PreK Technology Application TEKS and the foundation to continual learning

Technology Application TEKS are listed for grade clusters Kinder through 12th grade. Each cluster has 4 strands that detail student expectations for technology knowledge and use. However the most important in my opinion are the standards listed for PreK students. These standards lay the foundation similarly to any other academic, social, and emotional learning.

PreKinder guidelines are given to assist teachers in building a technical knowledge base and this helps the students develop a multitude of skills. Social and emotional development are crucial to determine school readiness. The PreKinder technology TEKS detail various outcomes for young students. There are four skill outcomes in the Social and Emotional Developmental domain. Young students are able to build self-concept, self control, social competence, and social awareness when they participate in a technical class community. The second domain of Language and Communication are essential to integrating technology into daily routines and interactions. Listening comprehension, speaking, speech production, vocabulary skills, and sentence structure skills are built to encourage students to understand and use language as a form of communication. Young student skills are also impacted in emergent literacy in the areas of reading and writing. They learn about forms, features, and functions of reading and writing when the teacher serves as a model and the students are encouraged to participate in early writing activities. The PreKinder students build motivation to write, learn to convey meaning, form letter skills, and build concepts about print when they are invited into the technical world in the classroom.

Technology Application TEKS begin in identifying the basic student expectations in PreK and continue to utilize that knowledge to spiral and link previous learning to enhance technical skills. For instance, PreK students are expected to use and name a variety of computer input devices such as a mouse, keyboard, touchscreen, voice/sound recorder and CD-ROM listed under TEK(X)(A)(2). Learning these skills allow that learning to be scaffolded to learning in Kindergarten and continuing grade level domains. They learn at an early age to expand their ability to acquire information, solve problems, and communicate with others. Students in Kinder through 12th grades are expected to do the same. §126.2. Technology Applications, Kindergarten-Grade 2 (b)(2)(a) state that the student is expected to use a variety of input devices in building their data input skills. The mouse, keyboard, touchscreen, voice/sound recorder and CD-ROM are listed and scanners and digital video are added. Disk drives and modems are added to the foundations list in §126.3. Technology Applications, Grades 3-5 (b)(2)(a). The continuum embraces previous learning and allows for continual growth in these skills. With the appropriate foundation built in PreKinder, young students will be more apt to use previous skills to enhance their learning in many subject areas.