Future

I've said in my last blog that that blog was the last blog for the course. That is true. The course Pedagogies of Flexible learning supported by Technology has come to an end (I hope I completed it well...). But that doesn't mean that I will never post a blog on this page evermore. I liked writing posts on this blog very much, so I will try to stay posting my ideas about education on this blog in the future (if time let me do so). So: stay in touch!

Reflection about using and teaching TPACK

This will be my last blog for the course of Flexible Learning. In this blog, I reflect on the final assignment, designing a professional development course for teachers in which they’ll learn to work with TPACK. And, of course, we had to use TPACK in our own design process... In this blog, I will reflect on that two points, the design process and the working with TPACK. 

Design process

We had to design a programm in groups of four students. The four of us all wanted to design a professional development programm, so that was the base on which we choosed to work together. And I have to say it was a good decission. I’ve never worked in a group so easy and efficient (I hope our grade will reflect this feeling...). 

Context

So we had to design a course for teachers in which they’ll learn to work with TPACK. And we wanted to use the TPACK model by designing this. So, the first thing we had to do was choosing a more detailed context. Who will be the participants, what are they allready knowing, how long will the programm take, etc. This was discussed very quickly, we all wanted to design something for teachers of different primary schools with different knowledges and the programm will take place in a couple of months. 

T, P and C

Then we went to the P, the C and the T. The content was allready given, teaching the teachers TPACK. And that was all we wanted. Stimulate the teachers to use TPACK for integrate technology in their lessons. Then we thought of the pedagogy. We thought that collaborative learning will be a good way to learn the use of TPACK in combination with some lectures and expert-guidance. But the most important is the interactivity of the teachers. So we thought the working in teacher teams would serve this the most. Thereby, we came almost autimatically in the TPK. How can you make teacher teams work when there are teachers from different schools? Here the online working with eachother was mentioned. New technologies as Skype or chat in an online learning environment was the best way to support this.

I will not repeate exactly what we described in our paper, so I won’t go systematically across all the elements of TPACK. But what I told in this blog illustrated the way we used TPACK. It all was going very natural. There were no difficulties by a forced way of thinking of: ooh, what will be the TCK, or how do we reach the PCK? By thinking of the elements T, P and C, the integration came with it. To start with the design, the model helped us to think about T, P and C, and thereby, the rest wasn’t that difficult anymore. 

Implementation in programm

So, the elements of the programm were clear in the first meeting. But how do we do this in practice? We discussed that, and very soon we came with a global planning of the programm. Everyone was agreeing with starting with some theoretical information and examples, and than working in teacher teams with guidance of the expert. After a couple of weeks of trying TPACK, another, shorter day will appear with sharing experiences with the other groups. There were no great discussions in our group. Everyone came with ideas, and we could use the most of that ideas in our programm. So, after that meeting, our programm was globally set up. We’ve token some time to think further, and we used technology to discuss later that week. We had a chat-meeting to experience what we wanted to let the teachers do. At the end of that meeting, we agreed that contact eachother by chat is a possibility that can be handy, but voice-to-voice contact would be more effective. Because we experienced that by chatting, everyone can type something at the same time, with the result that you can type something when another is typing the same, or allready about a whole different subject. Conversation isn’t as effective as it could be in that way. So, the teachers are advised to use Skype instead of chat...

But after that chat-session, our plans were clear. We could divide the tasks for working things further out, and have contact by mail. And that went out very well! I wanted to be critical, but it wasn’t necessary! In no time, our report was on paper, and I was happy with what we’ve made. We’ve put in some good ideas (having enough coffeebreaks to support informal learning) and I think that teachers can integrate TPACK with our programm quit well. 

Working with TPACK

Some short words about working with TPACK because I allready talked about this in the former of this blog.

As I mentioned before, I experienced that working with TPACK made us effectively think about the integrated elements of the course. Thinking of TPACK, I was aware of the relations between the T, C and P and of the content of the elements on their own. By using TPACK, you really can integrate technology with pedagogy and content.

I also thinks it’s good to work with TPACK by yourself before you say to others that they have to use it. In the last weeks, we’ve thought about TPACK, and also this time, we had to design a development programm for teachers working with TPACK. But now, we had to work with TPACK by ourself. Because of this, I could experience what it is to work with it. And I found it a handy model. Now, by having used it once by myself, I can more easily tell to others why they should use it also (because it is a complete model, you can use it to really integrate content to pedagogy to technology and in reverse... in stead of just add it on). And I think I will use it more often when I have to design a lesson or programm.  I believe this is really a good model to use for designing lessons and for integrating technology. This because it is a complete model and you are forced to think explicity about the three elements and their relations. Further, by using TPACK, you have to be flexible in your thinking and by this, you can use new ways of teaching something in a way that it will be more effective than you did in the past. And that will help students to learn more effective, efficient and with more satisfaction!

