Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge
This blog is in response to he article Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Learning Activity Types: Curriculum-based Technology Integration Reframed by: Harris. I agree with others who posted in the VoiceThread that this article summed up our class really well, but it also could have been a great introduction to the purpose of the class. Focusing on our content areas and ways that technology can support them and great pedagogy is so much more useful than finding ways to use technology just for the sake of using technology.
The article states that often the training involved with using technology is too “technocentric”, meaning that there is little attention given to the interplay between technology, pedagogy, content and context. The authors discuss a framework they recommend that uses TPACK: technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge in order to better integrate technology instruction that is more meaningful for students. Each of these areas is essential areas of knowledge for teachers to teach effectively using technology. The weakness of this “technocentric” approach is stated as forgetting two essential aspects of teaching- content and pedagogy. The focus is all on the technology with little learning taking place in a meaningful way.
I know I have said this before, but I have noticed this with any training I’ve had with technology (besides this course). The training revolves around how to use the technology and not why we should use it or the learning gains students can make. This course is different because we can practice with the technologies and see how others in a variety of teaching contexts use different technologies. I also hadn’t looked at the technology standards before this course.
The discussion on technological knowledge was interesting to me because it says that it is always in a “state of flux” which makes defining what “technological knowledge” is so difficult. I used to have “technological knowledge” compared to my colleagues just because I was younger, but I am loosing my edge as I focus on content and pedagogy and grad school. It is a hard balance to keep. After reviewing many software and technology applications and the research behind a few of them I can see that the goal of adding technology into the classroom isn’t to entertain students or just to be novel; the goal is to engage students in social learning and in the social construction of knowledge. It is a blessing to work in a school and in a district that supports technological advances and trials and errors by teachers. I have the supports in place to try new things with my students and a great group of students this year to be my lab rats (I teach psychology…).
I come again to the end of a course where I have gained many new ideas for change in my classroom and I have to make everything fit together in a way that is useful for me and for my students. There seems to be too many resources for me to sift through, but each week is a new week and each schoo
l year is a new year. I can try new things and craft my teaching practice each year to make it better and better. Not many other professions can say that.
From apscms.net. This graphic summarizes the ideas in the article about needing all parts of TPACK.
iSAFE- Internet Safety
- This certificate shows my completion of the iSAFE curriculum
In this blog I am reflecting on the iSAFE curriculum. The iSAFE curriculum contains six modules:
- Personal Safety – Overview of curriculum with general information about personal internet safety
- Cyber Community issues – Things to avoid on the Internet and how to avoid them
- Cyber Predator Identification – How to identify and avoid cyber predators
- Cyber Security – How to identify and avoid viruses, worms, and other malicious code
- Intellectual Property – How to protect and respect intellectual property
- Effective Outreach – How you can help others in your school community become aware of internet safety issues.
This curriculum helped us address EALR 2 of the Washington State Standards— DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP: Students demonstrate a clear understanding of technology systems and operations and practice personal safety, and legal, ethical, and respectful behavior.
After going through this curriculum I see the importance of internet safety and having students teach each other about internet safety. Kids just won’t listen as well to adults as they will to their peers. The statistics in the modules sometimes surprised me and sometimes affirmed what I already thought. The cyber predator section was really scary to watch and listen to. It is shocking to me that there are so many kids who have met face to face with people they first met online, but guess I shouldn’t be shocked with the popularity of dating sites like eHarmony and match.com when adults meet up with people they met online. The difference that kids don’t always see is that adults are usually more careful in an online environment. Kids see online relationships are more “pure” without the distractions of looks. They are more willing to trust internet relationships because they believe they are anonymous.
With so much information online we all have to be so careful. 87% of Americans can be identified by just birth date, location/zip code, and gender! I was surprised to hear that there don’t appear to be any differences in online behavior between ethnic groups and that the internet is a “great equalizer.” I am not surprised to hear that girls are more involved in social networking sites and blogs.
The section on copyright infringement, patents and trademarks is great and should be shown to students because they don’t get it. Just because something is online doesn’t mean that it is free for the taking. All work and classroom assignments are copyright of the students. I can’t post any work online without permission.
