Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge & Social Impact of Technology

The impact that this project has had on my own TPCK, is that it has made me more aware of how I could be integrating technology within my lessons, although I should not fully rely on technology all of the time, as technology is known to fail. This project has also raised my awareness in the lack of some of my own content knowledge. As I designed an interactive lesson on a topic unit which I was not very confident in, it made me aware of how deep that unit of work is. This has left me feeling unconfident when teaching the knowledge to students as it is very hard content, but at the same time, I have also been able to increase my own understanding of it, and potentially this will help make my presenting of new knowledge to the students easier. This project has made me more aware of my own weaknesses, but in doing so, I am now aware on what I need to improve.

Knowledge of content to be taught, knowledge of how to teach it and knowledge of use of technology are all vital to the successful transition of knowledge to students(Mishra & Koehler, 2006).

  

By using technology, teachers are becoming more reliant on other equipment to teach. Teachers have to constantly have a backup or alternate plan if technology fails. What if the smart board will not work? What if there is a power outage? Teachers have to remain mindful on these issues regarding technology when designing lesson. The social impact of technology in the classroom is that teachers can become too relaxed on using fantastic programs such as YouTube to teach students skills, especially in a practical based subject such as Design and Technology. As the over use of this medium could lose students attention, and students thoughts such as ‘Why do I even come to school when all I do is watch YouTube?’ may begin to take place.

Students’ use of technology can have both positive and negative effects. As the continued use may leave students feeling isolated from the class, as they are constantly working on their own and potentially with their head phones in. Social interactions may suffer in the classroom, group work activities may become harder to do, and confidence to present in front of the group may fall.

The positive features of students using technology within the classroom, is that they are beginning to become a part of a wider learning environment, classes may not just be restricted to the classroom, as the use of the internet and programs give students the ability to explore and interact with people from all over World. Another positive effect of technology integration is the benefit of self-directed student learners. Students begin to function autonomy, therefore developing essential skills for the workforce, which is one of the aims and goals from the Melbourne Declaration(Ministerial Council on Education Employment Training and Youth Affairs, 2008).

If used effectively to create authentic learning tasks, students can learn to interact with technology, and therefor creating a fantastic social interaction.  The virtual classroom is gaining popularity at such a rate, that the desire for students, especially teenagers, to be ‘trendy’ increases the desire for online learning(Flowers, 2001).

Relevance of Multiliteracies and Multi-modal approach to support students Learning

Literacy is no longer defined just as the teaching of learning how to read, write, listen, and spell. It now incorporates a whole new world of literacy, such as technology, the use of software and hardware, internet and program literacy(O'Toole, Burke, & Absalom, 2011). The increasing awareness of techno-literacies has been due to the increase use of technology at home and the working environment. As technology changes and improves, new tools are developed to help people adapt to using technologies, and societies are becoming more reliant of the use of technology(Lotherington, 2008). This need to be able to successfully operate and understand technology is becoming more evident in the education system. Goal two of the Melbourne Declaration (2008) specifically aims that a student;

“..have the essential skills in literacy and numeracy and are creative and productive users of technology, especially ICT, as a foundation for success in all learning areas.”(Ministerial Council on Education Employment Training and Youth Affairs, 2008)

This aim to implement technology as literacy has intended that teachers are becoming aware of multi-literacies and are adapting their lessons to include skills in developing these techno- literacies. The relevance of multi-literacy is the idea of teaching audio, visual and spatial literacy. All of which can be done through multimodal approaches with the aid of technology(Cloonan, 2008).

The idea of multimodal approach refers to the styles of pedagogies used to teach the content, for example, in my artefact, I used games, video, songs and written tasks to revise and create deep knowledge with the content being taught. By using a multimodal approach, students with visual, audio and kinaesthetic learning styles, all have the equal opportunity to learn(Ho, 2010). By adapting our lessons to provide an equal learning opportunity and deepen students’ knowledge and understanding are all key elements of the Quality Teaching Model(NSW Department of Education and Training Professional Support and Curriculum Directorate, 2003). These are substantial ways to support students learning.

With the growing use of technology, governments desire to use and teach it, mixed with the students desire to use technology, adapting a multimodal approach to teaching multi-literacy is more than beneficial to address and support all students learning needs.

Depth of Curriculum knowledge and the Integration of ICTs in the classroom.

