WikiEducator

When I started teaching last year, I was informed during the faculty opening lunch that, in addition to teaching the multimedia classes I had gone to 4 years of college to teach, I also was going to be teaching CAD Drafting and Computer Programming classes.  I had been planning my Multimedia curriculum in my head and on paper for 3 years, and besides, I love that stuff.  I could probably throw together a solid hour and half of instruction with five minutes notice.  These two new classes were another issue; teaching them had never even crossed my mind.  I had never even programmed before!  At least there was a textbook for the Programming class, but for the CAD class I was basically on my own.

 

After a day of valuable freaking out time, I starting putting together my curriculum.  My predecessor had left filing cabinets full of assignments and tests, but no curriculum map to put everything in context, no calendar detailing how much time to spend on any one subject, no lesson plans to tie the assignments to state and national technology standards.  I e-mailed an old college friend that was also teaching the class in another district.  Because drafting was the thing he loved, he could throw together something with five minutes notice, and he didn't have any written curriculum either.  I visited another drafting teacher in the district, where I picked up tutorials from a moderately recent version of AutoCAD, but once again, no real curriculum.

 

That was a rough year.

 

I learned very quickly the value of collaboration through via a thorough, written curriculum.  This year in Davis School District, the multimedia teachers have focused on collaboration through a standardized curriculum.  Using online curriculum mapping software, we are able to keep tabs on the progress of the other teachers in the district, swap test questions, and share assignments and ideas that worked especially well.  I find that, as I prepare my curriculum for collaboration, I spend more time aligning my work with technology standards and plan with a longer view in mind.  In two years I've made major progress toward the multimedia program I want to be running, much more than I would have without the help of 10 other dedicated teachers.

 

I can definitely see the benefit of a site like WikiEducator.  The opportunity to share ideas with teachers around the world will only improve our profession and strengthen our programs.  Unfortunately, as I perused the site, I found a concern that I as a technology teacher often have with these programs.  Often, there is very little collaboration among non-core programs.  Math and the sciences are well-represented, but technical programs often have very little in the way of curriculum.  This may be because of the more hands-on nature of our programs, but nonetheless its a common problem.  As I develop my curriculum, I would like to place my assets on this site to help further the presence of technology education on WikiEducator.