TBS

Students must all have the same opportunity for access to the skills needed for the 21st Century. All students, no matter what is available at home, need to have access to the opportunity to be proficient with a computer and other technologies. We agree that more money should be spent on technology for teaching and learning. Money should be spent to train teachers to integrate technology into the classroom. Teacher technology education should be differentiated to the level of the teacher as teachers differentiate instruction in their own classroom.

The library media specialist should teach the students how to use the hardware, software and how to use Internet resources alongside the teacher. The teacher needs to be able to continue the lesson when the students return to the classroom and be able to integrate the topics into future activities.

The classroom teacher, library media specialist, justice/equity advocate, and the technology staff developer feel that money should also be spent on hardware to decrease the ratio of students to computers. The justice/equity advocate believes that money should be spent on computers to provide more access to families that do not have access at home. Schools in low SES areas need more money for computers than areas of higher SES.

Teachers hate to be told what they will be expected to do. Teachers feel overwhelmed with the demands of the existing standards and additional standards would put them over the top.

Others feel that teachers should be expected to learn and use technology in the classroom but they have to have the time to learn and implement technology in the classroom. Teachers who are required to create sub plans for the time they will be away from the classroom feel that it is additional work and become still increasingly overwhelmed.

All parties agree that the district should adopt technology standards provided that we be given proper staff development and technology to implement the adopted standards. The district must support teacher’s personal development of skills and implementation in the classroom.

The district budget should reflect its commitment to providing technology to its students. This can only be accomplished by making consideration for hardware and training for all district personnel.