Reflection on working with TPACK

In my last post I reflected on the process of working on the final assignment, now I will reflect on working with TPACK and my ideas to integrate technology in education.

First of all I think that I learned more about TPACK by applying it in practice. That was directly our inset for our professional development program: you learn most about TPACK when you are working on it and apply it in practice! And I really liked that. The TPACK framework seems so logical that you might think it could not be so hard… But the opposite is true! It is very complicated! That is also what you discover when you are working on it in practice. Because it is very complicated I think that it is important for educational designers to make the TPACK model workable for teachers, you cannot just learn teachers about it in theory. I think that the TPACK model could be useful for the integration of technology in education, but it is not enough. Technology has to become something usual in education, not something special. That is the reason that the educational training institutions have a crucial role! When student teachers are there already learning to teach with technology they get really used to it. They are also grown up using technology so it might be easier for them to use it than for teachers that did not grow up with using technology. But for the older teachers I think that good practices are very valuable. Just show them what the possibilities are and how they could apply it. School leaders play a crucial role in respect to this. They can stimulate their teachers and make sure that the boundary conditions are good and that the vision on ICT is clear and that teachers believe in that vision. He can do that by showing good practices, professional development programs in relation to this and by obliging them to use it in some way.

Because I am not only a student but also a teacher, in this course I constantly thought about how I use technology in my education. Because I am teaching physical education I am always using technology in the broad way of the definition of technology, but the kind of technology this course was mostly about, ICT technology, I am not using at all actually. I am conscious about it now, and I see some possibilities that I have mentioned in earlier blogs. I will try to do something more with technology from now on! But I also think about what I have learned about TPACK, even more than I already did about, when I am preparing my lessons and when I am reflecting on the lessons I gave. I think that I have now a good basis for elaborating what the possibilities are for my specific situation.

This is my last blog in relation to the course ‘Pedagogies’. I really enjoyed to blog about my experiences and I hope that others enjoyed reading it!

Reflection- time again! About the process of working on the final assignment.

It has been a while since my last post.. Not that I was not working on the course, I was pretty busy working on it actually, and now I will write something about that period. What did I do?

For the course ‘Pedagogies’ we had to work on the final assignment to finish the course. In groups of four students we could choose to design a lesson based on TPACK or to develop a professional development based on TPACK. My group, with Jeffrey, Mariëtte and Simone, choose to work on the professional development assignment, as most of the groups did. We thought this would be most interesting for us and most challenging. Because three of us are teachers, designing a lesson would not be so hard. Developing a professional development is more the kind of work we imagine to do when we are graduated… Nice to try it out! We had four weeks to work on it and after we finished we had to present what we have developed to the other groups.

I will not tell in detail what we have developed here, in short we have developed a professional development program for primary school teachers and educational training teachers in which they learn about TPACK and apply what they have learned by designing a lesson plan form for student teachers to use in their internships. In this way we reach not only the teachers of today, but also the teachers of the future.

When we started to work on the assignment we were all very enthusiastic about what we were going to do. Simone can up with a very good idea to work out the assignment directly and we all agreed that that was a good idea to work out. The first time we came together we discussed a lot about how to shape the rough ideas and worked out what we should do. We had all good ideas but we could not work out everything so we had to choose and clearly define a plan. Because of the time pressure we felt that we could not just try something and decide later if we are on a good way, but that we had to make a good plan before we could work something out. I experienced that we all were really conscious about that and that we did not lose time but that we came directly to the point and worked effectively. All members of our group brought something different because we all are very different and have different background. I think that we used that in a very positive way and that was an added value for our group. We listened to ideas of each other and we added something and discussed about it. I have experienced it as a very pleasant collaboration!

After we had worked out our rough ideas we decided that it would be best to think everything over and come together one week later to work out the ideas together. That was important to really take care that we are all still at one line and work it out in such a way that we, after that meeting, could split up some work. We discovered that we almost had the same thought about it, so it was good to talk it over and got at one line. Together we worked out the main ideas for the program and all choose something to do for the next meeting. It seemed that we all wanted to do a different aspect of the assignment and we all agreed that we had to work on an aspect we are good at! We agreed that next week we all had done a great part of the job, and if we discovered some difficulties that we could ask each other for help; we stayed in touch with each other by email. Because we clearly decided who would do what, everyone did what he or she had to do. The nest meeting we talked about what we did and what should be done to finish. We split up in couples to work out what we still had to do and agreed that what was not finished should be done at home. We again distributed the job and we finished it in time!

