TPACK Questions

After the last post about doing a science activity involving technology I now reflect on my experience and how I feel the activity achieves TPACK.

• What is the content you are focusing on in your science lesson?

The content I focused on was from Utah's state core curriculum for 2nd grade students. It was standard three which states "students will develop an understanding of their environment" and objective 1b, "investigate relationships between plants and animals and how living things change during their lives" by describing "the life cycle of local plants and animals using diagrams and pictures."

• What is the pedagogy you are using and why is it a good fit with the content?

The pedagogy I used was strategies that are important for teaching science. I thought that students would learn inquiry process skills such as observing, predicting, acquiring and processing data, describing relationships and analyzing data through this activity. This is a good fit with the content because the content wants students to investigate relationships of plants and how they change during their lives through describing the life cycle of local plants and animals using diagrams and pictures. Through this pedagogy of describing relationships students can see the relationships between each of the steps in the life cycle of plants.

• What is the technology you’ll be using and why is it a good fit with the content and pedagogy?

The technology I used to teach the content and pedagogy was Kidsperation. Kidsperation supplied a concept map that was able to be filled in and students could see visually how the life cycle of a plant progressed and what intermediate steps were involved. Students could predict what would happen next in the life cycle and they could describe relationships they see through the diagrams and pictures. Kidsperation also allowed students to explore the content of plants themselves by choosing which words to look up in the word finder and then which words or concepts to expand upon. Students would do most of the learning and exploration on their own and I feel like this affords them a great opportunity for self-growth and self-discovery. Since they are finding the information out for themselves it will be more pertinent to them rather than having a teacher stand at the front of the room and dictate information to them.

Tech Savvy Teacher Column

I have been recruited by my district to contribute an article to the monthly newsletter concerning technology in the elementary science classroom.  The column I am writing is entitled “The Tech Savvy Teacher. “  My newsletters will provide examples of how different technologies are used for specific science concepts.  I look forward to exploring these programs as well as implementing them in the classroom. 

The first science activity we did was based on this objective.  It is standard three, which says, “Students will develop an understanding of their environment.”  The objective is number one and it says, “Investigate relationships between plants and animals and how living things change during their lives.  The objective is 1b, which says, “Describe the life cycle of local plants and animals using diagrams and pictures.”  For this objective we used the program Kidspiration and used this technology to enhance our lesson.  We went into the science section of the program and selected the life cycles option. 

In this application we searched plants and a variety of species appeared. We began with the birth of a plant and typed in seed. Pictures of seeds appeared and we placed it in the concept map.  Then we added words that related to the beginning of a plant such as water and soil. We could use words or pictures to represent these items.  The students can choose whichever option they prefer.  We did this same process for the other steps of the life cycle. 

 

The writing guide is another tool we used for this project.  We wanted to know what other words related to reproduction.  When we typed in reproduction a series of definitions came up and synonyms along with them.  We learned that a similar word to reproduction is breed.  We then used that word in our concept map and continued with our learning.  After we completed the concept map with pictures and words we went to the writing view.  There was an icon for every picture and word with writing space for explanation and expansion.  This is a great tool to help kids connect their learning with their writing.

 

Word Guide Page

 Word Guide Definition

Writing View

 

Life Cycle Page

Life Cycles Concept Map in Progress

Kidspiration was an easy and fun tool to use for this objective.  It allowed me to easily and affectively incorporate technology into the classroom.  Kidspiration helped enhance students’ learning of the life cycle by analyzing each step individually.  The program supplied pictures to relate the items in each concept map.  The concept maps helped the students analyze the exact steps of the life cycle.  Kidspiration made this easy and fun as it provided visual learning tools. Another processing skill Kidspiration enhances is the ability to observe a scientific theory.  The picture concept map visually broke down the abstract concept of a life cycle to a second grader’s level.  Kids also used prediction skills as they hypothesized the outcomes in a specific part of the life cycle.  

Science/Math Technologies

Although I explored most of the science/math technologies that were available to explore through the class website the one that struck me as the most interesting was called "Stellarium." I really enjoyed exploring this application because I have always been a huge fan of the solar system and stars and astronomy. It was fun to review what I already know about the constellations and their names and also interesting to see stars that I had not seen before because the night sky in Provo is very dim. The program shows the stars and planets seen in the sky but it also has the options to display the names of the constellations and their maps. I was still able to recognize Orion, Orion's Nebula, Betelgeuse and Polaris among a few others. I liked that I could also search for stars, planets or constellations by their names and the program would locate it in the sky and mark it. Since nighttime field trips are not necessarily realistic to do in a classroom, using this program would help teach students about astronomy and spark an interest of the subject in them. 

