Technology Exchange With Regina Barton
Bea Carson
Regina Barton is the technology coordinator of the UFT Teacher Center program. Recently, she took time to discuss some of the recurring issues in her work. She spoke about the relationships among curriculum, standards, and computer technology, including the Internet. How can we put the pieces together? This is a question she hears frequently and often addresses in her presentations and work sessions throughout New York City. A summary of her comments follows.
STANDARDS, CURRICULUM AND TECHNOLOGY
When used appropriately, computer technology offers a means for rich learning opportunities. Barton points out that it can provide quick access to information, serve as a tool for the production of professional-quality publications and presentations, and enable simulations of real-life situations that require collaborative and analytic skills. Technology’s major impact on instruction, however, occurs when it reinforces higher order thinking, supports collaborative learning and creates mechanisms for student accountability, all key components of working with the new standards.
She shares a three-step process, based on 14 years of research on professional development in curriculum and technology with the teacher-participants in the New York State Model Schools Program. These steps can help us to organize our teaching and students’ learning around the integration of curriculum and technology. She points out that we should all keep in mind that, “The most important thing is not the technology but the ideas and content it is transmitting. The curriculum should drive the use of technology.”
A good example of curriculum and technology integration can be found in Online Communication in the Classroom by Roni Messer (1995, UFT Teacher Center Flip Book). She quoted from an online [see http://www.scholastic.com] discus-sion held with Diane Goldin’s students by author Virginia Hamilton. Students had been reading books by Hamilton (see Further Reading). Their questions included, Which story is your favorite? (“You mean in my Her Stories book? I like the one about Catskinella”) Her questions to them included, Which is your favorite? (The class liked so many stories and books that they had a hard time citing only one favorite.) Student, Lauren Figueroa said in part, “To me writing to a famous author was really exciting. We actually got to talk to someone whose books we had read.” Right here through this exchange we understand how technology and literacy can go hand in hand.
Adapted and reprinted with permission from the 1999 issue of UFT Teacher Center Special Edition.
Technology and Curriculum Integration Process
I. PLANNING: Decide what concepts and objectives are to be included in your teach-ing unit, and whether or not technology is appropriate and applicable.
II. INSTRUCTIONAL: Technology Training: Decide what technology specific training is therefore needed.
Check that all of the hard-ware and software you intend to use is in working order, and practice with the equipment. (Repeat practice until it becomes second nature because this enables anticipa-tion of problems before they can happen.)
III. CURRICULUM INTEGRATION: Themes are great for integrating technolo-gy. Not only are they broad enough for applying many types of technology, but other subjects and focal points can be tied in.