Technology Skills Assessment

Dinosaur. That is what I am. I started teaching when computers weren’t in schools. I remember learning how to use a Radio Shack Tandy computer in college. Technology is changing quickly. Just look at cell phones. Cell phone plans are set up to get an upgrade within a couple of years of the initiation of the contract. Yet, we will spend hundreds of dollars to get the latest and greatest phone before the available upgrade.

Snail. That is what technology is in schools. Even though we know how quickly technology is advancing, schools are not able to keep up. After completing the two surveys, the Technology Applications Inventory and the SETDA, I have concluded that our school is in the very beginning stage of implementing technology.

In the Technology Application Inventory, I answered “Yes” to 80% of the questions. This was an inventory of my knowledge and use of technology. The SETDA survey was about where my school was in terms of technology use. We are an exemplary campus for our TAKS rating. But, if we were to get rated on our technology use, we should be unacceptable. The computers in our building are the same computers that were installed when the school opened its doors for the first time in 2001. Students do have access to computers throughout the building. We do have three computer labs with 30 student computers as well as 30 additional computers in the library. Each classroom has three student computers and one teacher computer. The science classrooms have five student computers and one teacher computer. But, it makes me very sad to hear a teacher say that the computers in their classroom are rarely if ever turned on. We have Internet and intranet access but due to reasons unknown our district server is sometimes slow and doesn’t work at all. It can be very frustrating. But, my opinion of our biggest technology problem is the lack of professional development for teachers. Our teachers are afraid of technology because they don’t know how to use it or integrate it into their classroom. We have a long way to go but we better go fast because our current students, the digital immigrants, love and need the technology. Just look at how addicted everyone is to Facebook.