TPACK

TPACK stands for technological pedagogical and content knowledge. It is important for teachers to have knowledge of three areas of TPACK which are technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and content knowledge. TK is knowledge required to understand and use various technologies in the classroom. PK is general knowledge and skills developed by a teacher to understand how to best teach a classroom. CK is the knowledge of facts and information about a particular domain. It is most effective if a teacher is efficient in each three of these areas to most enhance learning in the classroom. When technology is incorporated with activities students are engaged in their learning and excited about what they can do and learn from technology. 

Educational Psychology Quiz 2 Questions

1. Which is a broad term for a general disturbance in mental or physical functioning?

a.     disability

b.     handicap

c.      disorder

d.     inability

answer: c

 

2. Which of the following is NOT one of the 8 intelligences?

a.     linguistic

b.     interpersonal

c.      intrapersonal

d.     scientific

answer: d

 

3. Clear statements of what students are intended to learn through instruction are:

a. behavioral objectives

b. instructional objectives

c. cognitive objectives

d. taxonomy objectives

answer: b

Reflection #1 Educational Psychology

            When I was trying to come up with some task or activity to learn and master a million things came into my head because there is so much that I do not know how to do. The task that I finally decided on was learning how to skateboard. I have always been fascinated with skateboarding and the culture of skateboarding—so much so that my friends two birthdays ago chipped in and bought me a nice skateboard. I have never really been able to use the board properly or adequately so I decided now was as good as time as any.

            I started off by finding a pair of suitable shoes to practice skateboarding with. This proved to be a little difficult at first because I don’t own any shoes that would have been appropriate, so I borrowed a pair of Vans from one of my close friends. After I found proper clothing and shoes to prepare to learn how to skateboard I realized that learning how to would not have been as difficult had there not been feet of snow nearly everywhere. So, I set off on trying to find some flat ground without snow or ice. I eventually found a vacant outdoor basketball court that seemed suitable. I figured that through trial and error I would be able to become comfortable on the board but quickly realized that I didn’t even know which foot to push with and which foot to start on the board so I called my friend Danny Karpinski who I know is an avid skateboarder and asked him for a few hints and tricks to learning how to skateboard. I learned that I should push with my left foot while leaving my right foot on the board and also have my right foot at the front of the board. Once I felt like I had built up enough speed I would place my left foot behind my right and coast for a while. It took me several tries to get the timing and placement right but once I figured out where my feet needed to be spaced I felt a little more comfortable on the board. Once I had both my feet planted on the board I would just coast until the board stopped moving. I realized that I should probably keep pushing every so often with my left foot if I wanted to keep moving. The first time I tried to take my foot off the board again I lost balance and jumped off. This happened several times. However, I was able to finally keep pushing with my left and then reposition it on the board. After about two hours of skateboarding in straight lines around the court I called it a day.

            Through this experience I learned that I am definitely a hands-on and independent learner. I would much rather spend more time by myself mastering a new topic or activity by myself than ask for someone to spend a lot of their time to help me. I do realize, however, that I need to have some direction and help to know some of the mechanics of activities before really grasping the concept but once I have understood that I can start practicing it on my own. I have found this to be true in most of my academic pursuits as well. For example, in any of my math classes I will see a new problem and first try to tackle it all myself. If I cannot find how to answer the problem I will ask a teacher or other person for some prompting and then work on the problem myself until I have understood it for myself and mastered it. 

RSS Feeds & Web 2.0

This week for class I learned what an RSS Feed is. Beforehand, I had no idea. The RSS Feed that I added to my blog was really interesting and I decided to display the three most recent articles on my blog. I was a little overwhelmed creating the delicious and goodreads account and adding every member of my group to each one and then adding links or adding books and rating the books. I feel like since I have already added each member of the group now and have a feel for the websites now each week will be a lot less stressful.

Web 2.0 allows individuals to securly share information creatively on the World Wide Web. I didn't realize before when I was blogging on my personal blog that I was using a system called Web 2.0. I now see this in a lot of areas of life. When people create second lives on the internet, or when people update their facebook information, or when parents post new pictures of their children to their family blog they are all accessing and using Web 2.0. They are all sharing information creatively on the internet.

There is so much information available on the internet for anyone to access and use. I never knew that so much existed to help teachers become better and more efficient in the classroom. With information comes knowledge and with knowledge, power. I hope that I can keep finding more and more ways to become and effective teacher.

My Technology Background Experience

Throughout my childhood I always remember having a computer in my home and having pretty up to date technological appliances. Although I do not consider myself to be a computer geek, I feel pretty comfortable being able to figure out most functions on most computers. When I dabbled in the Marriot Business School I took a prerequisite class on Excel as well as Powerpoint so I feel very comfortable performing the various tasks in these programs. I already have a personal blog, named Honest to Blog, where I blog about various things I've done, funny events that I've participated in, or trips I've been on. I also frequent the website Facebook to stay in touch with friends. Whenever I need to find out information on the World Wide Web, I can always find what I need in a quick manner.