5306 – Technology Assessments

As a Technology Applications teacher of middle school grades, I teach each year a sampling of 120-150 8^th grade students. Two-thirds of the students that I teach have not met the standards of TA TEKS for the previous years. Many of the students do not have the skills to keyboard properly or even to center a title in word-processing document using the application’s Center function. Students which have technology literate parents are more successful. Remediation at each grade level would be necessary in order to build the required skills each year. The ability of the students is a reflection of the ability of the educators. Although many of the teachers may meet SBEC standards for Technology Applications, the time restraints within the curriculum encourage production without proper technological process. Students are assigned projects or tasks to complete using skills or non-existent skills that should be taught previously. When the project/task is graded for content, the technology skills required should be assessed also. As all educators are aware, when you prepare to teach, you become more knowledgeable. The technology skill levels of the educators on my campus vary greatly and are manifestly coinciding with their subject’s technology needs. The district offers basic, intermediate, and advanced courses in the usual Microsoft Office applications. However, unless the educators are formally assessed at one point, I do not believe they would be aware of their skill inadequacies. In turn, I believe a formal assessment of 8^th graders would provide district-wide data to support appropriate professional development and embedded technology lessons throughout K-8 grades.