CHAPTER SIX: CURRICULUM ORGANIZATION

How are various media and technologies employed to deliver curriculum? Integrating technologies and media into curriculum delivery can have a number of benefits for both teachers and students. Technology-supported delivery of curriculum has a positive impact on the quality of teaching and learning. Nowadays, the curriculum frequently engages webbased materials, software, videotapes, and multimedia presentations. Science and social courses tend to employ a wide range of technologies in order to enhance autonomy for students, improve teaching and learning experiences, and boost effectiveness and flexibility of learning. Foreign language, geography and history classes employ technologies in a number of ways. Particularly, students are encouraged to search for information relevant for classes in the Internet; teachers can use various audio-video aids like animated mapping. A lot of curricular materials have media supplements in the form of CD or DVD or can be supported by websites. Organizational principles. The role of technology in the curriculum organization. Though there are numerous approaches to curriculum design, principles based on the subject matter are predominant while principles related to characteristics of learners and teachers play secondary role in curriculum organization. The following facts support the idea that the curriculum tends to employ principles based on the subject matter. The curriculum is organized around content and skills, which students are supposed to acquire, and subjects are taught separately. Structure of the subject matter predetermines the curriculum design. However, it is necessary to stress that milieu tend to be employed as a basis of curriculum organization as well. The fact that business education and computer classes are an integral part of the curriculum demonstrates that economic context has a strong influence on the range of subjects taught at school. Technology can play an important role in curriculum organization. It is integrated into the curriculum and it is employed while designing the curriculum itself. It supports the

CHAPTER SIX: CURRICULUM ORGANIZATION

curricular objectives, provides effective ways to attain educational goals and assess students academic achievements, and boosts students engagement in the learning process. Technologies provide a wide range of supplementary learning materials in the form of sound, text or video. Technology has a strong influence on teaching methods, since it provides educators with various means to present the material. Social and political implications of technology in curriculum organization. Integration of technologies into the curriculum is a respond of the school system to multiple economic and social changes. The use of technology in curriculum organization is associated with certain social issues. For example, some students do not have good access to technological resources at home, what might have a negative effect on their academic performance and social relations with other students. On the other hand, technologies can bring a lot of social benefits to learners and teachers, since technologies facilitate communication. For example, educators and students can participate in discussions on line and share data and ideas with their colleagues on various websites. Does the curriculum organization increase/decrease the likelihood that tracking will be used? The curriculum is supposed to ensure that all students fulfill their academic potential and have equal opportunities to learn. On the one hand, the curriculum suggests a variety of methods and approaches, which enable teachers to provide effective instruction to learners of different ability levels. On the other hand, it guarantees equal access to quality education. The curriculum contains a number of standardized tests to measure students performance in various disciplines. The results of testing can be used to divide students into groups of different ability levels. Students, who perform better on standardized tests, are placed in higher level classes, while students, who receive worse results, are placed in lower track classes. Moreover, tracking can be observed within a class in the form of differentiated instruction. In other words, the curriculum organization does not eliminate tracking.