An integrated curriculum is meant to be inclusive and mindful of students from all areas and walks of life. As much as curriculums try to make everyone fit in, there are times when they leave out the most important of contents which would be helpful to the student. The world today is slowly turning into a global village that requires each person to face up to the emergent issues of seclusion from participation in economic, social, cultural and political lives within their society (Johnson, 2004). Efficiency and effectiveness lack in these societies since education is not taken as the key towards widening personal reasoning at the same time enhancing their capabilities. Integration of the curriculum is meant to be a method of organizing learning where an activity, unit or lesson draws upon more than one discipline promoting cross-links between the content within a particular subject matter (Ormrod, 2000). Education is supposed to provide basic elementary skills such as being able to read write and socialize. Knowledge is meant to be imparted. This knowledge should be used to ameliorate negative features of life such as child labor due to the introduction of free primary education. Universal education aid under the foundations of global roles can assist in empowering those suffering from economic and social devaluations.
Curriculum differentiation is meant to tailor teaching environments and practices to create appropriately different experiences for different students. This will entail deleting the already mastered material from the curriculum to allow for addition of new process, products and content to provide enriching activities for the students. This will allow teachers to differentiate the different capabilities of the students and provide course work for gifted children or otherwise. The main aim of this is to create a learning environment that will most likely be student centered focusing on the needs and interests of the students rather than those of the teacher (Falk, 2002).
In the current situation, the school at the locality is at the present not able to enhance the education of the students in the e-learning sector. There is need to provide the students with a better understanding of the globalization process. This is due to the continued improvement of the technological advancement as is propelled by necessity. The teachers need to improve the way the students grasp the availability of the internet at their disposal and the way they can turn it into a very important research and learning tool (Falk, 2002: Johnson, 2004). The teacher is best placed to change the way the children view the technological advancement as they are nearer the student than anybody else. They are credited with providing the students with new information always. However, some of this “new” information may be redundant to some and needs to be improved to provide a chance for the gifted to enhance their capability and increase their knowledge base. With the integration plan matrix, we will be able to achieve this if the teachers are willing to relentlessly tackle lack of awareness with zeal. It will increase the differentiation and integration of the curriculum to meet the needs of the students at hand and improve their lives and their societies at large.
With the integration planning matrix, the main aim will be to encourage independence of the student initiative through encouragement and tolerance. The main aim will be the establishment of an e-learning system that will enable students be conversant with the ICT. With the current global trends towards the technologically accepted modules, it the high time we encouraged our students in fifth grade to use computers for knowledge empowerment rather than the common use of playing games and using the internet for research other than for surfing overrated sites (Thompson, 2001). There is urgency in educating these children on the use of the available data for their benefit rather than for other unwanted work. If clearly understood by the teaching staff, then this could be an important venture in the lives of the students. Being a highly reflective and proactive plan, the e-learning is guided by relevant research and data that will enhance their future priorities and the future careers. The school management will be entitled to monitor and review the syllabus at intervals to check on the benefits accrued by the students form the curriculum. This will assist the team in appreciate the value of the plan or disregarding it altogether before enchanting it into the curriculum (Johnson, 2004).
Another target in the e-learning process is the modification of the content offered by the curriculum. We are aiming at a period when the curriculum will shift from being factual and descriptive to creating room for key concepts and generalizations of these concepts (Thompson, 2001). We are also aiming at bring concepts together and providing linkages to show their relationships. With the internet being so open to a great deal of information, there will be content diversification that will enhance comprehension of everyday activities. The global village connection will assist the students in studying individuals and how they react to problems and opportunities. This is a remedy for differentiation of the content to include the interests of those studying traditional education forms and the modern ones (Thompson, 2001). This enhances equality and enhances cohesion among the communities living in a similar situation. This will be achieved by integration of skills learnt by the teacher and applying them to the benefit of the students. The teacher will only understand how to integrate the new skills into teaching curriculum by going with what works fro the students and what does not. This means that they have to evaluate whether the skills change the behavior and concepts of the students after being taught.
Lessons will have to be outlined in such a way that they adhere to the intended purpose. This implies that the planning must be done in a way that will develop the skills acquired and the skills inherent (Johnson, 2004). This will mean that the teacher has to integrate ICT into the learning activities of the class and introducing new stand-alone activities that involve digital resources. This will be boosted by the ability of the teacher to post individual notes on the school intranet to ensure anybody can access them at any time as may be required. Specific student learning outcomes must be developed through the curriculum plan by using the ICT tools to support them. This will only be possible if the curriculum plan connects ICT learning with other curriculum frameworks. We are going to make sure that the teachers will access build plans online and use technology to organize and file these curriculum structures (Stiggins, 2002). They will have to manage them online and share them with other professionals from the same platform.
The teacher will therefore use technology to support higher-order thinking, communication, collaboration, problem-solving and decision-making skills among students. Thus, effective pedagogical approaches based on evidence of learning processes and teaching with ICT will be brought out (Stiggins, 2002). We will be able to augment the occurrence of learning, reporting and assessment online in an environment fully amalgamated in the curriculum plan. This will assist teachers to plan collaboratively and share curriculum resources with other teachers. The implication is that more teachers will be able to carry out full support to their students as they will meet their needs with the help of others who have been in a similar predicament. The main objective in this case is to facilitate chances for the gifted students to produce end products that are reflective of their capability and potential (Stiggins, 2002). The teacher will then incorporate real life problems that are relevant to the activities carried out by the students. This will tell on the ability of the students to relate to the problems with what they have learnt in class. That means that the ICT classes will be used to solve some of the everyday problems encountered and in turn provide simpler ways of solving them. Appropriate audiences for the product produced is another way of boosting the morale of these students as they experience the joy of being part of a general problem hence mentoring them towards further success.
The process will be in form of a flow chart that if followed, will assist the teachers as well as curriculum planners in the school. The one provided herein will be of great assistance to those willing to follow it.
Flow chart showing a planning matrix (Johnson, 2004, pg. 58)
The above chart will be followed to ensure we stay on course in our quest to achieve the goals and objectives stated in our lesson plan. This will be followed by an analysis of what we should do to improve on it or what should be left out altogether.