TPACK Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan for TPACK integration

Application
Describe an instructional activity (e.g. part of a lesson plan) where you can incorporate this technology. Consider an activity that can be conducted in 15-20 minutes.

First, provide some details regarding:

• Learners: Who are your learners? What learner/age group should this activity be designed for?
• My learners for this activity would be the advanced ag class. This class is generally made up of juniors and seniors. Genetics is often a very important class that college students majoring in animal science with have to endure, so there for I would like to give my upperclassmen a basic foundation.
• Learning outcomes: What will learners gain through this activity? Be specific regarding the focus of content. You should be able state something like: “At the end of this activity, students will be able to…”
• Through this activity learners will be able to complete an F1 and F2 genes using the Punnett square. Learners will also be able to explain the difference between dominant and recessive traits as well as the difference between self-pollination and cross pollination.
• Assessment: How would you know that students acquire the learning outcomes? How would you know that your activity is effective?
• During this activity there is a built in quiz that we will do together as a class so that I can see what they are understanding and what they are not. They will also be given a quiz where they have to know the terms and definitions and be able to perform F1 and F2 crosses, as well as explaining the genotypes formed.

Second, break down your activity into a timeline of planned events and procedures. Here you should describe what students and the teacher will be doing chronologically during the activity.

• The lesson will begin with introducing the topic. Which for today is genetics as well as introducing them to the father of genetics Gregor Mendel.
• The students would then be asked to take notes over 4 or 5 slides. Mainly writing down key terms and their definitions.
• Next there is a 8-10 question quiz that I will have the board for them to do as a class.
• Then I will move on to the Punnet square, showing them how it works, and how to do one on their own.
• Following the presentation I will give them the date of the quiz and the link to the quizlet that I created to help them study.

• Following this exploration the students would be given 5 minutes to complete the individual assessment.
• Then, while waiting on the other students to finish, the students that had already completed all of the assignment would then post on the class Edmodo site what new techniques they have learned about navigating the Internet and solving algebraic equations in order to help other students in the class.

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.
2. How effectively the use of this technology may enhance students' understanding of and learning from your particular content in this activity.
• The use of technology for this particular lesson can really help my teaching activity as well as saving me a lot of time. It allows me to have several example problems and a practice quiz all in one place. This is a lesson that has the potential to be very boring, incorporation technology will allow me to give it some life and make it more engaging.

Also, using technology will allow me to bring students to the board and allow them to get a more hands feel for the punnet square. I know that some of my students will excel by just listening and watching me, while others need to give it try themselves. Overall I feel that technology will only make this activity more educational as well as more engaging.

--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:

• What are your strategies and why do you think your strategies are appropriate to teaching this specific content?  What makes you believe it would help your students comprehend this particular content? Give specific examples from your described activity.
• What would be some conceptions and pre-conceptions that students of different ages and backgrounds bring with them when learning this particular content? What would you be concerned about students' prior knowledge, experiences, motivation? Again focus on the content and your teaching strategy, not the technology!
• This activity will be one of the more challenging ones that I will present to my advanced ag class. There will be a bit of differentiation between the levels of prior knowledge that my students may have. Some of them are seniors and some of them are juniors and will have had a few different core courses up to this point. My main strategy for this activity is to break it down and make it as simple as possible before making it more complicated. Without a solid foundation this topic will be hard to grasp. When I have a full class time I plan stopping after every couple of slides and reviewing what we just covered, asking questions, and answering any questions that they may have. This will allow me to see that they have grasped where we have been before we move on any further.

--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:

• What main instructional strategies would this technology use serve in your activity? How would using the technology support the way you teach this activity? Please give examples and be specific to your described activity. Think about your main teaching strategies that this technology would support.
• What different classroom management strategies you might need to consider when using this technology in the activity? Give examples and be specific to your described activity.
• Without technology it would be difficult to use my previous strategy and keep my students engaged. The technology allows me to keep the content challenging, but also interesting. The technology is the only way that I can incorporate a quiz and premade examples.