A depth of curriculum knowledge is needed by any teachers to teach their subject. To select the appropriate use of ICT in the classroom teachers should be able to decipher and insert appropriate use of ICT that benefits the lesson. By understanding what you are required to teach through the curriculum, you are able to adapt you lessons to integrate the use of technology in the classroom. As the Digital Education Revolution (DER) has enabled students each access to their own computers, it is only necessary that us as teachers should adapt our teaching so that students can use technology and their laptops in class. By using technology, teachers can create a multimodal approach to learning, by delivering the same content in many forms(Cloonan, 2008). This multimodal approach enables students with different learning styles to receive the same knowledge in a way that deepens their understanding.
The use of technology in the classroom builds students technology skills, which can benefit their life after school, in the work force. The smart board lesson that I created as my interactive resource, integrated the use of video, web quests, java applications and text. This fulfilled the need to suit all students learning styles, and addressed the students’ multi-literacy skills, as using this resource requires students to practice word processing skills, program skill, reading, writing and Internet research task skills. The food technology curriculum addresses the use of ICT in the classroom in outcome;
 P3.2 presents ideas in written, graphic and oral form using computer software where appropriate


When creating my resource, I researched the DER laptops, so that I was aware of the software that the students had access to. When researching the software, I found that students have the access to a range of excellent programs. This created a learning moment as my need and desire to explore the range of software and its capabilities. This learning moment introduced me to the use of voice recording software (Audacity) and video editing tools (Windows Live Movie Maker). I found these tools easy to use, but as for use in the classroom I believe that they would be rather time consuming, especially if your students are perfectionists. For this reason, I decided not to use these tools in the creation or tasks in my interactive resource. With the right teaching method and integration into the classroom, these two tools could become a very valuable learning task for both students and teachers.

Key Learning Moment

The decision to design an interactive smart board lesson enabled me to develop my skills within this program. Using smart board technology enables the students to engage and interact with their learning. The Smart notebook program allows for the integration of multiple technologies to be displayed and presented to the class through one medium. It incorporates video with sound, typed presentation with the ability to select and control the presentation from the projected picture. The decision to use Smart Notebook over another similar program such as PowerPoint was my need and desire to learn new technologies. From creating my interactive lesson, I have learnt that the software has its own limitations, as for an example, for video insertion you can only display .flv file formats, unlike PowerPoint you can insert many different video file formats.  

When comparing the two similar programs, I found that smart notebook would often have glitches, such as freezing and not run as smoothly when trying to operate functions such as games, or video clips.

These issues made the completion of my project very time consuming, and frustrating. As much as I believe in the idea of interactive lessons where students can touch the screen to answer questions, some of the negative aspects and issues outweigh the positive theory behind it.  If I were to develop a similar lesson again, I would just use PowerPoint, as I found you could do similar things without the timely frustrations.

One key learning moment during the designing and producing of my smart board lessons was the applications that you can add to web browsers such as Google chrome. The application I used was the one that lets you download Java application and games, it is fantastic. As I no longer needed to hyperlink a screenshot of the educational game for my lesson, I could insert the educational game directly into my Smart board interactive lesson.

This key learning moment, opened a world of opportunities with different application programs.

The design decision made to include the interactive game was to engage students in their learning, and by trying to make a game out of it, students can achieve some enjoyment from learning.

By being able to include quizzes as a part of my design I was able to fulfil many elements of the Quality Teaching Model. Elements such as student engagement, deeper understanding, higher-order thinking and student self-regulation are all addressed when using and operating this lesson.

How a pedalogical lens can assist teachers in making choices relating to ICT intergration in the classroom.

When addressing an outcome from the syllabus, teachers must design their lessons with their students in mind. All students have different learning abilities and preferences when it comes to learning styles. When adapting a lesson to use information communication technology (ICT) with in them, teachers must address the learning styles of their students. Using ICTs such as video can fulfil this need, as students who learn through auditory, visual and kinaesthetic methods are all being addressed. Although teachers should not use video or other technology to replace their own teaching style, technology should be seen as an extension to students learning(Moore, 2010).

Teachers should focus on how to implement technology successfully into to lessons, rather than debate the students’ use of them(Kellner & Share, 2007).  With this in mind, teachers should use their knowledge of their students to find technology that is suitable for them, and match it with a suitable ICT that can excel their learning capabilities and develop students’ deeper understanding.

ICTs such as video and YouTube can be extremely valuable in the classroom, as long as the teacher uses it appropriately.

When creating my digital artefact, I kept all of these ideas in mind, of how I wanted to create an interactive smart board lesson that students could engage in to deepen their understanding. In the Food Technology stage 6 Syllabus, it directly makes links to students using technology.

Outcome

P3.2 - presents ideas in written, graphic and oral form using computer software where appropriate.

(NSW Board Of Studies, 2009) When designing my artefact, I was addressing the outcome of
 P2.1 Explains the roles of food nutrients in human nutrition(NSW Board Of Studies, 2009).

I created my revision lesson with these two syllabus outcomes in mind. I was able to develop literacy games using Smart board tools, such as word definition matching games, and using items such as pictures as clues. These smart board tools enable me to address different learning styles of students, and by using a pedagogical lens while creating my lesson, I was able to make interactive games that were also educational.