Integrating digital technologies into the New Zealand curriculum: Future-focused and technological ways of thinking

Abstract

The ability to function in a technologically mediated world is a global priority. In New Zealand, there has been a recent curriculum revision, which emphasises the role of Digital Technology, and there is an assumption that this will equate to the use of digital technologies for learning. This change highlights a need for students to develop their digital fluency but also engage with learning that encourages them to become creators of digital outcomes. To enable this process, students need to be encouraged to develop their technological and technical ways of thinking. This article reports on qualitative research to describe how one secondary school teacher enacted digital technology aspects of the technology curriculum. Data were collected through observational and self-report methods. The findings indicate that technological ways of thinking are suited to the enactment of technology education, when situated within authentic, personally meaningful, or problem-based contexts for learning.