Combining TPACK with what we've learned

Well, to begin with the first course. It was about Flexibility. In the other posts you can read the different kinds of flexibility. The second course was about Pedagogical Approaches. Also we post some information about that, 5 different approaches. The course after that we discuss Technology. We played with a camera and post a little reflection about it on the blog.
The previous course was about TPACK. The first thing I thought about was: What does flexibility has to do with this? TPACK is about Technology, Pedagogy and Content. Where’s the flexibility?
But after thinking about that, it became clear.
TPACK has to do with Pedagogy and Technology, that’s clear. But the flexibility is a must have to work with TPACK.
Imagine that you as a teacher would use the blog (like Petra) as a delivery method for assignments. Making a blog is technology, the assignment is the content. The flexibility in it is the manner that students can make the assignments. They can post a little story or they can put some pictures on it. It’s the choice of the student. Also he or she can choose where and when he or she will make the assignment.
So, that’s clear to me!

The main question
Coming back to the main question. How do we combine TPACK with what we have learned?
As I said before in a previous post, when we did the assignment of playing with the camera, we as a group started to think about TPACK. We didn’t think of it literally, but we thought how to combine the camera (technology) with a pedagogical approach. Also we combined it with a content. We used biology as a subject matter. At that moment, we haven’t had the lecture about TPACK, but in our heads we where thinking about it.
After the course about TPACK, it was clear to me how it works. Still I’m sure that it’s very hard for teachers to use TPACK, when they never worked with technology.
The teachers need to develop themselves and then they can work with it. It’s a challenge I think.
But also I think it’s necessary to work with some kind of technology. Marloes said that she was giving a lesson about maps to children on a primary school. When you just teach them about maps on the blackboard or paper, it won’t be authentic for them. When you use some kind of technology, like a GPS or Google Maps, it will be authentic. Children recognize a GPS or Google Maps. It’s something they work with in daily life.

'A lecture is still a lecture when you play it on a laptop'
In the last course we say a video about TPACK. It was a funny video with a reporter, P. Mishra and M. Koehler. A nice common they made was: A lecture is still a lecture when you play it on a laptop.
Some teachers would think: Well, I use technology by putting the lecture on Internet so students can see it. But do you use TPACK than? I don’t think so. You just combine the content with the technology, but don’t change the pedagogical approach. It’s not TPACK.

Conclusion
So, we learned a lot about TPACK. How does it work and what are the implications. How to implement it and how can you make sure teachers will use it, is still a little bit unclear for me. But, I think that we will learn about that in the next courses.
First I wasn’t so enthusiastic about TPACK, but I think that’s just the ignorance…

TPACK in own words

‘TPACK in own words and a little bit help of Mishra and Koehler’

In the last course we talked about TPACK. I heard the term before and also in the course ‘Themes and Approaches’ I learned something about TPACK.

But what does it mean and why do we have a TPACK model.

Well, the TPACK model is based on an old model of Shulmans (1986/1987). He constructed a Pedagogical Content Knowledge:
But because technology gets plays a bigger role in education now, we needed to implement technology as well.

That’s what Mishra and Koehler did (2006). The constructed a TPACK model. That consist out of 3 components. Content and Pedagogy (like Shulmans model) and Technology.

The TPACK model will help teachers to think about all  the 3 components and how you can integrate them in your lessons.

That’s the question that needs to be answered. How can teachers integrate technology into their teaching?

But only think about how to integrate the 3 components with each other don’s lead to a good lesson. You need to look at the context where it all happens.

Here you see the TPACK model. And as you can see, around the 3 components the context is  been shown.

è First I will explain all the 3 components and then look deeper the relation with each other.

Content Knowledge

The content knowledge has everything to do with the content of the lesson. Sometimes you here the term Subject Matter. It’s about the knowledge of teachers about the subject matter or the content of the lesson. It’s important that teachers know about the content and that would include knowledge about concepts, theories, frameworks and evidence and proofs. When a teacher doesn’t have the comprehensive base of content knowledge the students may get the wrong information.

