5352 Evaluation

1. Website Evaluation on Educator Preparation and Development
The web site I chose to evaluate was http://techappsnetwork.org/. The name of the web page
is Technology Applications Teacher Network. The site is developed by various Education
Centers and the Texas Education Agency. This particular web site allows educators to log on
and have unlimited access to model lesson plans developed by teachers. This will allow
teachers to use the lesson plan which integrates technology into it as well as being able to use
or structure the plans to fit their own lessons. The site provides a resource center,
professional development resources, discussion boards, technology events and more valuable
information at just a click of a button. It teaches technology applications geared for the 21st
Century learning such as digital graphics, desktop, web related information, multimedia and
more.
With our school showing a lower score on the Key Area II: Educator Preparation and
Development from the Texas Campus STaR Chart, this web site clearly would prove to be a
positive attribute to our staff. It has a discussion board that teachers can communicate with
others concerning lesson plans and ideas they might have for new ways of integrating
technology so the teachers can be more prepared for the 21st Century learners. There is even
a professional development page to acquire information about how to use more computer
tools to integrate technology into your plans.
As for anything negative about the website, I would say that I just have not had enough time
to go through the entire site to be able to enjoy all of the benefits it has to offer. It is filled
with great information on integrating technology into your classroom. There are many like
myself that do not understand this new technology, but know that it will be helpful in the
long run.
The value of this web site to the 21st Century learners and the Texas Long Range Plan is
priceless. That is right, priceless. No money to spend, just log in and enjoy the service it
provides to teachers. If you just look at who developed the site (TEA and ESC), you know
that it will directly relate to the Long Range Plan for technology in the classroom.
I encourage all other educators and administration to search through the web site to see what
all it offers to you. You will find that logging in is very simple. Using the menu to the left
hand of the screen is very easy to navigate. It allows you to maneuver through the web site
with ease. With the classroom lesson plans, teachers will have access at their finger tips to
search through copious amounts of lesson plans that can be utilized in their classroom today.
As for administrators that want to gain an extra edge with providing other types of
information to the technology personnel for in-services, there is a wide variety of information
on integrating technology into the classroom via the professional development resources

2. page. There are three areas that the resources address: "1) instructional practices for teaching
the high school technology applications course, 2) strategies for integrating technology into
core content areas (math, science, social studies, and language arts), 3) teaching the
technology applications TEKS in the K-8 curriculum."
http://www.techappsnetwork.org/profdev/default.aspx, Professional development resources
page.
If you have not visited this web site before, I encourage you to give it a look. I have been
teaching in my current school now for six years and not once have I been told of or heard of
this web site. This is one of the most beneficial web sites that an educator could use to help
integrate technology into their classroom. Now that I know about it, I plan on introducing it
to my fellow colleagues.