Curriculum TDI - Reflection #2

As a school administrator and instructional leader, what instructional technology would you expect to see in the written, taught, and tested curriculum of a school or school district striving to meet the needs of 21st century learners? What instructional technology would you promote to differentiate instruction for all learners?

In order to effectively meet the needs of 21st century learners, technology must be infused into an effective balance between both traditional and differentiated instruction. It must be evident in the written, taught, and tested curriculum. Technology can be seen as a resource to enhance the learning process, making the academic goals of students more achievable while extending further around the world from a single location.

As defined by Glatthorn, the written curriculum is what appears in guides. Within the written curriculum, there should be suggestions and examples as to how teachers can use technology to plan their lessons. I view the written curriculum as a step-by-step plan illustrating how concepts can be taught and standards achieved. The various available technological resources can be itemized in context. This way teachers would know specifically what resources they can utilize to achieve a specific goal within the classroom as they relate to media literacy. As discussed in Jacobs, simply using Internet resources can provide an international integration of content for all areas of a given curriculum, thus educating students to be informed and productive global citizens.

The taught curriculum is simply a playground for the integration of technology and differentiation, being what the teachers are actually using in the classroom. This is where it all comes alive. This is the application portion of media literacy. Teachers can use PowerPoint presentations to teach from, with embedded sound bytes and video. Teachers can use an assortment of Web 2.0 tools to enhance the classroom experience, providing more interactive activities and eliminating stagnation and boredom. They can use project-based learning techniques where students would create digital stories, PowerPoint presentations, Wordles, etc. to showcase what they have learned. Students can also keep digital portfolios that would be an excellent way of showcasing their accomplishments in school. There are also many technological applications such as TeenBiz3000 that differentiates a series of ongoing non-fiction articles to meet the readiness of all readers, and Success Maker which also provides diagnostics and prescriptions for student development.

Lastly, technology provides for a more efficient method of gathering data from assessments within the tested curriculum. For benchmark assessments taken electronically, we can access data needed to drive instruction much more quickly. Paper tests would often yield at least a two week turn around for results. With the aforementioned applications, we can gain diagnostic reports almost immediately within the classroom to assess students progress and comprehension of concepts taught.

All in all, technology within the written, taught, and tested curriculum, provides enhancement and efficiency to all stakeholders such as administrators, teachers, students, parents/guardians, and education policy makers when implemented effectively.