When considering classroom management this is one way to keep my students attention and keep them involved. Allowing them to come to the board and give it a hands on experience will help keep them motivated and challenged.

--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:

• How would using this technology enhance the way the content is represented in your activity (e.g. demonstrations, explanations, examples, illustrations, analogies, and etc.)? That is why you think the selection and the pedagogical use of this technology may enhance what you teach (the content in your activity). Give specific examples from your activity to support your answer and keep in mind the learning objectives that you stated previously. 
• In what different ways students practice or understand the content in your activity that would otherwise not be possible without the use of the technology? In addition to motivational benefits, what else can students do with this technology as they are learning the content?

Using technology would be the easiest way to enhance this content. Without technology I would be just giving a boring lecture that would ultimately lose the attention of my students. Technology allows me to have readable demonstrations as well as interactive activities. It also allows me to show illustrations and examples of what it is I am discussing. It also allows for those pictures to be accurate and the right shapes and colors. The technology will also allow me to keep the content challenging and easily changeable if it seems to be too easy. An example of this would be skipping past a few of the F1 crosses if the class as a whole has them mastered and moving on to F2 crosses.

Students can use the quizlet or even the slides themselves to review terms and definitions. I will also provide them with parent problems to work out using the punnet square and see if they can get the right answer. Also this will allow the students to practice their understanding of genotypes and phenotypes. Students can also take this content and create their own problems and even their own smartboard activities.

3D Printer

I have seen 3D printers in several different tv shows and had heard a little bit about them before being introduced to them in this class. The 3D printer is a very impressive invention. You can literally print anything that you would like. I was very impressed with what it can make as well as the amount of details that it can take into account.

As far as the 3D printer within classrooms, I feel that it could be very beneficial to every classroom. In a perfect world I would love to see every school district be able to have two or three of them to use. I feel like the possibilities that a 3D printer can offer are endless and I truly see this technology being a big part of the future for many years to come.

Within in my own classroom I could see a 3D printer being very useful. First off I think it would be great for the students to get an understanding of the machine and how its software works. Allowing them to use there own imagination and create something will hopefully spark their interest to go further. Many ag classrooms do a lot of their own fundraising. Many programs that I am familiar with have a silent auction. I know that the ag program that I grew up in made a lot of money off of this one night. As students in that program we pretty much made every item that was up for auction. These items came from the welding shop, the wood shop, the green house, and often times several students would come up with something even more unique. I feel like a 3D printer would allow students to take that even one step further.

Another way that I can see a 3D printer being a valuable part of my classroom activities would be for making parts or even certain equipment that may be needed. Within the an ag class you just never know what you might need. Having a 3D printer would really feel some of those gaps while allowing students to master yet another tool. This will only benefit them.

The 3D printer is an awesome tool and I am very happy that I got to explore it and create something. I look forward to hopefully one day having one in my very own classroom.

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)

This was the first time that I was introduced to the TPACK method. My first thoughts were that it was somewhat confusing, but as I dove into the articles I realized that this method is a good one. It really lays the groundwork for a solid teaching method that allows you to encompass the more important aspects. In today's classrooms there is no doubt that standards, technology, and even content in some areas are changing at a fairly rapid pace. The TPACK method insures that you are encompassing technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge,and content knowledge at the same time.

In my opinion the teachers that i remember being great teachers and also my favorite teachers were very well rounded. As a student it awesome to be in a class where the teacher not only knows what they are talking about, how to use the tools they have around them, and also keeps the class somewhat challenging. Now that I am on the downward slope to becoming a teacher myself, I think that the TPACK method will be one that I really try to implement into my courses as much as possible. I feel like this method will allow me to offer a different point of view to my ag classroom.

It is no secret that many ag classrooms don't utilize technology in the classroom as much as they should in my opinion. However the technology used in the wood shops and welding shops is often utilized to its full potential. I feel like pursuing that same standard in the classroom would only be of a great benefit to my future students. The TPACK method will be a a great tool for me to use to make sure that my lessons are right on track.

