Chapter 22: Collaborative Curriculum Design as a Vehicle for Professional Development

The adoption of computer technologies as classroom teaching tools is a slow and difficult process, at both the K–12 and university levels. University faculty in teacher education programs are challenged to prepare new teachers to teach with technology, usually without having had the classroom experience of using these emerging technologies in K–12 schools themselves. As a result, pre-service technology education is often relegated to a single technology competency course—a model that has been found to have little or no impact on later technology use by teachers. The University of Illinois Project TITUS (Teachers Infusing Technology in Urban Schools) has created a professional development program in which teachers, teacher-education faculty, and technology consultants collaborate to design technology-infused curriculum modules, using the curriculum design process as a site of professional development. Collaborative curriculum design anchors the process of learning to use technology within an exploration of what it is to teach and learn the subject—a perspective that is often obscured by the unavoidable need for “point and click” technology instruction with novice users. Design Teams create a connection between teacher educators and K–12 teachers in urban public, schools, helping teacher educators to use technology in a way that models classroom relevant and domain grounded instruction. While the curriculum modules are valuable products, it is the collaborative design process that offers the greatest potential for transforming instruction. We describe the approach, web-based tools that support the process, four structures used for facilitating Design Teams, modules they have created, and lessons learned.