Technology Integration

TCET Curriculum Integration Module

copyright (c) Dr Joy Rousseau 10/1998. Use with permission.

Living & Learning

1. be a part of the overall mission of the district, included in mission statement through campus improvement plans, in staff development and daily lesson planning.

2. have support from a cadre of well trained individuals -- technology facilitators, coordinators, instructional leaders, technicians, and administrators.

3. have budgetary priority and continuous improvement plan.

4. have a curriculum framework that is responsive to student-centered interests, correlates with student progress, and is focused on learning instead of hardware.

What is curriculum / technology integration?

1. content (facts, maxims, concepts, procedures)

2. strategies (presentation styles -- especially appropriate for learning styles, maturity, and past experiences of the learner)

3. methods -- a thoughtful progression of learning opportunities, hierarchical material, and/or prescriptive solutions to a learning needs assessment.
4. materials and tools-- selection of concrete through abstract manipulatives, resources, and equipment (including technologies) that assist the learner in inculcating the educational experience

• collaboratively defining essential goals for individualized student learning
• creating an environment which allows all types of learners to master content and concepts.
• providing meaningful, real-world experiences
• being a forum for developing lifelong skills in problem solving, creative application, discovery, productivity and self-management
• incorporating hands-on, minds-on increasingly more challenging authentic learning experiences
• promoting contemplation and deliberation, transformation and productivity and the mental phenomena of discovery

The integration of technology as a transparent tool into a valid and effective curriculum fosters active involvement of students in the learning process. This is especially true when it promotes the application of higher order thinking skills. Technology affords flexibility and can accommodate unique and diverse individual student needs and interests without compromising goals and objectives.

Digitized curriculum units and distance learning opportunities allow students to move at an individual pace -- re-mediating as often as necessary and advancing when necessary. Articulation of curriculum K-12 and through a collegial relationship can be accomplished using distance learning technologies to facilitate learners who desire expanded curriculum at any level of instruction.

With 44% of all jobs requiring data information skills in the year 2000, integration of technology into the curriculum assists students in being successful in a technologically challenging future.