Combining flexibility pedagogy and technology

On my blog I wrote about flexibility, pedagogical approaches and the use of technology. By taking a closer look you can see that these topics are all related to each other. The spiderweb of Van den Akker (2003) visualizes the relationship between different components of the curriculum, see figure 1. Changes in the core also assume changes in other areas. The metaphor of the web shows the fragile nature of a curriculum (SLO, 2009). When one of the components is changed, this has direct consequences for the other components.

Figure 1: Spiderweb (Van den Akker, 2003)

If you want to offer flexibility related to time. Then you have to make sure that the other components in the curriculum support that. For example you want to offer flexibility on when to follow a lecture. In this case it would be nice to make a video recording of the lecture and put it on Blackboard. In this way students can decide for themselves when they want to follow the lecture.

Did you note the three topics in this example?

·         Flexibility related to time.

·         Pedagogy: giving a lecture can be marked as traditional learning.

·         Technology: making a video recording.

Teachers have to make sure these three components are aligned. Therefore teaching requires integration of many kinds of specialized knowledge.

Want to know more about this knowledge? In my next blog I’ll write more about it!

References

Akker, J. van den (2003). Curriculum perspectives: An introduction. In J. van den Akker, W. Kuiper &   U. Hameyer, Curriculum landscapes and trends. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Nationaal expertisecentrum leerplanontwikkeling (SLO) (2009). Leerplan in ontwikkeling. Enschede: SLO.