EME 5207: Designing Technology-Rich Curricula
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Brief Description:
This course explores questions that address issues associated with curriculum and teaching. Our major focus will be on curriculum development and determining how technology can best be used to promote student understanding. If you are a beginning teacher, you’ll be able to add numerous new tools to your teaching toolbox that deal with curriculum development, philosophy, instructional strategies, assessment, and technology. If you are a more experienced teacher, you’ll develop a deeper understanding of concepts such as understanding, assessment, curriculum development and various ways in which technology could enhance your curriculum.
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Expanded Description:
“How can I cover all the standards required by the district/state/nation and still create an engaging and meaningful for my students?”
“What tools can I add to my teaching toolbox to help my students “understand” the concepts being covered?”
“How do I determine whether my students understand?”
“What are the goals and outcomes of effective curriculum?”
“What factors influence the curriculum being taught in my classroom?”
In this eight-week course, we’ll explore these and other questions that address issues associated with curriculum and teaching. Our major focus will be on curriculum development and determining how technology can best be used to promote student understanding. If you are a beginning teacher, you’ll be able to add numerous new tools to your teaching toolbox that deal with curriculum development, philosophy, instructional strategies, assessment, and technology. If you are a more experienced teacher, you’ll develop a deeper understanding of concepts such as understanding, assessment, curriculum development and various ways in which technology could enhance your curriculum.
We will use Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design model to frame our discussions; however, we’ll carefully consider other curriculum development models so you can determine the curriculum development model that best meshes with your philosophy and the context in which you teach. To make this even more interesting, we’ll consider ways in which technology can best enhance your curriculum to promote student understanding.
At the completion of this course, you should be able to:
- articulate the factors that influence the development of curriculum
- delineate how different educational philosophies shape the teaching of a curriculum
- explain various models of curriculum development
- develop semantic networks of curriculum development and the influences of educational philosophies
- explore methods of producing evidence of student understanding of the curriculum
- discuss methods of integrating technology into the curriculum
- create a curriculum unit that appropriately and seamlessly integrates technology
