Technology Applications TEKS Summary

http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/technology/ta/stustd.html

What's going on in Pre-K?

Pre-K TEKS lay the foundation for student performance in future grades by showing young children how technology can enhance their lives. Students need regular access and exposure to computers and related technology. In my own personal opinion, technology is the key to engage our young students so that as they become older, they can continue to engage in classrooms each day with their own personalized instruction.

Pre-K does have standards but they are not divided into the four domains of Foundations, Information Acquisition, Problem Solving, and Communication. Instead they are are much more simplistic, however, are necessary to build for the future. In Pre-K students need to be able to listen to and interact with storybooks and information text in electronic forms. It is important for them to follow basic oral or visual cues for operating programs successfully. They must be able to move and double-click a mouse to interact with software programs. At this time, students must also begin to build terminology that describe their work on the computer. Lastly, students should use voice/sound recording and touch screen devices appropriately. They should be able to insert and play a CD to listen to songs.

These TEKS help students develop fine motor skills and allow for independent play time. I believe they also allow students an enhanced learning experience that will get them excited about education and the learning process. These TEKS also allow students to start thinking critically and allows them to see their imaginative ideas come to life in creative ways. It is important for Pre-K students to master these skills so that they have a sound technological foundation to build upon in future grades.

Spiraling curriculum!

The Technology Application TEKS are not just a set of standards for each grade level and then you move on to something new. Students have multiple opportunities to master skills in this spiraling curriculum. For example, with student information acquisition students should be able to acquire electronic information in a variety of formats. In elementary grades students should be able to acquire information including text, audio, video, and graphics and they should be able to use on-line help and documentation. As students move into middle school they must be able to identify, create, and use files in various formats such as text, bit mapped/vector graphics, image, video, and audio files. They must also be able to access, operate, and manipulate information from secondary storage and remote devices. In high school, this same TEK has transformed into using a variety of resources with various productivity tools to gather authentic data as a basis for individual and group programming projects. They must also design and document sequential search algorithms for digital information storage and retrieval. As one can see, by high school, students will have multiple opportunities to master the acquisition of electronic information. The bar of expectations is raised each year with technology so that student skills will be developed to the highest level.