This is a teaching methods class. Yet, you will notice from the syllabus and the NC teacher technologies course packet that there are somewhere around 112 computer related objectives that this course covers, and that they address many things that you do not know well or have never encountered. The state of North Carolina with the strong approval of the Governor's office, the Department of Public Instruction, the State Board of Education, the state legislature and others put together teams of educators from around the state to develop these guidelines for those graduating from the state's teacher education institutions. But they are more than just guidelines for they represent a new view of future needs. These guidelines represent a striking break with the past, and the curriculum equivalent of a "call to arms" in reaching towards this vision. At this time for many of you, there is only this one course and this one semester for me to bring you forward into this knowledge base. It is sort of the equivalent of having one semester to teach many of you how to read. I can only tell you that others have risen to the challenge and done very well.

It is helpful to consider the degree of the wrenching course correction that the state of North Carolina, to its great credit, has begun in the last few years to prepare students for its vision of the knowledge and skills needed for the information age. We are all caught in the middle of a giant change of direction. It is a political and intellectual development of immense proportion that will perhaps not be appreciated for many years. The only parallel I can find in history that compares with such wrenching curriculum change occurred thousands of years ago as culture moved from an oral to a written base of communication. The early Greeks built their schools on oratory and rhetoric, because the alphabet and writing had not been invented. But then the change did come. Imagine beginning your teaching in not only a school but a culture that has just heard of the concept of reading but has nevertheless adopted broad goals for teaching reading to everyone. But when folks do look back at this coming turn of the millenium, they will be astonished at the curriculum challenge that was given and the rapidity with which this state addressed the issue.

The stretch required to deal with this vision will not continue forever through future generations of students. The entire state K-12 curriculum and WCU curriculum have been revised. Western students have been required to have a computer and increasingly levels of skills since 1997. If everyone does their part, the Juniors and Seniors of the classes of 2000 and 2001 will be the last WCU students who must deal with this range of objectives without significant prior experience. But this is hardly the end of the situation. The real challenge will begin as the state turns to more seriously address the educational needs of over 66,000 practicing teachers and 8,000 administrators in North Carolina who have not had time for in-depth experience with the new tools for calculation, communication and composition.

You can also play a role in assisting future participants in our teacher education programs. As you encounter those enrolled in our entry course, EDCI 231, encourage them to pay attention to the presentation by  the College's Director of Instructional Technology, who directs students to the web site that enables them to begin work on these objectives in their Sophomore year and who is available to assist them in this effort. The rising ability of students entering this class will enable the course to focus even more on methodology and more advanced technologies.

In the meantime, course participants must deal with the current setting. When a number of new ideas are encountered in class, it is important that participants take the time to return to those topics and soak them up in  greater detail. The reason I have put so much time and effort into the web site is that you do need: 

• the repetition of re-hearing what was dealt with in class again; 
• experiences that do not need lecture introduction; 
• and a way to cover the material at a pace which is very different for each of you. 

Updated: August 15, 2000       The Curriculum     Author: Bob Houghton