Concluding

I really enjoyed working in this group because the collaboration was very good! We listed well to each other and worked effectively. The division of coming together and work things out by yourself was pleasant and we really made use  of what we are good at. 

What did I learn so far?

Again, it is time for reflection! What did I actually learn so far in this course and how does that relate to the TPACK framework I have just posted a message on?

We started the course with discussing flexibility, later on pedagogies, technology and the TPACK framework. The link between pedagogies and technology in relation to the TPACK framework seems to be really clear: these are components of the framework. By learning about the specific topics technology and pedagogies I could place them better in relation to TPACK and the components became more concrete for my understanding. I did actually not learn about the topics in isolation, but the connection between the topics was an important aspect that is also coming back in TPACK. When Petra told about pedagogies we also had to think of what technology could support a specific pedagogical approach. TPACK is actually structuring all the topics together for me.

Flexibility is not direct a component of the framework, but I do see a connection. When teachers are TPACK skilled they can offer their students flexibility in their learning. Is that the added value of TPACK? Or is technology the added value? I think that technology is the added value because it brings more opportunities for more flexibility! Research about ICT in education shows at least that ICT is adding value to education (Kennisnet, 2010)! But this is complicated and when teachers do not know how to work with ICT the added value is not there. The TPACK framework can be help useful for teachers by the implementation ICT in education and can be of added value, but because it is quite new it is not proven by research yet (Kennisnet, 2010). That may be directly the next issue to discuss; implementation of the framework.

Till now researchers wrote about TPACK (Koehler & Mishra, 2009), but can teachers work with the theoretical model already? Not yet is the answer, but it is coming up (Kennisnet, 2010). In our next lecture we will also talk about implementation and we will have to do an assignment about that topic!          

References:

Kennisnet, (2010). Hoe kan een leraar ICT integreren in het onderwijs? Maak kennis met TPACK. www.kennisnet.nl

Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60-70.

TPACK

Last week we had our fourth lecture for the course ‘Pedagogies’ and it was about TPACK. What that means I will explain later on.. But it was not the first time for me that TPACK came up in my educational program of CIMA. Last year we discussed about it in the introduction course and also during last years’ CIMA symposium when Punya Mishra was a guest speaker... One of the inventors of TPACK! It was a very interesting day!!

First I will explain what TPACK is and then what the connection is of TPACK and what I have learned so far in the course.

TPACK stands for Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge and is a framework for teacher knowledge and technology integration. Figure 1 (Koehler & Mishra, 2009) shows not only the three components of TPACK, technological knowledge, (TK, knowledge about technologies such as computers, electronic learning environments, and interactive whiteboards), pedagogical knowledge, (PK, knowledge about how students learn and different pedagogical approaches such as problem- based learning or collaborative learning), and content knowledge, (CK, knowledge about the subject matter,) but also the interactions between the components and the context.

Figure 1: The TPACK framework and its knowledge components (Koehler & Mishra, 2009). 

Teaching is a complex and ill- structured practice (Kennisnet, 2010). Since the introduction of new technologies, teachers are expected to use these in their education to make it more effective and more flexible, but this makes the teaching even more complicated. To use technology effectively in their education, it is important to have TPACK (Koehler & Mishra, 2009). To become a TPACK skilled teacher, it is important that you not just have knowledge about the three components technology, pedagogy and content but that the knowledge of these three components emerges from interactions among content, pedagogy and technology. And that is exactly why it is so complicated! But what does it mean? I will try to explain this…

As a teacher you want to teach your students something about where you know a lot about; the content of a subject. But just telling the student what you know is not enough; you have to do that in such a way your students really learn what you want them to learn. Therefore you need knowledge about how you can do that in specific situations and specific contexts for that specific subject; all students are different and are learning in different ways. That is why a teacher needs to have good pedagogical knowledge about how to deliver the content; that is pedagogical- content knowledge. But knowledge alone is not enough; the teacher also needs to have the right skills to DO what he is intended to do best. And that is not it! Teachers also need to have knowledge about technologies they can use for teaching and learning, but again, knowledge alone is not enough! Teacher need to know how they can use the technologies in such a way that the learning process of the students is fostered by it. Thus, on one hand to use the technology in such a way that it really helps the students to understand the content (technological- content knowledge), and on the other hand to use the technology in such a pedagogical way that all students benefit from it (technological- pedagogical knowledge). 

