classification as well, and has taken strides each year toward reaching the target classification in the area of infrastructure.

In conclusion as our society advances into a deeper reliance on the use of everyday technology to get things done new jobs are opening up. There are jobs today that did not exist ten years ago due to the influence of advancing new technologies. Ten years from now, who knows? It is our job as educators to prepare students to be technology literate as they set off into an information rich, constantly changing technological world. This begins in our schools, and quality infrastructure for technology is where it all begins.