The discussion we had in class last week about curriculum, it's definition and purpose, started me thinking about exactly how a teacher can implement a curriculum effectively. We discussed "intended" curriculum, and what students actually get out of a curriculum, but how does one decide if any given curriculum is effective?
The discussion included the role of state and district standards; are standards being met by students? That discussion could take days in itself, so for the purpose of this blog I will focus on the content of curriculum as it pertains to students. What is the goal of education? What is it that we want students to come away with from compulsory (K-12) and elective (college and post-graduate) education? I think it's as important to consider the "why" of curriculum as much as the "what" of curriculum.
As I prepare to create a unit plan that better integrates technology into my instruction, I want to make sure that there is authenticity and integrity behind the given technology; why will it be more effective to do it X way with technology versus Y way without technology? How does it increase student understanding of the curricular content? These are the questions I've been pondering as I try to plan my unit.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Technology Integration
The discussion we had at our last class while we worked through a definition of "technology integration" really got me thinking about how little we sometimes evaluate programs, curriculum, and even terminology before we teach and explore. Technology integration should have been an easy topic of discussion for our class of "techies," but it proved to be quite challenging.
How often do educators use terms without full understanding of its implications? I think about how often our district has implemented changes in my 9 years as a teacher and there are some things that I remember the district pushing, then abandoning, with no teacher understanding in between.
But to come back to the specifics of technology intergration, this is just another moment for me to think how severely lacking myself, my school, and my district are in terms of equipping teachers to bring technology (in a current sense) into their teaching. It is still very much a mindset of teaching the technology itself vs. using the technology to enrich learning experiences. We have some resources available to us, (far more than many districts) but we are still a one-computer-per-classroom type of district. Another issue seems to be that our "technology teaching" tends to be based around primary grades using games, all grades using word processing programs, and intermediate grades using PowerPoint and the Internet. And seeing as technology is not only based in the computer lab, one can see what kind hardships our district faces as the need for technology integration continues and grows.
How often do educators use terms without full understanding of its implications? I think about how often our district has implemented changes in my 9 years as a teacher and there are some things that I remember the district pushing, then abandoning, with no teacher understanding in between.
But to come back to the specifics of technology intergration, this is just another moment for me to think how severely lacking myself, my school, and my district are in terms of equipping teachers to bring technology (in a current sense) into their teaching. It is still very much a mindset of teaching the technology itself vs. using the technology to enrich learning experiences. We have some resources available to us, (far more than many districts) but we are still a one-computer-per-classroom type of district. Another issue seems to be that our "technology teaching" tends to be based around primary grades using games, all grades using word processing programs, and intermediate grades using PowerPoint and the Internet. And seeing as technology is not only based in the computer lab, one can see what kind hardships our district faces as the need for technology integration continues and grows.
Monday, September 15, 2008
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