Next school year, my school district will embark on significant changes to the learning community. At the middle school level, each student will have a district-supplied device with access to the internet at home. Many teachers, including myself, are overwhelmed at the impact these devices will have on both classroom management and classroom curriculum design. In short, this 1:1 device rollout has great potential for both evil and good.
In order to prepare for this journey, classroom curriculum must be competency-based, project based, and meaningful to students while focusing on 21st century skills (Smith 2014). Further, neomillennial students learn best when they are given choice of time, path, place, and pace (2014). How do teachers do this? We must welcome technology while keeping a constructivist philosophy and curriculum in mind (Horn 2015).
Lim agrees with Horn and Staker that teachers must be focused on effective teaching and technology planning in order to close evident usage and outcome gaps (Lim 2013). Lim says that in-school technology usage is “less intensive and extensive” in schools than outside of schools, and the productivity gains and reduced costs seen when technology is introduced is much smaller in schools than out of schools (2013). He believes that effective education reform, as it relates to technology, must begin with effective curriculum design.
Finland leads the world in education reform, so it is no surprise that they restructured their entire national education technology systems and processes to meet the needs of neomillennial learners. In 2003, Finland produced an extensive study of six countries’ educational technology programs, finding that Australia, England, France, The Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States all support technological literacy (Rasinen 2003). Rasinen says, “In all the countries, learning how to plan, produce, and evaluate is emphasized. The ability to tolerate uncertainty is included in the curricula of Australia and the United States. In the Australian curriculum the importance of life-long learning and learning of innovative skills is clearly a focus… Principal objectives include understanding the role of science and technology in society, the balance between technology and the environment, the development of technological literacy, and the development of skills such as planning, making, evaluating, social/moral/ethical thinking, innovativeness, awareness, flexibility, and entrepreneurship. The prominent methods focus on experiences for students that engage them in planning, analyzing, inventing, innovating, making, and evaluating” (2003). It is of note that technology provides even more avenues for student interactions, research, and collaborations in 2015 than it did in 2003. Technology as an educational construct remains important, especially as an effective means to teach higher-level thinking skills.
With all this information in mind, it is clear that teachers must embrace new curriculum design and plan with the use of technology in mind in order to navigate a 1:1 device classroom environment. In order to take steps to navigate the imminent changes to my classroom, I will take steps to improve my curriculum design and technology planning prior to the 2015-2016 school year. Over the summer, I will spend time at my home studying and reading two books: Teacher as Architect and Blended. By August, from these two books, I intend to have a new mental framework for effectively teaching using technology. Also, I will spend at least ten hours in my classroom before August 1, 2015 preparing four units that give students curriculum choices over time, path, place, and pace (Smith 2014). Although these two goals will take away from my personal and family time during the summer, the completion of these goals will allow me to spend more stress free days next school year as I implement the 1:1 devices in my middle school social studies classroom.
References
Horn, M.B. and H. Staker. (2015). Blended: Using disruptive innovation to improve schools.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Lim, C.-P., Zhao, Y., Tondeur, J., Chai, C.-S., & Tsai, C.-C. (2013). Bridging the gap: Technology trends and use of technology in schools. Educational technology & society, 16 (2),
59-68.
Rasinen, A. (2003). An analysis of the technology education curriculum of six countries. Journal
of technology education, 15:1.
Smith, S., Chavez, A., & Seaman, G. (2014). Teacher as architect, second edition. Modern
Teacher Press.
