E-curriculum

Lo extraje del siguiente (quite interesting)blog http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/e-curriculum-12-important-points-to-consider-digital-learning-part-one/ 12 Points To Consider When Transforming Toward Digital Curriculum 1. What is your district or school definition of a digital curriculum? Consider that it is more than putting a digital device at the center, after-all students should be at the center. In fact, using a device to find lessons on the internet may actually point to old fashion analog activities, or could give them a new twist. If students are at the center, remember all the items at the peripheral including labs, field trips, art, music, dance, interviews, activities, and yes… even a textbook! Imagine all the other things that you can put around the center using digital opportunities that allow you and your students to find, create, and connect with. 2. A digital curriculum requires schools to be equipped with the necessary infrastructure and technology to deliver true digital content. This requires adequate bandwidth, wireless broadcasting, and necessary student and teacher personal technology. Do schools supply all of this technology or do we find ways to incorporate technology students already own? 3. A digital curriculum is much more than a textbook delivered electronically and disseminated through a Xerox job of thousands of copied PDF files. Adopting a digital textbook, whether it be commercial or open source, can only be part of the picture. Transforming to a digital curriculum demands utilizing a textbook as one entity, not the central piece. Do not replace the analog with a digital reproduction of the past! 4. A digital curriculum requires that thought be given to student access not just at school but in student homes and the general community. There must be deliberate actions set towards building bridges across the digital divide. How are you planning to service this need? Are their some creative solutions? Are there possibly even community partnerships? 5. A digital curriculum requires sustained professional development that allows teachers to learn, collaborate and plan outside of the traditional textbook box. This includes participation in professional learning communities and webinars blended with ongoing professional development within the school or district. In other words, professional development must contain the very attributes sought in the digital curriculum being implemented for students. Could online digital access provide a new concept of time in relationship to teacher training, preparation? 6. A digital curriculum must have some thought and planning. Are lessons bought commercially, created by teachers, or a combination? If teachers are creating, what is the process and system to build and sustain? Are the lessons being tagged for easy access? Are the components of UDL (Universal Design For Learning) being used? What are copyright thoughts and ideas? What type of vetting process is in place to ensure quality? What type of LMS (Learning Management System) is going to be incorporated? Is there a way that the effort can be shared by all teachers? 7. A digital curriculum should contain a wide variety of resources and content allowing the teacher to plan engaging learning activities. The process of writing standards should be left at the national and state level. After all, most local standards are copied, pasted and possibly edited from the national and state standards. Teachers in the classroom must be given the time to plan learning and contribute activities that are part of an exciting curriculum. 8. A digital curriculum must open up the doors to not just student consumption of content but to student production. Activities must allow students to recreate, publish, remix, and innovate. This interactivity is the key to creating a digital curriculum that is powerful and effective. This interactivity must allow for formative learning and assessment opportunities. A digital curriculum allows the creation of a society of creators, innovators, and learners. It must operate at all levels of Bloom’s. 9. A digital curriculum should open up the classroom walls and allow for collaboration between classrooms, communities, and cultures. Additionally, this online learning should create classrooms that are hybrid in nature, preparing students for avenues of learning found on the web and for their future schooling. Students must learn the online skills necessary to communicate, collaborate, and learn. 10. A digital curriculum must allow for nonlinear learning, differentiated instruction, backward/inverted teaching, as well as instructional components and ongoing assessment that will bring productivity to the classroom. New technologies are able to infuse these attributes into a digital curriculum resulting in student engagement, learning and achievement. 11. A digital curriculum must allow for incorporation of innovative instruction such as STEM, PBL, and NETS technology standards. It is a digital curriculum that has the ability to finally deliver the aspirations of education reformers such as Piaget and Dewey. 12. A digital curriculum must allow students to be at the center of their education with the teacher actively facilitating and orchestrating real student learning. Such a curriculum allows students to contribute and design outcomes. It gives students the necessary ”Drive” (Daniel Pink) to become actively involved and take charge of their education.