I liked that the goal of iSAFE which is to empower students to manage their “digital footprint “ to protect themselves, not to prevent students from going online. Identity.net seems like a great resource to help students decide who is safe to share information with and how much information to share. The way that students take action and take control of teaching each other to be safe is inspiring and I wish our school district would use a program like this to help parents protect students.
Look to see what iSAFE has to offer parents, students, and teachers.
Teacher Pedagogical Beliefs: The Final Frontier in Our Quest for Technology Integration?
%20figure4miller.img_assist_custom.jpg "Changing Teacher Behavior")
- Materials, Beliefs and Approaches are needed in order for teacher behavior to change.
(image from ucalgary.ca)
Changing teacher beliefs often needs to start with changing teacher behavior (according to Guskey) by helping teachers to feel competent with technology and what a classroom that successfully uses technology will look like (pg 34). Because most of us do not have a 1:1 ratio of students to computers in the classroom we need to see how other teachers effectively use computers in the classroom without huge amounts of downtime or management issues. Most teachers need to see models of effective teaching using technology since most teachers did not have the technology available now in their classrooms as they went through school.
Teachers tend to think about technology as “just another thing to do” or “just another teaching method” (pg 30) which informs their practice in their classroom. If technology stays as just another way to get the same information across to students its use in the classrooms will not be as effective as it could be. This class has been instrumental in helping me to see that technology really does help students to learn in the classroom and I can use technology in an effective way that isn’t just using technology for technology sake.
It was nice to hear that it is normal for teachers to begin using technology in the classroom in a very teacher-centered way. The goal, my goal, is then to move teachers to using technology for student-centered activities. I am thinking about how to incorporate the technology we are using in this class in my classroom in a meaningful way. I feel lucky that I can practice on one class next year and get some good feedback from students before I change too much of my teaching practice too fast.
I am on several committees to plan professional development for our school and our district. The ideas in this article for what PD needs to include to be effective in getting teachers to use technology in the classroom will be helpfu. Professional Development needs to focus on pedagogical support to help teachers develop competence starting with those tools that support current practice first. Imbedded in this professional development needs to be opportunities for teachers to observe technology being used in real classrooms. Teachers need to work together to really transform their classroom practices so time needs to be given in professional development for this to happen (pg 35).
As I plan for next year I will find ways to use technology more in my classroom and as the year progresses hopefully I can tweak it to make sure that I am using technology more effectively also.
The Wiki Way of Learning
Learning about how wikis can show student thinking and allow for reflection and problem solving has helped me to see the benefits of wiki in the classroom. Before reading this article I was ignorant about how beneficial wikis because they allow students to learn from each other, which is the best way to learn. Wikis allow collaboration, co-construction and demonstrates different ways of learning. There is no expert in a wiki, only collaborators constructing knowledge together.
Wikis provide a quick way for students to construct knowledge socially in an authentic way and provide them the space to reflect on their thinking and how their thinking has changed. Ruth (2004) says that students will be more engaged in learning if they can get help from teachers and other students and if they feel that the task is meaningful. Knowing why a wiki is used is so much more important to me than knowing how they are used. I am looking forward to seeing more examples of wikis working in science and psychology classes to implement the same ideas and wikis for reviewing major concepts in my classroom.
Social and cooperative learning have been shown to be more beneficial to a diverse group of students. Wikis may be another way I reach out to underserved students.
(from abpc.wikispaces.com)
The graphic compares collaboration via email with wiki
Bridging the Gap
I very much agree with this comment in the Bogle article: “Common barriers to uptake and development include time constraints, lack of experience or familiarity with applications and their purpose, reservations about the relevance of emerging technology for education, and importantly lack of access to support and expert consultation.”
Our school district does provide quite a bit of support for technology, but I still struggle with finding the time to fit certain newer pieces of technology into my classroom (Blogging, Voicethread, Vernier software, etc). Each of these pieces of technology can enhance the learning experience of my students, but sometimes I don’t see how it will help more than a class discussion or lab. If I had more time to sit with an expert and fit technology pieces into my curriculum I would be more inclined to use it. Implementing technology is something that needs to happen at the classroom level- it needs to be a grassroots endeavor, as the article says. Teachers need to be supported, but they also need to want to use the technology in their context. Individual teachers are the key to the model that Bogle suggests because we are the ones actually using the technology and learning processes with our students. I think that if more time and energy is given to the model below more teachers could more confidently incorporate technology into their classrooms.
