Technology Assessments

The assessment of educators and students’ technology knowledge and skills is must for the 21^st century learner.  The advantages of assessing teachers and students out weighs the disadvantage because assessments of  essential skills for implementation of the Technology TEKS was designed to spiral giving students multiple opportunities to master the knowledge and skills.  The only disadvantage of assessing teachers and students is reliability and validity of the assessments. 

With assessments in place that assess the complete level of expertise and competencies reflected in standards, student learning data can be collected and used to continually improve learning outcomes and productivity. Both informal and formal needs assessments to determine priorities for technology professional development should be conducted regularly.  These regular assessments are the key to improving the quality of learning in the classroom.   When teachers are knowledgeable  about technology, they will integrate it effectively in the classroom. The professional development component of the technology plan should include a fair and equitable system for assessing each individual teacher's level of technology competency.  The assessment can be used to determine the skill level of individual teachers and their needs for professional development. Such assessment provides data that can be used for future planning and development of strategies for teachers and students.  Leadership and staff must constantly collaborate to develop campus plans for integrating, using, and improving the educational technologies in the classroom based on the campus needs assessments.  Finally ,there must be on-going technology needs assessments to identify the needs of the digital-age students .