Related to the articles:
- Future Teachers' Plans and Practices with Emerging Tools
- Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge
It is important to understand that a teacher must be very knowledgeable in several subjects. A teacher is expected to share with their students information in several ways so that each can learn the information. There are several ways to do this and most of which are traditionally a lecture, homework, and test. Which is very simple and the teacher could know the content very well and lecture and test over all the important information. However, this leaves only one way for the students to obtain and learn the information. A new concept termed the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)discusses how a teacher can express their subject information more efficiently. This is an option that the articles' case studies say are rarely used my current teachers. This causes a problem for those is professional school to be a teacher are not taught with TPACK which makes its use to be continually limited as those students enter the workforce as teachers. Saying this shows that many teachers are not aware of using TPACK. One article says that it is more important to have new ways of thinking about facts rather than only learning new facts. TPACK gives that option by incorporating technology into the learning. Many teachers fear the use of technology because they cannot keep up with the constant changes, the time it may take, or do not comprehend technology. Too many teachers are looking at the technology but not how it can be used in the classroom. Technology offers interactive learning tools, classroom tools, classroom programs, and web tools. These options for technology have several uses and results have shown to improve the learning of the content. It is not always as to what TPACK is exactly so let's break it down a little. Teaching is a complex task that requires many types of knowledge and resources. The first thing a teacher needs to effectively use TPACK is to have great knowledge over the content they are teaching. It is even more important to understand that the Content and Knowledge separately will have now effect. Even with combined knowledge content the information cannot be passes on without the correct pedagogy. Pedagogy refers to the methods used when teaching the knowledge over the content. A good teacher should have effective pedagogy before entering the work force. This means knowing the different ways a student may learn and being able to share their knowledge in those ways. It also means being able to make the content comprehensible to others. Pairing those three items together provides great teaching to the student but still gives limited options and opportunities to the students. When technology is grouped into the combination there are limitless ways of sharing the content with the student. With the different technology options listed before a teacher can interpret the subject matter in a way that others have many different options of access and can see it represented differently. Not all teachers have embraced these technologies, but should. TPACK, in my opinion, can give the optimum learning experience and with constantly evolving technology can continually become even better. Why limit teaching possibilities when there are so many more options and so many students that could benefit greatly from them?
I focused more on the content of my articles but I like seeing your perception of yours maybe i should have included more of my perception as well. My articles were actually written by the same people with the exception of one other author in my assigned article. That made it difficult to contrast them.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great review on the article Jared. You made it easier to understand what the concept of TPCK is. I also enjoyed how you used your personal opinion on the issue, I myself believe that TPCK is beneficial for teachers and students.
ReplyDeleteTeacher education programs are trying to teach today’s preservice teachers how to use the wide range of technologies – from old-school software and tools such as PowerPoint, videos and laptops to those ubiquitous tablets and smartphones – as classroom tools, not just as social devices for communicating with friends or playing games.
ReplyDeleteBut because of rapid technological change, the need to fit more class requirements into a curriculum already filled with state-mandated courses, and the hiring practices of schools recruiting new teachers, many teachers colleges are finding it difficult to integrate technology education into their teacher preparation programs.
The result is a “to each its own” approach to teacher education, as the teaching colleges strive to work technology in without taking content and pedagogy out. Presently schools of education develop their own technology-based curricula that build on best practices in the field, in compliance with the recognized standards in the profession.
I did the research regarding TPACK in WVU and am applying and experimenting the Technology curriculum based on my research and the vision from our program. I hope all of you can implement what you have learn from TPACK as you become the teacher from my ongoing experiments in our class!
Knowledge is power! I am glad that I am not the only person that recognizes this!
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