In the group discussion that we had in class it was clear that we all took parts of the article the same way, but we also interpreted parts of it differently. All of us agreed that you need to know what your teaching, make sure the content is age/level appropriate, but also know how to use technology to better communicate each lesson. we also agreed that this method would be very useful to us all in our future classrooms.

From the additional articles that each of us were assigned I gained some useful information. One article was about the TPACK system being introduced to pre-service teachers like myself, and how this method was introduced, how the pre-service teachers viewed it, how they learned, and there thoughts about it. The main point i gained form this article was the pre-service teachers all felt that collaboration and working together was the best way to grasp this method. Another article was a survey of students in teacher education programs and there knowledge of different technological tools. The last artilcle was the one that i enjoyed the most from the discussion. It was about taking more hands on technology courses while in teachers education programs. In my opinion that would be a great asset for all future teachers. My goal is to also attend seminars or conferences throughout my teaching career to always try to keep up with what is going on.

The TPACK method is one that I truly foresee being beneficial in my future. It will give me just one more tool in my tool bag to use and hopefully it will be one that all of my future students can benefit from. Too often teachers become complacent and set in there ways. My challenge to myself and all fellow future educators is to never stop learning and never stop trying to become even better. You never know how far you will go if don't always keep pushing forward.

Educational Technology Reflection 1

There is no doubt that technology is evolving at a tremendous speed and the doors and possibilities that it has opened up are virtually limitless. Even in my lifetime so far, technology has change everyday life for most of the population. In the four articles that we were assigned to review today there were several different areas covered. I found all of them to be very interesting and they also left me even more curious of what the future, not only of education, but life in general, may hold.

The first article that i reviewed was the one discussing paper versus tablet surveys. I was honestly surprised to see that there was very little difference between the two methods. Before I read it my prediction was that tablet forms of survey would be the better way to go. I just assumed this because every where you look anymore people are always on their phones, tablets, and computers. These devices have become such a major part of everyday life for many people.

The second article that I reviewed was the Teacher Technology Usage survey. This survey mostly covered what types of technology teachers prefer and also which types of technology they feel like with more funding that they would find beneficial. Pursuing a teaching degree myself I agreed with what this survey revealed. I agree that in the classroom technology can allow students to experience subjects and lesson that they would not be able to without technology. I also believe that technology allows teachers to open up so many more doors for students. Like I said before technology is evolving a tremendous rate and if students aren't able to see technology and work and use it themselves I fear that they will be behind. In today's economy jobs are getting harder and harder to obtain, therefore giving students every advantage you can while they are growing up is very vital.

The third article that read was about the best twenty five inventions of 2015. I found this very interesting. There were several inventions included in this list that I had never heard of. In my opinion some of these items could be very beneficial, while others I felt that there purpose was not very significant. However, this article is proof that technology has no limit and you never know what is going to be invented next.

The article from The Economist about domestic furniture having a mind of its own was one that i could see in certain situations being very useful. I feel that there are a lot of people that could benefit from furniture like that. I can't say for sure that I would ever buy one, but the idea is a good one!

The quote "I fear the day that technology will surpass our interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots." by Albert Einstein is one that I agree and disagree with at the same time. I do believe that technology is a great thing and it has so much to offer, the possibilities that it has are endless. However, I do fear that technology has become such an intricate part of everyday life that this generation has missed out on many things. It's not very often anymore that you go out to a restaurant and not see an entire family sitting at the table all looking at their phone or even walk down the hallway and not find someone staring at their smart phone. Today's society has somewhat lost what true face to face interaction is about. I have sat on the couch in a room full of people all of which were texting each other rather than just talking among themselves. At this rate face to face conversation will soon become a thing of the past. My main concern is where does it end, when will people realize that so much is being missed because people fail to look up and see whats right in front of them.