TPCK Reflection

The TPCK Model gives teachers a framework for relating technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge in a classroom setting. Technological knowledge refers to using appropriate and useful technology in the classroom; pedagogical knowledge refers to strategies of instruction and teacher style; content knowledge refers to the subject matter that is being taught. The TPCK Model is very important for teachers to use because it shows how interconnected the three concepts are. Teachers need to have effective teaching strategies, they need to know the content that they are teaching, and they need to provide appropriate technology that adds to the teaching instead of distracting.

Our unit plan was difficult to design because Christy and I have very different technologies available. We wanted to put in technology that was available, appropriate and was not just thrown in to fulfill the assignment requirements. We made our unit to be usable in the classroom in the fall. The unit plan was successful in conveying the content in a way that was tailored to our students. We could definitely work on incorporating a variety of supporting technologies, to introduce our students to the multitude of media products that are available. We did not want our unit plan to focus solely on the technology because that does not support the TPCK model; all three domains need to be in balance for effective teaching.

Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-year-olds

The Kaiser Family Foundation Report ran a study on the media consumption of 8- to 18-year-olds. They found that students today spend about 7.5 hours consuming media and pack about 10.5 hours into that time frame with multitasking. Students have many options for media interaction; cell phones, TVs, the internet, iPods, etc. They have also noticed parallels between heavy media usage and poorer grades, contentment. Students who were heavy users, more than 16 hours of media consumption per day, had lower grades and tended to report more behavior problems. The study did not control for other factors, like age, gender, race, family relationships, etc. so it does not imply causality. Media consumption has increased in the past few years because of mobile and online media; teenagers can have access to the web anywhere they go. 

This finding does not surprise me; my students are very internet and computer literate and spend many hours online. They love being on Facebook, Google Chat, Pandora, etc. My students spend more time online than in school and use their cell phones to access the internet anywhere they go. My students are not supposed to have cell phones in the classroom but they spend a lot of time texting in their desks (and thinking I won't usually see them). I collect 4-5 cell phones every day from the students who think they are much more sneaky than they really are. My students needs a lot of information to stay interested in the topic, since they are used to multitasking and taking in huge amounts of info. 

When I teach, I like to incorporate real world situations that apply to what we are studying; I use examples that my students understand and relate to (usually). When they are engaged in the problems, they learn the subject without realizing it. I also like to keep tabs on the media that my students are consuming so that I can stay knowledgeable about what they are doing and they feel more comfortable talking to me. 

Reflection: Technology in my classroom

During this past school year, I did not incorporate technology into my classroom as much as I would have liked. My classroom had one working computer (the one I used) and one working printer (again, the one I used). I brought in an overhead projector (thank you SCARCE) so that I would not always use the white board, but I never fixed my digital projector to bring that in. I also used science movies to review topics and enrich the everyday lectures. There were a few times during the school year where I took my students to the computer lab to work on a particular assignment, and they usually really enjoyed doing that. My students were very computer literate and I gave them some online and computer assignments to complete independently since we could not really do so together. I do believe that the technology that I incorporated into my classroom enhanced my teaching because it presented the material in a different format and made learning more fun.

There were a few obstacles to using technology in the classroom. Some of my students could not see the projected notes and made a big deal about moving around, TVs and DVD players were more difficult to use than I expected, etc. After a few minutes of dread (since I did not always plan an alternative), we would figure out the problem. I do believe in incorporating technology into a classroom because technological advances are happening so quickly and we live in a very wired and technologically savvy society. I believe that I should not only teach my students the 6th or 7th grade science content, but also how to do research; how to find scientific articles and evaluate them; how to cite their research properly; writing papers and PowerPoint presentations; etc. A lot of my students know websites and online services that I have learned to use at the same time they did, and I have to make sure I keep up with them and help them use those sites effectively. As with everything, technology should be used in moderation; the subject should not be lost in PowerPoint animations and other gimmicky tricks. Technology should be used intelligently and deliberately to enrich learning, not distract from it.