Designing learning activities for a technologically integrated curriculum

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) now play a significant part in many classrooms. New and
sophisticated technologies are introduced to the education market regularly. But no matter how good the tools, unless
teachers are convinced and willing to design, develop, and implement appropriate pedagogies that use the new
technologies; the new gizmos are unlikely to succeed in classrooms. In many schools across the globe, teachers have
blended new technologies in an array of innovative ways. This paper describes such an initiative which is currently
underway at a high school in Queensland, Australia. A group of year eight students (first year in high school) and
their teachers in the Technologically Integrated Curriculum (TIC) Program use ICT and related technologies in all
their subjects. Purpose-build rooms accommodate the students to do their work at school. They also use Blackboard
to access learning materials after school hours. Qualitative data were gathered from teachers (N =10) through structured and unstructured interviews to ascertain their perceptions of the new initiative. Teachers in this program had between 5-30 years of teaching experience. This investigation identified challenges faced by teachers and identifies the factors and the key questions associated with designing learning activities in a technology rich learning
environment.