Designing the Classroom Curriculum Designing the Classroom Curriculum | Page 150

Designing the Classroom Curriculum
ultimately may disrupt the premise of traditional classroom based teaching and learning as ‘we’ know it today.
The implications for schools and teachers are unfathomable at this point. While some way off the potential
for biological computing in education is on the horizon (Warwick and Ruiz, 2008; OECD, 2007b). My key
point is that these circumstances will require a response from educators.
The challenge for the teacher in all this is how to incorporate and utilize ICT’s for optimal teaching and
learning effect and in doing so come to terms with the pervasive and ever changing context that technological
advancements are creating in the modern world. Taken together the incorporation of technology comes to
represent a massive potential for the classroom teacher when they design and execute their classroom
curriculum and importantly in the context of this book, their instructional methods.
Before investigating these ideas in greater detail, I briefly provide background to the modern technological
world.
Towards a Computerized World
It is generally accepted the personal computer arrived in our society between 1974 and 1977. During this
three year period several personal computers (IBM 5100, RadioShack’s TRS 80, Altair, and Commodore
PET) appeared in the market place. Microsoft appeared on the computer scene in 1975 and in 1976 the first
Apple computer. 1991 was the year that the internet as we know it came into being and in the same year the
“Power Book 100” regarded as the first affordable portable (laptop) computer was released. Thus personal
computers appeared in modern society less than 40 years ago. The uptake of this new technology in both
society generally and education has been at an exponential rate. Computers have not only invaded the work
place they have conquered the home as well. This change as to how society works, interacts and plays is
often referred to as the ‘Technological Revolution’.
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