Pedagogical Knowledge

Pedagogical knowledge is about how students learn. It’s the knowledge about the processes and practices or methods of teaching and learning. It’s also about the aims of the lesson and the values. Teachers need to know how to work with the methods and the techniques in the classroom.

A teacher with a good pedagogical knowledge understands how the students construct their knowledge and how they acquire skills. Pedagogical knowledge requires an understanding of cognitive, social, and developmental theories of learning and how they apply to students in the classroom.

Technological Knowledge

Technological knowledge is the knowledge about ICT and how to work with it. As a teacher you need to know about all kinds of ICT opportunities and how you can use that to get information. This is always in development, because technology is also in development. New in the Technology world is the IPad. As a teacher you may need some information about it and always be updated.

Overall you need a functional understanding of technologies and skills to operate particular technologies.

è Now we described the 3 components. All the 3 components have a relation with each other and integrate with each other. We also have named those relations. I will describe the 3 relations.

Pedagogical Content KnowledgeThis kind of knowledge was also being explained by Shulman’s theory. Acoording to Shulman PCK is the transformation of the subject matter for teaching. So, teachers interprets the content and find his way to teach it. He should think about the prior knowledge about students and the instructional materials.  Also it’s about what students can add to the content.

Technological Content Knowledge

Technological Content Knowledge is the relation between technology and content. The choice of technologies affords of the content ideas that can be taught. But it can also be the other way around.

The teachers need to understand which specific technologies are the best for that specific subject matter. Teachers can make the lessons more interesting and funnier for the students.

Technological Pedagogical Knowledge

Technological Pedagogical Knowledge is the understanding of how teachers can change their teaching and learning when technology is been used.  Teachers need to know about different pedagogical approaches and which will fits the technology that they are using. And off course the other way around.

Most technological programs like blogs or Microsoft Office aren’t made for education.

It’s for teachers a challenge to use those programs for education. Like Petra did with us. The use of blogs.

è Above we talked about the 3 different relation. But to get to TPACK we need to integrate the 3 component with each other.

TPACK: Technological, Pedagogical Content Knowledge

When we integrate the 3 components with each other we have TPACK. TPACK is the base of effective teaching with technology. As a teacher it is important to have an open attitude towards TPACK, so you can see the opportunities TPACK gives. Teachers need to develop themselves because there is no model for all lessons in a TPACK way. Teachers don’t focus on the 3 components, but just on the integration these 3.  A school need to give the teachers time to develop themselves, because you can’t use TPACK right away.

They need professional development and self-efficacy. Also teachers have to be motivated to develop.

Conclusion

Now we know what TPACK is. I’m curious about how it works in practice. Maybe I will search for some examples on schools and post it on my weblog.

First I want to give my opinion about TPACK.

I think it’s a good way to think about technology and a nice way to think about it in combination with content and pedagogy. But teachers need to know a lot more than just this model to implement technology in their lessons.

When you start to think about a lesson, you will directly go on with the TPACK. You forget to think about the Pedagogical Content Knowledge. When you are designing a lesson, is it necessary to think about all that or can you just begin with the TPACK? Maybe if you are familiar with this model. I don’t know.

What I’m sure about is that teachers need to develop them professionally on a technological manner. Some teachers won’t even use the whiteboard, because it is hard or maybe they think it is not necessary. I think that the use of technology is good. In my previous study I was working on a school and there the use the whiteboard for the subject physics. The children were changing cloths in the class and after that they watched a video about what they were going to do in the gym. The teacher placed the materials at the same way the video did. The video showed the location of the material and explained everything, like the teacher would do. When they watched it, they go to the gym and can start right away. You can also show the video a day earlier or when they ready with their work. It saves time and leaves more time to gym.

I never used a whiteboard, because my class didn’t have one. But I heard about the preferences and the nice things you can do. And the whiteboard is just a little technological tool you can use. Imagine you can use all kinds of technologies.

Literature

Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60-70. 

Reflection on the topics: Flexibility, Pedagogies and Technology

In this post I will reflect on the last 3 courses. The contents of the courses were flexibility, pedagogies and technology and how you can implement them in your class.