When a teacher is TPACK skilled, he does not only have knowledge about the three components, not only about the three combinations of the components, but about all the three components interacting with each other. He can choose the right content, use the right pedagogical approach to support the learning of that content and use the right technologies in a right way to support the learning of the content and the used pedagogical approach for a specific context.    

I think that it is clear now why it is so complicated to become a TPACK skilled teacher; knowledge about the three components alone is not enough. It is most important for teachers that the knowledge of these three components emerges from interactions among content, pedagogy and technology.

References:

Voogt, J., Fisser, P., & Tondeur, J. (2010). Maak kennis met TPACK. Hoe kan een leraar ICT integreren in het onderwijs? Zoetermeer: Kennisnet.
Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60-70. 

Time for some reflection!

By this time I have attained three lectures for the coure 'Pedagogies ..' and I am preparing for the fourth lecture. A good time to reflect on what I have learned and experienced! First I would like to say that the blogging way of learning, is a way of learning I like more than I expected to do! I can see what the other students are doing; I've read some blogs, however I did not react on it, till now (because I have to do so now). By reacting on other blogs I have to reflect, in stead of only reading...
But I also want to reflect on the three topics that we discussed in the lectures till now: Flexibility, pedagogies and technology. For me it is clear that those topics are leading to what is coming in the next lecture: the TPACK model (our teacher has made a good construction of the content :) )
What I realise after Petra told us, is that when I write about these topics, that I wrote about what is in it for students: they can definitly benefit when technology is used in education and they like it. I also realize that I only mentioned the negative aspects of it for the teachers; they have to do this, and that.... Not very strange that teachers have to be convinced about the benefits/ possibilities for teachers to use technology, I realise that I'm not really convinced too.. But I am working on it!
Of course I learned a lot of the topics; what flexibility is and how many ways there are to make the education more flexible; it is all about these choices you make as a teacher and there are a lot of choices, especially with new technologies). About pedagogies: what pedagogies exist? A lot! I mentioned some in my blogs, and how technology can support the approaches. But I realise that I am not very creative by myself; there are so many posibilities I did not think of, which we discovered in teh third lecture: making pictures for biology for example.
In the next lecture I hope to learn more about all the topics together!

A case of problem- based learning in practice

To prepare for college this week, we got the assignment to search for an example of one of the pedagogical approaches in practice. I started my search on google, as all student do I guess... And however it was not that easy to find something, I have something that I would like to share! I found something about a medical school on the Southern Illinois University. They are using the problem- based learning approach for their education, and I think that they are doing that in a nice way! They mention the same characteristics of problem- based learning as I mentioned in my last blog- post: its is learner centered, based on real problems, teacher is facilitator, students collaborate in small groups and students direct their own learning process. The approach is seen in the 'electronic  Problem- Based Learning Modules' (ePBLM), these are actual patient cases with medical problems where students can ask questions to the patients, and order any laboratory or diagnostic tests. I think this is a good case of problem- based learning, because students have to solve real problems and the learning is really student centered.

If you like to take a look at this example, you can find it here: http://www.pbli.org/pbl/pbl.htm for the ideas of the school, and: http://www.pbli.org/shopping/index.htm for the ePBLM. On the last site you can also download a part to explore it!

Pedagogies

Yesterday we had our second lecture, in which we talked about the theme ‘pedagogies’. First we repeated something about flexibility what we discussed last week and about the blogging. After that we all expected to get a normal lecture.. But we had to work actively on an assignment!  We had to find out what the consequences are for this course if another pedagogical approach should be used by the instructor. We were split up in groups of 4 students and every group chose a pedagogical approach to apply in the course.

There are a lot of pedagogical approaches, such as traditional learning, problem- based learning, workplace learning, collaborative learning, inquiry learning, project- based learning, experiential learning, task- oriented learning and thematic learning. All these approaches (or teaching methods) have different aspects and views on learning. In the lecture each group had to think of characteristics of a specific approach and what consequences these characteristics would have for this course. At the end of the lecture we also got a homework assignment in which we have to apply what we have learned about these approaches by asking yourself the question how these approaches can be supported by a course management system (CMS). I’ll describe here five different pedagogical approaches and in what way I think that the approaches can be supported by a CMS.

