Middle School curriculum works towards grooming the learners to become responsible, confident and reflective individuals; individuals self motivated to engage in innovative activities. This is achieved by making learning interesting and fun rather than a necessity. Pedagogy guided by neuroscience, Bloom’s Taxonomy, and Multiple Intelligences, to mention a few ‘make every moment of learning meaningful, joyous and most importantly effective’. Learners are further encouraged to develop a global view through interdisciplinary learning.
TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN EDUCATION
In BHIS, integrating technology in classroom is much more than teaching basic computer skills and software in computer period. We include technology across curriculum to enhance the learning process. We believe in blended learning which contributes the best of both realms i.e. self-paced digital learningand facilitator-based class room teaching.
We stepped into digital learning in the academic year 2013-2014 by integrating apps, games, video, movies in curriculum which promotes the 4Cs of 21st century learning skill i.e. collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity. The apps, media, web links are selectively chosen to strengthen the variety of skills along with concept clarity. The focus of integrating technology in curriculum for us is achieving learning goals and outcomes in highly engaging manner, not the devices and apps.
Glimpses of apps/ web links that we use in our curriculum to fulfill 4Cs are as follows:
Collaboration
Make my groups, flexible team generator and scorer, Picassa
Communication
Class Dojo, Survey Monkey
Critical Thinking
Movie clips/documentaries followed by answering critical thinking questions
Creativity
Prezi, creating Facebook pages and classroom blogs
Technology also changes the way teachers teach, offering educators effective ways to reach different types of learners and assess student understanding through multiple means. As technology is effectively integrated into the curriculum, our teachers grow into true facilitators. It helps to make the process of teaching-learning more engaging and rewarding. While using technology to fulfill 4Cs, we intentionally promote responsible and safe use of internet to develop our young digital natives into global digital citizens.
