After engaging with this reading I more clearly understand the reasoning behind this course. Originally I thought it would be about unpacking the curriculum and how to teach the curriculum to students. I now understand why we are also engaging with a range of technologies, many online, and are engaging in our own design task; we are building up our own conceptual and procedural knowledge around the area of design and digital technologies.
Teachers are preparing students of the 21st Century for a world that will be deeply embedded with many forms of technology and that will be constantly evolving. The design and technologies curriculum is addressing this ever-pressing concern, however if teachers (pre-service and inservice) are not confident and comfortable in their own understandings and abilities, they will be unable to deliver quality technology lessons. The ability to deliver an effective technologies curriculum is hindered or impacted by the technological knowledge and ability of the teachers, teacher views and beliefs about the subjects and time available for this new area in what is considered to be an already 'overcrowded curriculum' (Jones, Buntting & de Vries, 2011, p. 196). As Jones et al. (2011, p. 200) suggests, "teacher knowledges in technology are crucial for developing students' knowledge and practices". Therefore, deficits in teacher knowledge and understadings will inevitably leave the students with poor understanding and skills of the technologies curriculum and content and they will be less likely to see real world connections.
Another important issue when thinking about the use of the technologies curriculum in classrooms is the need for teachers to know how to assess students in the technologies curriculum. I personally have seen how 'wishy washy' the assessment of technology can be in classrooms and totally agree with the need for more understanding on how to assess technology projects. I don't think that teachers intend on assessing in such a way, or that they are being lazy, I simply think that many do not know how or what they need to be assessing.
Technology was previously viewed and taught with a strong procedural focus, however now it is more important that technology is delivered with both a conceptual and procedural focus to ensure a richer technological learning experience for the students that is more meaningful (Jones et al., 2011, p. 198). The focus then, especially for assessment purposes, should not be on the final product but also be on the process. Asking students to follow something like the design process, with interrelated areas for development of a final design and product, and documenting their progress (photos, videos, sample work, reflections, observations, etc.) would be useful in assessing the students' abilities in the technologies curriculum.
There is a strong sociocultural view around the technology area; technology learning and the process of technology are undertaken in a social and cultural context. It is socially and culturally driven (needs driven by the community) to accomplish changes in society. The knowledge students bring with them to the classroom, whether it be social or cultural influences or otherwise, should be seen as valuable resources to the classroom (Jones et al., 2011, p. 199).
Overall I think the biggest impacts this has on me as a future teacher and how I will embrace technology in my classroom are:
- Engage in ongoing learning (personal) and professional development regarding the field of technology. This field will constantly be evolving with globalisation and changing societies so it is something I will never know enough about. I hope to always strive to learn more in this field. As with many teachers though, I feel time will be my biggest constraint here so I will aim to keep up in smaller 'chunks' more often.
- Try to encompass a range of technology activities and learning in my classroom to ensure the students are engaging with a wide range of technologies and in a wide range of design processes and activities. This way I will hopefully engage more students and motivate more students to get involved and I also hope this will help them see the worth and application to real life.
- I will need to actively ensure that when integrating across subjects, that the technologies curriculum does not simply come second best to the other curriculum, for example science. I will need to consciously make an effort to ensure that the technologies curriculum is equally as important as the one it is integrating with and does not get left in the background.
- Remember: Simply using technology is not meaningfully teaching technology (not even close) but it is still something I will endeavour to use in my classroom practice. However, when I am simply using the technology, I will not consider this in any way to be addressing the technologies curriculum.
References
Jones, A., Buntting, C. & de Vries, M. J. (2011). The developing field of technology education: a review to look forward. International journal of technology and design education, 23, 191-212. doi 10.1007/201798-011-9174-4
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