Problem- based learning (PBL)

This are characteristics that are related to problem- based learning (Hmelo- Silver, 2004):

-          student-centered instructional strategy, whereby students direct their own learning

-          the learning is driven by problems that are real, challenging, open-ended, ill-defined and ill-structured,

-          students learning centers on a complex problem that does not have a single correct answer,

-          students work and reflect collaboratively in groups to solve the problem,

-          students identify together what they need to learn to be able to solve the problem,

-          teachers are facilitating the learning process rather than he is providing knowledge.

The teacher can provide the problem to the students on a CMS. Because the teacher takes the role of a facilitator, he can provide all the materials to the students that they need to identify what the problem is, for example by posting a video of the problem. In PBL student have to work collaboratively, in a CMS they can do that in different ways; by using the discussion board, using the chat tool and the mail tool. Whit these tools they can discuss their thoughts with each other. Students can also use a planning tool where they can make a plan for their learning. The teacher can follow where the students are working on, and can help them if they are asking for some help or if he sees that students are missing some important parts.

Inquiry learning
These characteristics are related to inquiry learning (based on this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry-based_learning):

-          Learning starts with a question of the teacher; teacher poses questions for students to solve

-          Students search for information to solve the problem, teacher guides the students

-          No prescribed target or result which the students have to achieve

-          Student determines the problem and topic to be studied and method to find answers

-          Learner centered

A CMS can support this kind of learning because students can collaborate by using a CMS, they can discuss their findings on a discussion board and the methods how they want to find answers to the questions. The students can also pose questions to the teacher in the chat room or by email. Students can make a schedule by themselves.

Workplace learning

Characteristics of workplace learning (Geldens, 2007):

-          Learning in practice; learning at the workplace, learner centered

-          Coach is mentoring and coaching the learning process and learning from peers

-          A balance between theory and practice

-          Learning by experiencing

A CMS can support this kind of learning by giving the students the opportunity to share their experiences with each other. They do not have to collaborate, but they can still learn from experiences of other students. Students can write what they are learning in for example a blog and other students can respond to the blog. This is a good way to keep in touch with each other, because every student is at his own workplace.

Collaborative learning

The following characteristics are typical for collaborative learning (Smith & MacGregor, 1992):

-          Students are working in groups and are together searching for understanding, solutions or meanings, or creating a product

-          Course material is explored or applied by the students

-          Students work actively with the course materials, for example in discussions alongside normal lectures

-          Teacher is not transmitting knowledge to students but acts as an expert designer of intellectual experiences

-          Learning is an active and constructive process.

A CMS can support collaborative learning with tools for collaboration, such as the discussion board, mail function and chat room. The teacher can design an inspiring workplace in the CMS by providing multimedia materials for the students.

Traditional learning

Characteristics of traditional learning are (retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Traditional_education)

-          Teacher gives lectures, students listen, teacher is provider of knowledge, teacher centered

-          Theoretical learning and all students are learning from the same material

-          Learners learn individual

-          Learning materials are mostly books

Although it seems not so logical to use a CMS in a traditional approach, I think that there are some possibilities. The teacher can, for example, video- tape the lectures and make the video available on the CMS. The teacher can also provide the learning materials, books or text or his lectures slides, on the CMS.

Conclusions

 There are a lot of different pedagogical approaches that teacher can use in their courses. They have all different characteristics and implications for teaching and the use of a CMS. However there are a lot of possibilities, I as a student do not prefer to use all these possibilities. For example: I like a to discuss about interesting topics, but I would prefer to do that face- to- face, because it is direct and synchronic. Maybe I do not have enough motivation to do that in my spare time? If I have to, I would do it, and probably even like it.. But some possibilities of using a CMS I like and use by myself: I compare my own work with that of other students and so exchange my work.

