Ed Psych-Chapter 1 and 4 Articles Reflection

     Chapter One of our book discusses the educational psychology and the scientific discipline behind it used to improve a students learning and a teacher's instruction all together in the classroom environment.  The most important topics I learned from the chapter were as follows: (a) Teaching is complex and requires knowledge (b) Research literature can improve teaching/learning methods (c) Teachers that go to and acquire continuing education and professional development are more effective than those that do not.  Being an effective teacher is always a person's primary goal and to do that one must always be on the cutting edge of technology and research and want to further his/her learning to be the best teacher possible.

     The four articles that I read were ranged broadly on topic.  One discussed teaching across state boarders, being a professional in the field, Inequality at school, and types of teacher education.  Needless to say that is a lot of difference.  I will say this, even though the topics were wide ranging, those articles all tied together using one common theme and that is that if you are going to be a teacher you must have an open mind and adapt easily to situations that require critical thinking and situations that require "street" thinking skills.  Both equally important.  Not only do teachers have to conform to each environment as it is presented but they must be able to think on the "fly" and not just in situations with students but the work place also.

     This is where I see that the articles and chapters are mutually exclusive in the sense that each brings a skill set to teachers needed to improve the longevity in the field and perhaps the stability to remain in one place versus jumping from one school system to another in or out of state.  Even though teaching can come quite naturally to some it will still require skill.  Skills from everyday life, psychology,  and colleagues.  Skills not just used in the classroom but in the work place environment.

     The phrase in the article I liked best was, "I've come to the conclusion...that I'm never going to be the world's greatest teacher - and that that's OK".  What a statement and lesson.  To be the best teacher I can be and grow in my field I think it's important to realize this statement reigns true.  Yes, we must treat our students fair and equally within their individualized learning.  Look at each of them in their own scope and push their limits daily to the best of their ability.  To do this we do not judge their skin color but their drive and need for learning because no matter the race they are all LEARNERS.  To be the best educator I can be I must constantly push the envelope of my own learning, be consistent in the environment of learning I offer to myself and others and the colleague to my fellow educators that I desire to grow from.  Teaching will be hard but we can ease that feeling by equipping ourselves with the same framework of knowledge, consistency, cooperation, and fairness we will offer to students.   

    

TPACK LESSON PLAN AND REFLECTION

Kelli Winters

Technology Education

January 11, 2017

 

Lesson Plan for TPACK integration

Application
Roles and powers of the U.S. President using game-based classroom response system, Kahoot and Spelling City.   IPad/IPhone will be used to interact between students and smartboard applications.

                     

• Learners: This lesson is designed for 5^th to 8^th grade social studies students. (but not limited to this age group as it can be used for higher level learners 3^rd grade and above)

 

• Learning outcomes: Learners will gain a better knowledge and understanding of the president’s role through this game. Focus of content is the role and powers of the president. At the end of this activity students should be able to verbally communicate as a class the more specific details of what the president’s role is as our commander in chief.

 

• Assessment: I will be able to gage/assess the student’s knowledge by going to my “dashboard” in Kahoot and in Spelling City and viewing results to see every student’s response the each question in Kahoot and vocabulary review and results in the spelling city dashboard also.  Both Applications and web-sites give me a results dashboard and will be able to see what questions were answered correctly/incorrectly and what may need to be reviewed before moving onto another lesson.

Timeline of planned events and procedures

 

• To start my lesson I will create individual groups.  Each group will have 3 members to form a team but each will have their own device so they can answer individually and as a team.
• The students would then spend the next 10 minutes Spelling City and reviewing our week’s vocabulary lesson I have set up for them in the site it will be terms about the roles and powers of the president.
• Once the students have finished their exploration and review in the Spelling City site I will open up Kahoot.
• When the Kahoot application is open and on the smartboard and students will log into their iPad/iPod devices and be able to create team names and sign in using the given PIN on the smartboard.
• While waiting on the other teams/students to sign in I may flash some interactive questions to challenge the student’s prior knowledge and activate their brains!
• Once all students and teams have all logged in to the Kahoot system we will begin playing the game.
• The interactive application game is 12 questions and each question has a timer of 30 seconds for the students to respond so they must be quick in their discussion and answer.
• Once each question has been answered on the devices it will show up on the smartboard under the team names and tell the students who answered the quickest and correctly or incorrectly.
• The Game will keep track of answers and when finished it will show statistics and which team one and placed.

 

            Resources

 

• www.getkahoot.com
• www.spellingcity.com

 

 

Reflection
considering your learning activity described above, write two paragraphs or three for each section below addressing the questions. It may be helpful to keep in mind the followings when reflecting:

1. How well the use of this technology may support your teaching strategies in this activity.

 

I believe that using my technologies accelerated my student’s learning capabilities.  First by using Spelling City to create a base of knowledge for them in teaching them terms and meaning of words using many types of games.  This is important as it keeps students engaged where as I feel that writing definitions from a text book onto paper may not be as successful for learning in the classroom as it once used to be.  Now, I am not saying that it is not successful but I believe we as educators have to encourage our students to learn differently in a manner to which they are accustomed and technology is what they are accustomed to using in everything. 

