Thinking About Designing Technology-Rich Curricula

My friend Cody shared a research article with me titled "What Happens When Teachers Design Educational Technology? The Development of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge" (The article is linked to the title of this post).

It discusses technology integration, and in and of itself technology is not an instrument that can be used to change our current educational system. There have to be teachers who are committed to using it.

"It is becoming increasingly clear that merely introducing technology to the educational process is not enough to ensure technology integration since technology alone does not lead to change. Rather, it is the way in which teachers use technology that has the potential to change education."

This diagram shows what the authors feel is important to establish a framework that is conducive to conveying knowlege through technology integrated curriculum.

This is their description of each area:
Content (C) is the subject matter htat is to be learned/taught. High school mathematics, undergraduate poetry, 1st grade literacy, and 5th grade history are all examples of content that are different from one another.
Technology (T) encompasses modern technologies such as computers, the Internet, digital video, and more commonplace technologies including overhead projectors, blackboards and books.
Pedagogy (P) describes the collected practices, processes, strategies, procedures, and methods of teaching and learning. It also includes knowledge about the aims of instruction, assessment, and student learning.

What we should be striving for is that middle ground - the technological, pedogogical content knowledge. This is where we can design learning experiences that are grounded in process not product.

Koehler, Matthew. and Punya Mishra. "What happens when teachers design educational technology? The development of technological pedagogical content knowledge." Journal of Educational Computing Research. 2005: Volume 32, 131-152.