Conclude

To conclude, I think that using TPACK to design a course in which TPACK will be learned was a very nice way to complete this course of Pedagies for Flexible learning using Technology. With this case, we had to use our newgotten knowledge and in the same time we experienced TPACK by ourselfs.  I’ve learned a lot about flexibility, technology and TPACK in this way, and I liked it very much also! And I think that the awareness which the TPACK-model gives you of the integration of pedagogy, content and technology all in a given context is a great effort of this model in designing lessons!

Integrating technology, how can you stimulate the teacher?

A basic assumption of using TPACK is that technology is really integrated in education. Teachers don’t use technology just for fun or as an add-on in their lessons, but use it as an important, integrated element together with the content and pedagogy. But how can you stimulate teachers to really integrate technology in their education? In this blog, I discuss my ideas about this. 

      I think integrating technology is a process. This process goes form knowing and experience technology and their uses by the teacher. After knowing it, they’ll have to believe in the opportunities. When they are willing to integrate technology, the skills are needed even as a context for trying it out. At the last, time is needed to getting used to it. In the following I describe these steps in more detail. 

      

      Knowing technology

I think that in the first place, teachers have to experience the use of technology by themselfs. Technology has to be concrete for them, and they’ll have to know how usefull it can be for their learning. Therefor, we put in our teacher development course an online learning environment. Hereby, teachers can experience the usefullness of this technology. Also, they’ll get a lot of technological examples in the workshop of what technologies you can use, and how you can use it. In the first day of the workshop, the teachers have to think about their use of technology and talk with other teachers about their use of it. Together, they can discuss how they can use technologies in a  better way. The reason for letting the teachers think and talk about the use of technology is that they’ll become aware of the possibilities of technology. When you want to integrate technology in your lessons, you have to think about technology as a normal way of teaching and you have to know the existence and uses of different technologies. Knowing technologies is the first prerequisite of the integration of them in your lessons.

 

      Believe in technology

After knowing technologies, teachers must be willing to integrate the technologies in their education. How can you stimulate this? I think that it’s important that teachers see and believe the opportunities of technologies for learning. When they think that learners learn more with the technology, they are willing to integrate them in their lessons. I think every teacher wants that their students learn the best, so when they believe that technology can help them, they will integrate them in their lessons.

            Being able to use technology

So, to stimulate teachers to integrate technology in their lessons, they have to know the technologies and to believe in the opportunities for learning. When these two factors are there, I think teachers are willing to really integrate technology in their education. But they need the skills to integrate them. And therefor they have to work with it, learn about it and try it out. They can do that on their own, but I thinks it’s more efficient and effective when they do that in teams. When a teacher is working in a teacher team, he or she can talk about things with other teachers, they can watch by eachother how they use technology, they’ll face difficulties not only by themselfs, but also by others and they’ll see good practices by others and by themselfs. By working in teacherteams, they have more experiences with the use of technology, so they can learn more about it. Evenso, they have people around them who can help with problems. Help to search for solutions. Two are knowing more than one, and five will know even more!

  

            Getting support

Beside of the teacher teams, I think it will be a great help when their is an expert who can help teachers with the use and integration of technology. An expert which is aware of which technologies can be used and of what is possible in the classroom. This expert can help teachers by showing them uses of technologies, but also by thinking of how to use them. Also, the expert can give guidelines of how to get the greatest effects out of technology and out of the teacher teams. Hereby, the expert can give the teachers the TPACK-model. This can be a great guideline to integrate technology in the education.

             On the long run

 Finally, to really integrate technology in the education, I thinks it is important to guide teachers on the long run. I think it won’t help teachers very much when they are stimulated one day to use technology. They have to get help and stimulation longe. Therefor, teacher teams have great opportunities. The teams are working together for longer time, and the expert can come across once in a time. On this way, teachers can’t forget the way of using technology easily. They are forced to think about it regulary. Thereby, at a certain moment, they don’t have to think explicitly about the use of technology, but they’ll use it as a normal element of their lessons. They will say: of course I use technology in my lessons, that’s just as important as the content or the pedagogy of my lessons!  

As I said, I think integrating technology is a process. In this process, teachers can be supported by an expert and by peers. By doing this carefully and getting the time for it, I think teachers can be stimulated to integrate technology with content and pedagogy in their learning practice.