Friday, July 20, 2012

Week 1: Technology Pedogogical Content Knowledge (TPCK)

Standard 2, student learning. A teacher must understand how students learn and develop and must provide learning opportunities that support a student's intellectual, social, and personal development.


Brief Description of Evidence Provided




TPCK (Standard 2H)

        The world we live in today has evolved and changed to a whole different world from what we could remember through history. Many creations have been developed for easier access of a variety of sources. Sometimes these inventions worked, sometimes it did not. However, many creators continue to expand what is known in the 21st century as “technology”. Technology was invented help people and our world as a whole, in some sense, to gain access, move forward and faster at reaching our goals, reaching our solutions.

         Technology plays a huge role in our everyday lives. It is what helps us gain easier access to the things we want to have and want to do. In this case, technology becomes a part of our lives. It is important that we learn how to utilize technology and incorporate it into the things we learn and use every day so that we are getting the best results of the sources we need. In addition to this, young people and children growing up in this time of rising technology need to learn how to use these different types of technology in order to help them develop strong skills in the 21st century.

         The use of technology is something we do naturally everyday already. We turn the knob at the sink and water runs, we press the power button on a remote and the TV turns on, we get onto the computer and at the tips of our fingers, we are retrieving the information we want and so forth. So how do we use technology to help us in the most effective way? Many could argue there are more than one or few little ways to do this, but I will focus on integrating technology with young people’s education.

          First of all, when students are in school, they are learning about specific contents and topics. A teacher teaching a content area or subject must be fluent and a master at what he or she is teaching in order to deliver effectiveness of student learning. When students do not understand something, the teacher has to be able to guide students with different strategies to help them reach the learning target(s) of the lesson. When the teacher is able to do this and students build strategies, skills, and gain the knowledge they needed, in other words, reached the learning objectives and targets, then the teacher has completed his or her job. Students are gaining new knowledge and skills; they are thinking critically about what is being taught and reflecting. The teacher is assessing all of these before and after the lesson. This procedure or structure is called pedagogical content knowledge (PCK).

PCK helps a teacher teach towards the content area he or she aims for. However, depending on the teacher’s teaching style, we are unsure if students are receiving differentiated instructions, or did they really hit all or most of the learning targets? To ensure this, we want to make sure young people, students are making connections; that they feel relevant to what is being presented to them and vice – versa. This is where technology comes in. Of course, the use of pencil, paper and even accessing the internet is a part of technology. Yet, we want to make this as inclusive as possible, so, this process becomes technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK).

TPCK means to teach with technology. We are integrating technology into the content subject areas and curriculum materials to make sure students are receiving the most of their learning experience. Teachers need to understand that we live in a world where technology rules and whether we were born into the rise of it or not, the students in our classrooms are. They are familiar with it. Technology becomes natural to them, so TPCK is a standard make sure technology is inclusive in students’ learning experience in the 21st century.


Reflection on How the Evidence Demonstrates My Competence in Meeting the Standards



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