Curriculum Development and Instructional change
School Technology and Readiness Report (2001) of CEO Forum states that more than half i.e., 55% of the teachers that have participated in the survey are found to be non-users of modern technology tools including the computer. Now understanding the need of the 21st century and modern economic environment, the child education system needs the use of modern technology for the improvement of school and instruction of teaching. The need of a school is now the use of technology by teachers as a tool for the process of education as well as way of instruction.
In today’s world technology use must meet the needs of 21st century users. To acquire 21st century skills, students and teachers must have access to appropriate technology tools and resources so that they can access information, solve problems, communicate clearly, make informed decisions, acquire new knowledge, and construct products, reports and systems. Basically, education must be customized to make it suitable for use in all content areas.
Teachers can seek assistance from technology based devices and therefore the needs of learners can be accommodated to satisfy persity in the delivery of instruction. Students can now be provided support from educational research databases and study materials online as well as various other electronic resources. In the daily lives of students, they learn to use technology by experience. Students today try things out and learn how to use advanced technological devices by teaching others (Partnership for 21st century Skill, 2006).
Emphasizing learning skill is for ensuring all round development of the student. The purpose of curriculum development is to keep the students well aware of exactly is going all around the world including places which are meant for production and business. This can further be analyzed in such a way that apart form the Core subjects some of the few other areas of interest are ICT i.e., Information and Communication Skill; thinking and problem solving skill and finally Interpersonal and self directional skill. The need of the hour is to enforce the practice these subjects in the school curriculum. Teachers have played a very important role in any the revolutionary changes that have been undertaken in the world of education will require their participation (Sandholtz, Ringstaff, & Dwyer, 1997).
The new age teaching is for the purpose of devising techniques so that the students understand and retain most of the things that has been taught to him making the study more relevant thereby adding more to their learning. The process will require better content relevancy, ensuring total engagement and meaningful research to the study process. The new philosophy of education is not just innovation in classroom but beyond that. The whole of this world is a school and the learning is a process which begins with the birth and ends with the life. Schools are just a way to make a simple human being understand the importance of his brain and its proper usage (Partnership for 21st century Skill, 2006).
Technology and learning of 21st Century Content serves the purpose of identification of three significant areas which will in long run emerge as critical one for the success in communities and work place. The three areas are Global Awareness; Financial, economic and business literacy; and Civic literacy. These subjects are not covered in existing curriculum neither be taught in any school. Hence this is a very effective way to incorporate these contents into the teaching process ensuring refreshed infusion of knowledge and skill (Partnership for 21st century Skill, 2006).
The transformation in the current working is very much going to infiltrate with technology integration the best practices would be the defining and then refining various ways teaching with technology and at the same time promoting meaningful learning for students. The most important issue that has to taken care of before implementing the technology integrated education are the clear definition for which it is being implemented. It has been found that the technology has been implemented but has found little use and the system that is being used remains the one which was earlier (Sandholtz, Ringstaff, & Dwyer, 1997).
So the thing is that first of all technology skills has to be ascertained as well as be improved up to the level that implementation process requires. Since the teachers are being supported by the Principal in the complete integration process, the important issue is that the principal must have enough computer literacy so that basic technology skills and standards so that in case of any immediate tat the teachers will ask can be made available by the Principal (Bailey, 1997). A principle will be expected to be strong on some of the basic features that would assist him in smooth implementation of technology.
According to Bailey these skills are very important and must be possessed by the Principal:
1. Technology skills – Principal’s technological competence will ensure that the leaders himself is able to model technology use; 2. People skills – Since the technology integration must require involvement of other teachers and school staffs, so a leader he must be able to get along with other people to ensure that the learning phase of these basic people should go on smoothly and finally the new technology can be easily implemented. 3. Curriculum skills – Since the technology has to be inserted in almost all possible subjects and courses, it is now expected by the principal to be imaginative enough to integrate this technology in every possible disciplines. 4. Staff-development skills – The principal should ensure that the minimum staff requirement for must be maintained and be competent enough for the use of technology. 5. Learning leadership – the principal being the first to make the system aware of the benefits of technology integration should also be the first to realize the ever evolving nature of technology and must take the whole for the betterment of the integration.
The 21st Century Assessments has its usage in measuring other five 21st century skills all around the States and districts to ensure cumulative growth and implementation. It is very necessary to have a very high quality standardized test that could measure students’ performance of the other elements of the 21st century education. Though these standardized tests can measure few but the most important skills but the rest of the things are being left upon the student by ensuring that after a better wave education and teaching he or she can test its capability on its own.
The 21st century skill educated student will be competent enough to learn a balance of assessments. The high quality of the standardized testing that will serve the purpose for clarity over the accountability issue and will ensure the classroom assessment for improved teaching and learning processes. The classroom assessment will also offer students a very powerful way to master the content and skills that have now become elementary for achieving success in the 21st century. All levels of the class and education process have to be tested to keep the effectiveness of the skill.
The implementation of technology factor begins with the use of computer technology in the classrooms (Office of Technology Assessment, 1999). Principals who have successfully implemented the computer technology as a lab material have shown much interest in modeling rest of the classroom according to that of computer labs. They have shown immense interest in the use of technology that will play a very instrumental role in furthering the computer technology usage in the classroom ((Sandholtz, Ringstaff, & Dwyer, 1997). Though the technology usage in schools has been undertaken for more than a decade for the purpose of teaching programming, and addressing the need of computer literacy, it has also been successfully been used for the utilization for drill and practice and implementation of integrated learning systems and for active usage of internet to ensure the participation in various web-based communities (Dias & Atkinson, 2001).
The success of computer and technology assisted education in the classroom have been very much due to the involvement of administrators helped teachers in tackling both emotional and moral issues that have been found to be related with technology integration in the classroom (Sandholtz, Ringstaff, & Dwyer, 1997). Hence the support from principals is extremely important in successful implementation of technology into the classrooms through teachers. The current proposal involves technology integration in schools for communication, collaboration and solution finding so that the content and objective of the curriculum can be easily changed and refined.
Use of 21st century Tools will ensure up to date development of learning skills. The use of different electronic equipments will keep the development of the learning tools in accordance with the requirement of digital world in which the students are residing. The very way of living in such an environment has necessitated the need to learn the different techniques of use and reuse of the tools irrespective of being analytical or digital but is essential to day to day life and to increase the workplace productivity. The citizen who has honed the skills of 21st century would be expected to be proficient in technology related to ICT and its usage for which the tool has programmed. The digital technology and communication tools have to be used achieve all sorts of work which will cause further improvement in the tool itself. The ICT literacy will ensure proper access and information management. It will make way for integration, information evaluation; construction and then communication of new knowledge with others in order to create new waves of effective participation (Sandholtz, Ringstaff, & Dwyer, 1997).
References
- Bailey, G. D. (1997). What technology leaders need to know: The essential top 10 concepts for technology integration in the 21st century. Learning and Leading with Technology, 25(1), 57-62
- CEO Forum (2001) School Technology and Readiness Report Retrieved from WWW on 25th June 2007: http://www.ceoforum.org/downloads/report4.pdf
- Dias, L. & Atkinson, S. (2001) International Electronic Journal for Leadership in Learning Office of Technology Development (1999) Technology and adult learning: A collection of current perspectives. Literacy Practitioner
- Partnership for 21st century Skill (2006) Learning for the 21st Century. A report and MileGuide for 21st Century
- Sandholtz, J., Ringstaff, C., & Dwyer, D. (1997). Teaching with technology: Creating student centered classrooms. New York: Teacher’s College Press.