Flexibility get another meaning for me after the courses. Flexibility means a lot more than just learning from another location (distance learning). We learned that flexibility has to do with a lot of things, like time, methods, location, assignments and so on. Pedagogies were more my thing, because I learned more about that in my previous study. But I didn’t know that there were so many pedagogy approaches. But there are a lot of similarities. So are most of the approaches collaborative-based and they working out of a problem. In the course we need to examine different approaches in groups. We described the traditional approach. After the course we need to put a post on our blog that describes 5 pedagogies.

The last course we had was about technology and how you can implement it in your class. We played a little bit with technology and that was refreshing. I learned so much in Teacher Education, but in practice I didn’t use it. In the course I learned that it don’t have to be difficult or time consuming.

What we learned in general is that all of the 3 factors are related to each other. You can choose a lesson based on the pedagogical approach and search for technology and how you can use flexibility. Off course you can also start at the technology factor and look for a pedagogical approach with it. I think that we are going to discuss the implimentation of all the 3 factors in the next courses. (TPACK).
In the course about technology we played with a camera. We need to think about how to use it in a lesson. Because we had the courses of flexibility and pedagogy we started to think how to implement them all in the lesson. It was still a little bit difficult. But I'm sure that after the courses we know how to do it...

Interactive Learning

I found on the internet an Interactive Education Project. http://www.interactiveeducation.ac.uk/

The aim of the project was to investigate and understand the practical means of addressing some of the issues and discover ways in which new technologies can be used in educational settings to enhance learning.

This project was the biggest project in ICT and education research.

How did they work?

They require a combination of practitioner and researcher expertise. So teachers, teacher educators and university researches worked together to develop learning areas. The learning was based on theory and research based evidence on the use of computers and knowledge of research teams.

You can find there findings about the project on: http://www.interactiveeducation.ac.uk/about_findings1.htm

Assingment 2: Pedagogical Approaches

In lecture 2 we talked about pedagogical approach. In groups we search for information about one approach. Then we presented the approach on a sheet to the rest of the students. With this information and some articles I explain 5 approaches. In the conclusion I explain my preference.

Traditional learning:

When we think of traditional learning, we think that it’s an approach that’s old fashion. But the true is that in most classes the way of teaching is still traditional. A teacher explains the learners about the content of the lessons. He may even give a lecture and then explains the assignment.
When we look at blackboard, we can see a traditional approach. Teachers post assignments and lectures. Students can look at it, but there is no communication.

Collaborative learning:
A collaborative way of learning is working in groups. The groups must complete a task. The activities can be flexible and open. It’s a way to share knowledge and responsibility.
At blackboard it’s easy to work and to negotiate with your co-students. Unfortunately students don’t use that kind of way to discuss. Most students communicate via email or skype. I’ve never used the blackboard to communicate because it’s unclear to me how it works and there are other ways that are not new to me.

Task-oriented learning:

In task-oriented learning a problem or assignment is been presented. This is meaningful to the students. The task can be open or structured. Students must come to a result by doing activities.

In blackboard there is also a sort of task-oriented learning. A teacher can present a assignment on blackboard and students must solve it by doing activities, like searching for information but also practical activities.

Problem-based learning:

In problem-based learning you start with a problem. That problem must be meaningful to the students. Just like task-oriented learning. Students can collaborate to find an solution or an answer. The teacher is a coach and support the students in developing self-directing learning.

In blackboard it’s possible to work with this problem-based approach. Teachers can present a problem on blackboard and students can solve it by collaborate with each other in for example a forum.

Inquiry learning:

Inquiry learning is seeking for information by questioning. A teacher present a question and students will search for information to answer the question. Students have ownership of their learning.
On blackboard it’s also searching for information. Where can I find lectures and where can I find assignments. When we started with blackboard I had no idea about how it works. I just found out by doing it. Off course a teacher is there to support.

Conclusion: By looking at these approaches I must say that many approaches have similarities. Like problem-based and task-oriented. They started with a problem. Also many approaches have a way of working together. My preference goes to problem-based learning, because the importance of a meaningful context. Also I like the idea of a teacher as coach. The problem-based learning approach is also very clear to me. Although I like the problem-based approach I think a combination of all approaches is also a very nice. All approaches have something I like.