Curriculum? What curriculum?
If you’ve read any of my other posts I’m probably starting to sound like a broken record, but I always feel it’s important for me to clarify that I’m not a teacher. I work at the U of R, and in fact I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a curriculum before. Maybe in the future when I have a heavier hand in the development process for courses that will change, but for now my position is a lot more technical. As such I was kind of laughing at myself during this weeks discussion because I spent a majority of it just listening and learning rather than putting my assumptions out there and risk sounding like a…
Obviously there’s nothing wrong with just listening, I actually had the most eye opening moment so far in the two EC&I classes I’ve been part of. I feel like almost every discussion so far in my courses has been a discussion on some aspect of technology, followed by acknowledgement that it’s vital for us to start educating students on this technology, but this is often paired with confusion for how we can actually go about that. With me not being in the schools I’ve always felt weird saying “We need to teach this”, when I have essentially no idea how things actually go down in the classroom. I actually don’t know if I had actually considered any specific technique to teach students all these new concepts from the digital age besides simply getting them to use technology more.
But thanks to Miranda, Jenni, & Allysia this week felt like a breath of fresh air. The concept of integrating digital literacy into the already existing curriculum is absolutely genius. The three of them made it sound so easy, and I was even a little bit disappointed that the thought of doing this hadn’t crossed my mind before. I do not know the inner working of how a curriculum gets decided on, or how long it would take for the addition of a digital literacy subject in schools to become commonplace, but the solutions provided this week can be done here and now.
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Hi Josh!
I empathize this your frustration here! The content catalyst this week clearly outlined that there is content, concepts, and a framework to address the formalities of building this curriculum, but why is there no action? From the perspective of a high school teacher, I wish I could offer more insight into this process and how it operates, but it does seem that there is little consultation with teachers when new curricula is developed.
I found this particularly frustrating with the new financial literacy 10 curriculum and how it was implemented in each Sask school. Curriculum develop is a complex process, that involved a lot of policy and politics, but it can feel so frustrating to sit on the sidelines and offer opinions to ears that are not presently listening. And we press on, in hopes that one day those concerns or opinions are heard.
Thanks for sharing!!
Hi Josh, I was laughing so hard at the first paragraph of this post because I could totally relate, as I was also in your shoes during these discussions. But thanks to teamwork and collaboration, I got up to speed with what the Digital Curriculum for students entails. I believe this experience with team work and collaboration can help fill in gaps for students in digital literacy and will enable them to engage more effectively and learn from each others’ experiences, fostering a sense of confidence and responsibility as they navigate the digital landscape.
Josh, I liked that you were willing to be honest and say that you are not sure how difficult it would be to add digital literacy into the curriculum and that we need to ‘teach’ it as you are not a teacher. I think that even as a teacher it is a difficult task that we are given as it seems that every time we turn around there is something new in which we are being asked to learn and teach. I agree that we need to change with the times but I also wonder at what point and time is something going to be taken off of our plates and put onto the plates of the parents? My Dad always referred to education being like a pendulum and how we need to find a balance and not be too much on the side of the students/families and we can’t have all the power be with the educators either. I know as an elementary teacher I struggle with the use of technology in the classrooms at times. We do not have technology available to our students in the younger grades other then what the teacher would be in charge of.