Michael C. Warren

Looking back at the assignments of researching the Texas STaR chart and creating a presentation over one of the key areas in which the STaR chart covers gave me a deeper understanding of how the chart is used. I can see how it can easily be misused as a tool. For example a school leader may say that the form needs to be filled out by the end of the day without giving detailed explanation as to what the data is used for and how it is used by the state and school. Without detailed understanding teachers may log into the website and simply choose the best answer for each category. While choosing these answers without thought the teacher may be harming the school from receiving additional funding by appearing that the school has better technology than what it may actually have.

My own personal learning experience regarding the Texas STaR chart makes me really look at the questions and answer them honestly in regards to what technology our school is using.  I find that our high school usually scores lower than our our Intermidate school and our Elemetary school year after year.  This often makes me think about what can we do, as a high school, to improve our technology targets to offer better learning for our students. The chart allows me to see where our schools weakness is with technology and provides me a focus of where I hope I can encourage our school to grow.  “To make education relevant to students’ lives and truly prepare kids for the future, we need to bring these after school attractions into our schools” (Prensky, 2008)

The assignment allowed me to put together information that can be presented to our school in a manner that can help encourage our district and campus to see where our strengths and weaknesses are. In addition I was able to develop a presentation that shares the information with teachers, staff, and the community explaining our own technology growth.  I will continue to share information like this that I learn about to improve our school and district to make it one of the best possible. As a small rural school we already face technology limitations, but the STaR chart is a tool that can help us focus our attention on improving.  As in the reading from week 3 of the course, in which the Eiffel Project staff recognize “that school leaders need to encourage as well as model the sensible use of technology and assure a reliable technological environment” (Mouza, 2003) our school has had the opportunity to have an administration who demonstrates a strong use in technology.

As a parent this information has taught me that just hearing that a school district is good or a school distristrict may not be good is not the best form of information to go by.  I will look at these reports to find what schools will be best for my children. As an educator I will use this information to improve both my classes that I teach and the school that I work at.  As a life long learner I will continue to look at schools as more than a building, teachers, and students. But as a facility that must be maintained from every aspect including technology.

References

Mouza, C. (2003). Learning to Teach with New Technology: Implications for Professional Development. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 35(2), 272-289.

Prensky, M. (2008). Turning On the Lights. Educational Leadership, 40-45.