A secondary ICT curriculum should contribute to the building up of
teams of professionals with these new competencies.
The use of ICT cuts across all aspects of economic and social life.
Technological developments in ICT are very rapid. Technology quickly
becomes obsolete requiring new skills and knowledge to be mastered
frequently. Adaptation is only possible when based on a sound understanding
of the principles and concepts of ICT.
CURRICULUM AND TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
Keeping pace with technological development and the changing competencies
required of both students and their teachers requires a state-ofthe-art
curriculum and appropriate teacher development.
A state-of-the-art curriculum
The ICT curriculum for schools presented in the chapters that follow is
a state-of-the-art curriculum. This curriculum offers to schools and
countries where ICT curricula are evolving the foundations from which
to advance rapidly. It is not effective to repeat the development process
with respect to ICT education that has already taken place elsewhere
since to do so only slows down development and keeps institutions and
countries from closing the gap. Most important is the need to integrate
or infuse ICT meaningfully throughout all school subjects. Many opportunities
arise from the inclusion of ICT: the ICT curriculum presented in
this book attempts to facilitate fruitful use of these opportunities.
A modular curriculum
The curriculum has been designed in modular form so that education
authorities can select appropriate elements to meet their objectives at the
phase of development reached in their countries. Sufficient detailed
description of each objective has been given so that textbook writers and
educational publishers can produce course materials that meet local,
cultural, and developmental circumstances. Alternatively, high quality
learning materials from developed countries may be adapted to meet
local circumstances.