 

Furthermore, after students have spent time building their knowledge about the subject in which we were learning I felt it was equally as important to match my assessment to the learning style I have allowed throughout that lesson.  I used Kahoot to test the students’ knowledge base to see if they had actually retained what was taught.  If the students were not successful it would be very important to seek out those areas of where comprehension was weak and find a different style of learning to go back over that area and allow students ample opportunity to re-learn the lesson. 

 

2. How effectively the use of this technology may enhance students' understanding of and learning from your particular content in this activity.

 

I feel my methods were effective with the use of these two technologies because students did show a comprehension when asked direct questions by answering correctly through the Kahoot program.  Furthermore, cementing my belief that they retained knowledge the student’s discussed the answers as they were answering and even corrected each other in a friendly manner if somebody answered incorrectly.  Learning was an open forum during this lesson and the students were very comfortable in the situation and for me that shows I was successful in my methods used. 

 

 

--Pedagogical-Content:

Your pedagogical content knowledge refers to your understanding of teaching strategies that are specific to a content area. That is the knowledge about choosing appropriate pedagogies for teaching a particular content Example: Using drill-and-practice to teach math problem solving. This strategy however may not necessarily be effective for other content areas.

 

Now, forget about the technology for a while…..Just tells us about your teaching strategies that you employ in your activity (e.g., analogies, demonstrations, illustrations, examples, explanations, group work, drill-practice, simulations, role-play, lecturing, self-guided learning, inquiry-based learning, problem based learning or etc). Specifically:

• My strategy was to allow students an open and competitive forum to answer questions in review for what we learned over the week about our government and presidential roles.  I believe my students held a comprehension as when the “game” was over the dashboard showed me statistics of every student’s answers.  The activity was to answer questions asked in a timely manner and compete with each other for the correct answer and the speed in which the question was answered.  This was done using computers in coordination with the Smartboard.
• Different conceptions would be students not from the U.S. may have a hard time transitioning from their previous governmental views and policies into the policies we have here in the United States. I would have no about students' prior knowledge, experiences, motivation because it is my job to teach all students and make sure they are gaining the knowledge and content as it being taught.  Part of teaching is expressing those differences and turning them into learning moments as not every learner is the same. My strategy is to have as many open forum of discussions on our president’s role in government as possible.  Not any forum will be the same and that is where you will have those teachable moments where elaboration can happen on subject of differences in government leaders and policy and discussion of why it is different and if that different is good or not so good.

--Technological-Pedagogical:

Your technological pedagogical knowledge refers to your understanding of technologies for particular learning tasks, your ability to choose technologies based on its fitness, your knowledge of pedagogical strategies, and your ability to apply those strategies for use of technologies   Example: Selecting Edmodo/Facebook for facilitating student generated debate. Edmodo here is the technology that supports the main pedagogy-group discussion/debate.

 

In the previous section, you talked about your instructional strategies. Keeping these strategies you stated in mind, now tell us how the technology is used in your activity.  Specifically:

• My technology supported my activity in the manner that it allowed students to build a deeper knowledge and understanding by testing their account of government roles and definitions by using Spelling City and then further allowing them to compete with each other from their retained knowledge in the Kahoot activity.   
• Since both of my activities were student centered I may change it up so they have to work as teams next time and not individually.  So that I can encourage discussion and team work.   For example in Kahoot they each had a computer and raced to see who could answer faster individually and to change that I would make them be in separate teams and collaborate before answering.

--Technological Pedagogical Content:

Your technological pedagogical content knowledge refers to your understanding of how teaching and learning from content may change when technology used and is our knowledge about selecting technologies that suits, support, and enhances teaching strategies and learning activities in your particular content area. It is your understanding of teaching strategies to effectively teach the particular content and help student conceptual difficulties in this content by meaningfully incorporating technologies.   Example: Using a flash card app on iPad as a means to aid students memorize words and definitions in language learning. IPad app is here chosen as a tool to support the pedagogy around instant feedback, quick repetition, and individualized learning. These are some of the strategies used in language learning content area.

 

Now, let’s focus on the content you’re teaching in your activity. Think about your decisions to incorporate this technology and the teaching strategies in relation to your particular content area. Tell us specifically about:

• I think using my technology enhanced the learning experience differently because some students are not comfortable with verbal communication and are very smart and tech savvy so introducing a way to answer with an anonymous name those students have more confidence and may excel more naturally than they would if asked verbally in front of the class the answers I was seeking.  
• The different ways students would practice or understand the content in my activity would be just to write definitions from a text book and perhaps doing a book report on the roles of the president.  In addition to motivational benefits, Students could use technology to find out specifics on the president and see what our current president has done while in office to exert his power and responsibilities in a more in depth role.  They can find factual articles and build their knowledge of what a president is supposed to do and if he/she has done so and how he/she has asserted his rights as the president.  What I mean is find real life scenarios that show how the president has carried out his duties within his role as our commander in chief.   

