THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN DELIVERING THE CURRICULUM

Desired Learning Outcomes

 Discuss the roles of technology in curriculum delivery

 Identify the factors in technology selection including the use of visual
aids

After learning fundamental concepts about the curriculum, it’s nature

and development; comes the practical phase of curriculum implementation.
Appropriately, the significance of technology in curriculum development
deserves discussion.

The role of technology in the curriculum springs from the very vision of
the e-Philippine plan (e stands for electronic). Thus it is stated: “an
electronically enable society where all citizens live in an environment that
provides quality education, efficient government services, greater sources of
livelihood and ultimately a better way of life through enhanced access to
appropriate technologies.” (International workshop on emerging technologies.
Thailand, December 14-16, 2005). This points to the need for an e-curriculum,
or a curriculum which delivers learning consonant with the Information
Technology and Communications Technology (ICT) revolution. This framework
presupposes that curriculum delivery adopts ICT as an important toll in
education while users implement teaching-learning strategies that conform to
the digital environment. Following a prototype outcomes-based syllabus, this
same concept is brought about through a vision for teacher to be providers of
relevant, dynamic and excellent education programs in a post-industrial and
technological Philippine society. Thus among the educational goals desired for
achievement is the honing of competencies and skills of a new breed of
students, now better referred to as a generation competent in literacies to the 3
Rs (or reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic) but influences, more particularly:
problem-solving fluency, information access and retrieval of
texts/images/sound/video fluency, social networking fluency, medical fluency,
and digital creativity fluency.

Instructional media may also be referred to as media technology or

learning technology, or simply technology. Technology plays a crucial role in
delivering instruction to learners.

Technology offers various tools of learning and these range from non-
projected and projected media from which the teacher can choose, depending
on what he/she sees fit with intended instructional setting. For example, will
chalkboard presentation be sufficient in illustrating a mathematical procedure;
will a video clip be needed for motivating learners?

In the process, what ensues is objective-matching where the teacher

decides on what media or technology to use to help achieve the set learning
objectives.
Non-projected media Projected media
Real objects Overhead transparencies
Models Opaque projection
Field trips Slides
Kits Filmstrips
Printed materials (books, worksheets) Films
Visuals (drawings, photographs, Video, VCD, DVD
graphs, charts, posters)
Visual boards (chalkboard, Computer / multimedia
whiteboard, flannel board, etc.) presentations
Audio materials
Table 2 – Types of Instructional Media/Technology

Factors in Technology Selection

In deciding on which technology to use from a wide range of media

available, the factors on which to base selection are:

1. Practically. Is the equipment (hardware) or already prepared lesson

material (software) available? If not, what would be the cost in acquiring
the equipment or producing the lesson in audial or visual form?

2. Appropriateness in relation to the learners. Is the medium suitable to the

learners’ ability to comprehend? Will the medium be a source of plain
amusement or entertainment, but not learning?

3. Activity/suitability. Will the chosen media fit the set instructional event,
resulting in either information, motivation, or psychomotor display?

4. Objective-matching. Overall, does the medium help in achieving the

learning objective(s)?

The Role of Technology in Curriculum Delivery

It can easily be observed that technological innovation in the

multifarious filed of commerce, science and education, is fact developing such
that it is difficult to foresee the technological revolution in the millennium,
inclusive of educational changes. However, technological changes in education
will make its impact on the delivery of more effective, efficient and humanizing
teaching-and-learning.

But presently, we can identify three current trends that could carry on to
the nature of education in the future. The first trend is the paradigm shift from
teacher-centered to student-centered approach to learning. The second is the
broadening realization that education is not simply a delivery of facts and
information, but an educative process of cultivating the cognitive, affective,
psychomotor, and much more the contemplative intelligence of the learners of
a new age. But the third and possibly the more explosive trend is the increase
in the use of new information and communication technology or ICT.

Already at the turn of the past century, ICT, in its various forms and
manifestations has made its increasing influence on education and the trend is
expected to speed up even more rapidly. Propelling this brisk development is
the spread of the use of the computers and availability of desktop micro-
computers affordable not only to cottage industries, businesses, and homes
but also to schools.
For now, the primary roles of educational technology in delivering the
school curriculum’s instructional program have been identified:

 upgrading the quality of teaching-and-learning in schools;

 increasing the capability of the teacher to effectively inculcate learning,

and for students to gain mastery of lessons and courses;

 broadening the delivery of education outside schools through non-

traditional approaches to formal and informal learning, such as Open
Universities and lifelong learning to adult learners and

 revolutionizing the use of technology to boost educational paradigm

shifts that give importance to student-centered and holistic learning.

These primary toles are based on the framework of Technology-Driven

Teaching and Learning called TPACK ( (1) Technological Knowledge, (2)
Pedagogical Knowledge and (3) Content Knowledge). TPACK shows that there is
a direct interconnectedness of the three components, thus in teaching-learning
process, a teacher should always ask and find the correct answer to the
following questions for every lesson.

1. What shall I teach? (Content knowledge)

2. How shall I teach the content? (Pedagogical knowledge)
3. What technology will I use in how the teach the content?
(Technological knowledge)
Technological
Pedagogical
Content
Knowledge
(TPACK

Technological
Pedagogical Technological Technological
Knowledge Knowledge Content
(TPK) (TK) Knowledge
(TCK)

Pedagogical
Knowledge Content
(CK) Knowledge
(CK)

Pedagogical
Content
Knowledge
(PCK)
Contexts
 Figure 1 – TPACK Framework (Koehler, 2006)
Criteria for the Use of Visual Aids

Learners say, we learn 83% through the use of sight, compared with less
effective ways to learn; hearing (10%), smell (4%), touch (2%) and taste (1%). In
the use of visuals for a wide range of materials (visual boards, charts, overhead
transparencies, slides, computer-generate presentations) there are basic
principles of basic design.

Assess a visual material or presentation (a transparency or slide) using

the following criteria:

 Visual elements (pictures, illustrates, graphics):

1. Lettering style or font – consistency and harmony

2. Number of lettering style – no more than 2 in a static display
(chart, bulletin board)
3. Use of capitals – short titles or headlines should be no more than 6
words
4. Lettering colors – easy to see and read. Use of contrast is good for
emphasis.
5. Lettering size – good visibility even for students at the back of the
classroom
6. Spacing between letters – equal and even spacing
7. Spacing between lines – not too close as to blur at a distance
8. Number of lines – No more than 8 lines of text in each
transparency/slide
9. Appeal – unusual/catchy, two-dimensional, interactive (use of
overlays or movable flaps)
10. Use of directional – devices (arrows, bold letters, bullets,
contrasting color and size, special placement of an item.

Activity 2.2

1. How can technology help in enrichment activities?

2. Should the effective use of media be also assessed by teacher? Why?