The model given by Bogle seems like a great way to help more teachers incorporate more technology into their classrooms. The model tries to do 4 things that are essential for teachers as they try to incorporate technology:
o Increase awareness of emerging technology, particularly in its capacity to enhance learning and teaching;
o Model effective use and best practice in a way that holistically integrates pedagogical factors;
o Establish a comprehensive support framework;
o Embed eLearning activities in wider policy measures.
Overall I am feeling overwhelmed this week with the amount of learning I need to do to make technology more useful in my classroom context and look forward to more practice with different technologies in this class.
Technology is at the center of Marzano's "best practices"
Minds on Fire
“We are entering a world in which we all will have to acquire new knowledge and skills on an almost continuous basis.”
As I progress through my M.Ed. program I am often reminded that my calling is to help students learn how to learn and think critically. It is impossible to teach them everything there is to know about Physics, Chemistry, Earth Science, Anatomy, or Psychology in the short time that I work with students. What will make the biggest difference in my students’ lives and in the world as a whole will be to teach students how to acquire new knowledge and skills on their own.
Our reading this week dealt with social learning and the role of the Internet in facilitating networking between people. I hadn’t thought much about how much the Internet has opened doors for more social learning and more connections between people. The Minds on Firearticle says that the Internet opens doors to focus on how we are learning and not so much on what we are learning.
Knowledge is constructed socially, but I wonder about how engaged most people really are with their online learning. Being in class and having in person discussions often enable more engagement. I have enjoyed my online classes, but some of them I know I could have learned more and made more connections between the content and my context had I been able to discuss new ideas in person with others.
The article also mentions that students in study groups learned significantly more than students who studyied on their own. Maybe this is a way to get the best of both worlds- online learning convenience with more connections to the content and more social construction of knowledge. I will definitely share this piece of information with my students next year. Maybe they will start showing up more regularly for study sessions…
I am trying to figure out how to best utilize online resources to help my students and struggling with the idea of encouraging more of my students (and myself) to spend more time in front of a glowing screen. This article listed so many resources that would be helpful to use if I could narrow down a more specific purpose. My students are great at “networking” online and I want to encourage them to use this amazing resource to increase their understanding of their own metacognition and our content material.
My student are constantly plugged in to technology and have to sort through tremendous amounts of information daily. I need to work with them on how to do this critically so that they aren’t passively receiving information.
Students are constantly plugged in to technology. We can help them to use it for good. (from http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_tGwb5kDIW4M/R9mPlDSLz2I/AAAAAAAAAFY/UOqfJeqmW3Q/s400/technology-overload2.gif)
Teachers, Not Technicians
Teachers shouldn't have to know programming in order to use technology in the classroom
(From cartoonstock.com)
I found myself agreeing, in large part, with the findings in the article Teachers, Not Technicians: Rethinking Technical Expectations for Teachers by Sandholz and Reilly out of UCR. Just intiutively it seems like teachers will be able to encorporate more technology in their classrooms if they are allowed to focus on curriculum first and not the ins and outs of technology. I have seen first hand that simply giving teachers more computers doesn’t help most of them to integrate their use in curriculum. One of my frustrations at the beginning of the school year is coming in to work early, not to work on curriculum, but to set up my teacher work station, projector and document camera. I love these pieces of technology and use them daily so I don’t mind putting in the time to make sure they work properly. Other teachers may not be so motivated.
The Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) project’s 5 phases of “instructional evolution” was very useful in helping me categorize where I fall in the continuum of integrating technology into my classroom instruction. The five phases are: entry, adoption, adaptation, appropriation, and invention. I, personally, haven’t found this continuum to be a linear progression, but one in which I move through the different phases throughout different times of the year and as I include more technology in my classroom. I mostly fall in the appropriation phase, but would like to challenge myself to be more innovative with the technology, grouping, and assignments I give my students.
As I work in a district with a great plan for our technology. I just need to ask for help and it is given to me almost immediately. Our professional development classes tend to be very tailored to our needs as teachers and I am excited to check more of those classes out in the future. This particular class on instructional technology will give me a taste of what is out there for students which I can practice now and incorporate into my curriculum as I plan this summer.
