Unit 3: Integrating Technology into the Classroom / TPACK

Objectives

By the end of the unit, students would be able to;

• describe the situation of teaching in Ghana with ICT
• explain TPACK
• develop a lesson plan using TPACK

“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, then we rob our children of tomorrow” by John Dewey

Ask yourself this question: HOW DO WE TEACH IN GHANA?

Teaching in Ghana

• Traditional teaching methods (teacher-centered approach dominates
•  Teachers do all the talking, students listen and write a lot of notes
•  Teacher questions requiring recall of facts
•   Heavy emphasis on assessment
•   Students do not take active participation (Hardly any hands-on activities)

What ICT can Provide

• Research shows teaching with non-linguistic activities (graphic organizers, mental images & movement) helps improve students’ understanding of concepts.

• Research concludes cooperative group work leads to learning gains and higher student achievement. This interaction leads to more learning and great content retention.

  ICT Education in Ghana

• Even though studies from all over the world have shown the potential of ICT to enhance teaching and learning
• Limited or no ICT integration in our context
• Stand alone technology courses (at best)

Class Discussion (3 mins)

• Identify an ICT tool that you have used in your teaching (if any) and elaborate on its affordances
• Share with a partner

Why Integrate Technology?

• We live in a complex, highly technological knowledge-based economy

1. Analysis and problem solving skills
2. Challenging students intellectually

• Introduce technology to deepen and enhance the learning process

• Technology can be used to support four key components of learning

1. Active engagement with students
2. Participation in groups
3. Frequent interaction
4. Feedback

We live in an information age: Paradigm shift

• Technology integration necessarily alters the traditional paradigm of the teacher providing wisdom and the student absorbing knowledge…and for good reason.

• The knowledge needed for tomorrow’s jobs will change before many of today’s students enter the job market.

• Students today must learn to search and discover knowledge, actively communicate with others, and solve problems so that they can become productive life-long members of our society.

21st Century Skills for students

• Cooperation
• Communication
• ICT literacy
• Social and/or cultural skills
• Creativity
• Critical thinking skills
• Problem solving skills
• Productivity
• Learning to learn
• Self directed learning
• Planning
• Flexibility
• Math, Science, Languages
• Taking risks
• Meta cognition
• Controlling / solving conflicts
• Initiative and entrepreneurship

Change your Role

• Allow technology to change your teaching paradigm
• When technology is effectively integrated into subject areas teachers grow into roles of

i.Advisor

ii.Content expert

iii. Coach

WHAT IS TPACK?

• Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) refers to the knowledge that emerges from an understanding of an interaction of content, pedagogy, and technology knowledge. Coined by Mishra & Koelher

Why TPACK?

• Learning “how to use” technology is different from knowing what to do with technology for teaching
• A framework to understand teachers’ knowledge required for effective technology integration
• Allows educators to bring ‘real world’ applications to the classroom
• Provides an opportunity for students to see and hear video clips and audio which can help to teach or reinforce concepts.
• Allows students to investigate, connect to and make discoveries previously unknown to the student.

Ideal situation is the TPACK framework

What is TPACK?

What is TPACK?

Identify TPACK elements in 3 Lesson Plans

Playing with Technology

• Blogs
• Television
• Computer
• MP3, MP4
• E-portfolio
• Mobile phone
• Wiki
• iPod
• Camera
• GPS
• CMS
• Online games

Technology enhanced learning

• Technology-enhanced learning is gaining favour since it emphasises how technology adds value to learning
• Technology-enhanced learning is concerned with:
• Connectivity to information and to others
• Greater choice over the time, place and pace of study
• Provides an alternative modes of study: distance, blended, work-based learning etc

21st Century Competencies of the Teacher

• Effective teaching depends on flexible access to rich, well-organized and integrated knowledge from different domains, including
• knowledge of student thinking and learning (pedagogy)
• knowledge of subject matter (content), and increasingly,
• knowledge of technology
• “At the heart of good teaching with technology are three core components: content, pedagogy, and technology, plus the relationships among and between them.”

(Koehler & Mishra, 2006)

Barriers to Technological change

. 1. FEAR of change

2. TRAINING in basics
3. PERSONAL use
4. TEACHING models
5. LEARNING based
6. CLIMATE
7. MOTIVATION
8. SUPPORT

Challenges – Technology Integration in Teaching

• Many teachers earned degrees at a time when educational technology was at a lower stage of development than it is today
• They do not consider themselves sufficiently prepared to use technology in the classroom
• They do not have opportunities to explore the value of technology or its relevance to teaching and learning

How Educators should be Guided

• Identify parts of the curriculum that are hard to teach where technology might help overcome pedagogical or cognitive difficulties.
• Identify topics in the curriculum for which technology is an essential element of the science being taught.