 

Article Reviews

Miracle Maker
    
     This article discusses the advances and disadvantages of printing organs using 3D technology.  A technology that is very forward in concept.  I believe the thought of printing organs versus transplanting them is extremely valuable but is it doable and can it work?  Is it worth the money and time involved in creating these organs in 3D and can people that need the organs afford it?  A group of scientist worked to develop a tissue printing system called the ITOP, and it in facts prints organs.  Anthony Atala, the doctor responsible for making this technology happen devoted many years of his life to developing this system.  Further more his technology grows as it is capable of printing organs coated with human or animal cells and skin cells onto a person! The machine did have a couple set backs in that it can not print blood vessels and other supporting tissues at the same time meaning the organ could not live on its own.  While this technology is futuristic it still has a long way to go. 

Flipping the Classroom 

     The concept is to allow students first-exposure to learning prior to class and giving them focus on the processing part of learning in class.  Some studies prove that the theory in fact does work and students have significant gain in learning from these types of classrooms.  Set backs to the theory are that some students may lack a strong competency in the particular subject.  some students just don't comprehend as well as other students.  That being stated some teachers take a metacognitive approach to the flipped classroom which means they activate certain facts for prior knowledge to students that need more detail in a flipped classroom setting.  Flipped classrooms can be extremely useful if done correctly. 
Four key elements in a flipped classroom:
1. Provide an opportunity for student to gain first exposure prior to class.
2. Provide an incentive for students to prepare for class.
3. Provide a mechanism to assess student understanding.
4. Provide in-class activities that focus on higher level cognitive activities. 

I like the concept and it seems doable if you have the time to do it right!

T Pack & FIFTEEN

     We are a technologically driven society.  Technology is everywhere and encompasses most everything we do and surrounding us with minor exceptions.  That being said, technology is always trying to out-do itself constantly evolving and keeping the human civilization on its "toes" so to speak.  As future teachers we are constantly reminded of this and keeping up with it and integrating it is bases of both article I have read.  Though the article Fifteen is a bit more antagonistic view of the use of technology in the classroom versus TPack representing it as it should be the framework of a classroom.  Let's face it though, both articles have equally good points.  As teachers we must find a balance of the technology in the classroom. 

     Have you ever heard the term, "I know enough to be dangerous?"  if you have been around me at all your answer would be, "yes".  I think TPack brings a good point to the forefront when it speaks of educators in the classroom needs for being educated on the technology they have available.  I think this is a good point for two reasons.  first reason, if a teacher doesn't know enough about the technology he/she may be using they can not utilize it to its fullest potential.  Second reason,  he/she just wont use it at all and nobody benefits from it.  Bottom line of TPack article is to be educated on what technologies you are using in the classroom and don't be afraid to grown your knowledge and evolve as the technology evolves.

     Fifteen represents a little bit of conspiracy to me of the use of technology and what brands we use in the classroom verses what is not used and why.  This article speaks about companies like Apple "donating" particular laptops, desktops, and/or tablets to push their branding onto the students and schools so that they can drive up sales and create a sense of goodwill in their brand because they were so thoughtful to donate mega bucks worth of technology to these schools that would not be able to afford it otherwise. This article shows many more hidden effects that these tech companies have on our economy more specifically lower income households that want the technology so they will evade real life responsibilities just to have the latest and greatest of what is new on the market.  More importantly pointing out the fact that it's not even about what may or may not be appropriate subject wise to be taught on a computer screen. 

     While trying to accommodate technology, we are taking effective methods of teaching away.  I believe we have to proceed with caution and perhaps take a step back and realize that not everything needs to be fed through a  computer screen.  There is something much more invaluable than technology ever was or will be and that is verbal communication.     

3D Website Reviews

Thinkiverse:

For me the Thinkiverse was eye opening and allowed me to see more resources for education.  I was intrigued by the variety and diversity of things you could use/print for use in lessons in the classroom.  As educators we are responsible for being up to date at all times and keeping up with technology is a big part of that task, Thinkiverse is a valuable resource at our disposal.  Primarily the most valuable detail for this site is that it offers these downloads, materials, and lesson plans for free of charge and for teachers this is invaluable. 

Smithsonian:

This article hit "home" for me as my lesson is developed around history and printing 3D objects that relate to different periods and major historical landmarks.   Creating a hands on learning environment for students broadens the spectrum for all learning abilities.  There is just something about being able to hold a tangible object verses looking at a picture.  3D printing brings that opportunity to students that may not have an opportunity to experience that first hand otherwise.  There is something priceless about being able to hold and touch and truly see details and feel them opposed to just looking at something in a text book. 

3D Printing:

This article was resourceful in the sense that is showed the trials and triumphs experienced in bringing 3D printing to the classroom.  Though the excitement and progress of this technology was exciting that did not come without working through some kinks.  Through those set backs we have learned the importance of educating on this type of technology.  Along with technology other resources such as customer service call lines and troubleshooting sites can be helpful when encountering trouble when learning to use these devices.  This article showed just how much teachers need to study and learn about 3D printers before being set "loose" to use them.  It just shows you the many degrees needed to explore and learn before implementing this technology in the classroom.