By David and Margaret Carpenter
All Aboa rd!
How a New Curriculum-Development Review Process Brought Teachers,
Administrators, and Learning Specialists to the Table and Resulted in
Some Innovative Uses of Technology
Instructional technologists can suc-
ceed in implementing 21st-century
skills instruction only when those
skills are seen as relevant to the
pressing agendas that coexist in
their schools. Otherwise they
run the risk of being just more
noise that teachers must
respond to and may lter out.
So how can they be seen as
part of the solution instead
of another nagging problem?
At Hong Kong Interna-
tional School (HKIS), tech-
nology instruction
gained traction
when it was
addressed
alongside
several cur-
riculum initia-
tives. Here’s how a new curriculum-
development review process re-
sulted in some innovative uses of
technology in the classroom. (See
“Key Elements of the New Curricu-
lum Process” on page 19.)
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Putting Teachers in Charge
Teachers at the Upper Primary
division of the HKIS felt they were
inundated by the demands placed
upon them by their students, par-
ents, administrators, and subject-area
specialists. Rather than letting teach-
ers drown in these demands, school
administrators put teachers at the
center of the curriculum-development
process. ey designed a system that
harnessed the talents and time of vari-
ous stakeholders through a carefully
orchestrated collaborative process.
Teachers, learning specialists, and
administrators comprised the Collaboration Team based on the idea
that everyone should participate and
“own” the curriculum. is learning community approach, with designated classroom teacher leaders
representing their grade-level teammates, put the teachers in charge of
the process. Also, from the outset,
it put them in conversation with the
instructional technologist, the library
media specialist, and the gi ed-and-
talented coordinator.
e inclusion of the instructional
technologist and library media specialist as partners on the Collaboration Team dynamically moved the
process to focus on 21st-century skill
adoption. Because these two specialists serve all grade levels, their perspective on next-step skills needs was
invaluable to the classroom teachers,
whose focus was naturally more grade
speci c. eir input and leadership
regarding instructional design and
adoption of the NETS and ALA standards led to seamless integration of
information and communication literacy (ICL) skills into the social studies
and science units of study.
Administrators and the curriculum
director facilitated e cient, collaborative discussions that focused on a few
standards and essential questions,
making the assessments uniform and
providing options for di erentiation,
many of which were possible with the
technology support. Having so many
perspectives helped eliminate redun-dancies as well as build upon students’
skills sequentially.
