Week 2, Using a Blog--STaR Chart Area

     Infrastructure for Technology is on Key Area of the STar Chart survey that Campuses and Teachers take across the state annually. Infrastructure deals with the technology and support that is in the school and classrooms. Specifically the areas addresssed are the numbers of students per computers, the availability of internet access as it deals with connections and speed of the connections, the use of other technology in the classrooms, technical support available, Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) access, and the avialabilty of distance learning.  All of the six sub-areas mentioned are critical to the other three areas surveyed on the STaR Chart.  Looking at this area is critical so that legislators as well as school boards can provide funding to support this.
     Looking at this area across national, state, and local levels, progress has been made, but at some levels it has been very slow.  At the federal level legislators are beginning to realize the need to provide funding for more computers and technology in the classrooms. However not every school across the nation has realized this need.  Educators and Legislators are beginning to see the need for increasing this area to help improve our society move into the 21st century.  At the state level their has been more planning to help increase the effectiveness of the infrastructure. The state has put into place the Long-Range Plan for Technology, 2006-2020. The state has also been working with the federal government to help improve and make way for an infrastructure that contains the necessary tools and softare for students to be a successful part of the 21st century. However, one roadblock is having enough funding to keep the infrastructure in place and to have all districts in equillibrium with each other.   At the district level, relating to my campus, there is not much progress being made.  For the previous three years the sub-area scores have stayed the same, neither decreasing or increasing.  This is an area that needs to be improved due to the lack of progress.
     Along with progress in this area at the local, state, and federal levels, there are trends that can be found. With regards to the state and federal levels, both are working together to improve those basic tools that students need be successful at using technology in the classroom.  On the other hand, another trend is that districts and campuses all across the nation do not have amount of technology tools that other campuses have.  So the trend is that campuses are still recieving equality with regards to the technology infrastructure. On the state level another trend is that classrooms have less than 4 students per computer , and students in at least three-fourths of the classrooms have direct access to the internet. On the local level, looking at my campus, The trend is that there are between five and nine students per computer in each classroom, which is a lot of students throughout the day who might never get to use the computer. Another trend is there is only one technical support personnel per 501-750 computers.  This equates to one technical support person on campus, which is usually a teacher.
     Since this is a critical component I feel that on the local level more support needs to be given.  For one, There should be more technical support staff at each campus.  This also needs to be a teacher who has more technology experience than just a classroom teacher who deals with technology issues on his/her off time. Distance learnig needs to be improved as well.  Not only for the teachers, but for the students as well.  Having teachers and students participating in learning online will not only help increase teacher knowledge, but also help students learn to collaborate and interact with each other.