Evaluating Technology-Based Curriculum Materials

Evaluating Technology- Based Curriculum Materials.

This article breaks down evaluating technology-based curriculum materials into various separate categories. Some of these categories include authenticity, evaluation framework, content, technology and instructional tools, assessment, and teacher support. Authenticity discusses how when evaluating the technology, important questions such as “Is the technology used to bring real-world examples into the classroom” should be addressed. It suggest that technology should assist students with learning by enabling them to interact and engage on their own rather than listening or observing. It also touches upon how using some of these technologies can help develop skills which are used in society today in the work world, and these technologies should be taken advantage of in the classroom to not only further engage students in learning but develop them with skills they will later need in life that will help them succeed as employees.
Evaluating framework, discusses that the framework of evaluating curriculum material is that curriculum evaluators “prepare their own assessment criteria tailored to the instructional context in which the curriculum materials will be used (comer and Geissler, 1998).” In other words, teachers and evaluators should take into account who the learners are (age, level, ability), the learning environment and limitations of the technology being used. In the technology and instructional tools section, the type of hardware and software and availability of these technologies are addressed as a concern to take into account when evaluating. This includes assessing how much time a teacher spent in learning to use these technologies as well as the engagement of students in these activities and how long they used the technologies for. It suggest that evaluations should assess software with the children’s learning as their main concern. The overall goal of technology assessment should be to measure student engagement and learning which is exemplified thought the student’s performances. Software and hardware realism can further engage students into learning and further stimulate their behavior towards the learning. Overall, engagement through technology appears to be the strongest aspect in improving learning, and thus the type of engagement that software and hardware provide and how the students perform through that technology are significant to evaluating technology-based curriculum materials.

http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-3/based.htm
ERIC Identifier: ED449118
Publication Date: 2000-10-00
Author: Reed, Diane S. - McNergney, Robert F.
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Teaching and Teacher Education Washington DC.