References:
Geldens, J. (2007). Leren onderwijzen in een werkplekleeromgeving: Een meervoudige casestudy naar kenmerken van krachtige werkplekleeromgevingen voor aanstaande leraren basisonderwijs. Retrieved form: http://repository.ubn.ru.nl/bitstream/2066/30228/1/30228_lereonine.pdf

Hmelo- Silver, C. (2004). Problem- based learning: What and how do students learn? Educational Psychology Review,16 (3), 235-266. Retrieved from: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/ pdfviewer?vid=1&hid=107&sid=7ee59d86-2ba2-4bd6-bfe7-bd3f475a0215%40sessionmgr114

Smith, B., & MacGragor, J. (1992). What is collaborative learning? Retrieved from: http:// learningcommons.evergreen.edu/pdf/collab.pdf

Preparation for the second lecture

To prepare for the second lecture of the course, I searched for an interesting article about a pedagogical approach. I found an artical about blended Problem- Based Learning (bPBL) (Woltering, Herrler, Spitzer & Spreckelsen, 2009). I found this interesting because it is a mix of two approaches that are actual in the attention of researchers: blended learning and problem- based learning (PBL) and it turned out that this approach enhanced the motivation and the satisfaction of the students, compared to only a problem- based learning approach. The researchers discovered this to study a medical aducation situation (where problem- based learning is an established didactic approach) in which they systematically combined online learning and face- to- face classes. The reason they did this is that in a PBL situation the impact of it depends on the quality of the tutors and the motivation of the students. In a blended learning approach, they expected that both the conditions could be controled, and they were right!

This is the direct link to the article

http://www.springerlink.com/content/b3h1364261253342/fulltext.pdf

Reference: Woltering, V., Herrler, A., Spitzer, K., & Spreckelsen, C. (2009). Blended learning positively affects students' satisfaction and the role of the tutor in the problem- based learning process: Results of a mixed- method evaluation. Health Science Education, 14, 725-738. doi: 10.1007/s10459-009-9154-6

Flexibility

Flexibility

Yesterday we had our first inspiring lecture for the course Pedagogies for flexible learning supported by technology, I’ll call this ‘Pedagogies’ from now on, and we talked about flexibility in education. First we discussed what our own thoughts are about this topic; that students can decide what courses they would like to follow, that teachers can decide what pedagogies they are using, the opportunity for students to follow classes at the university or watch a video- taped college at home for example. Theory behind this discussion shows us that there are different dimensions of flexibility; flexibility in relation to time, to content, to entry requirements, to instructional approach and resources, and to delivery and logistics.

Flexibility in relation to time

Flexibility in relation to time is about flexibility of when to start and finish the course, when students can submit assignments and interact within the course, in what tempo or pace the student is learning, en when there are moments for assessment. In a more flexible situation students can decide about (some) of these points instead of the instructor or institution. An advantage of this kind of flexibility is that instructors and learners can alter their own times of working, but institutions can find disadvantages in organisational aspects. When do they have to schedule lectures and can they ask from instructors that they are 24/7 available for their work? The time burden for instructors will become larger.     

Flexibilty in relation to content
Flexibility in relation to content is about flexibility about the topics of the course, the sequence of different parts of the course, the orientation of the course (for example theoretical or practical), key learning materials in the course, assessment standards and completion requirements. In a more flexible situation students can, for example, decide a part of the topics that will be discussed or search by themselves for articles they find interesting. An advantage of this kind of flexibility is that learners can more explicitly learn those things they are interested in, but at the same time they should be more independent and need more self- direction and self- motivation. Not all students can arrange that. For instructors it will be harder and more time consuming to grade the students and decide when they have learned enough to pass the course.

Flexibility in relation to entry requirements

Flexibility in relation to entry requirements is about flexibility of conditions for participation. For example, in a non- flexible situation a student can only start a study when he has finished secondary school at the highest level. In a more flexible situation, students can also start the study when they have some years of relevant work experience but did not finish the highest level of secondary school. An advantage of this kind of flexibility is that more learners can participate in courses or studies, learners have more ways to come where they want to come. For instructors it can be a disadvantage that the learners have different backgrounds and different entry knowledge, so they have to differentiate for the different learners.

Flexibility in relation to instructional approach and resources

Flexibility in relation to instructional approach and resources is about flexibility of the social organization of the learning, the language to be used during the course, the learning resources and the instructional organization of the learning. So can students in a more flexible situation for example decide whether they would prefer to learn in groups or individual and who is monitoring the learning process. An advantage of this kind of flexibility is that instructors can choose from more approaches and different pedagogical patterns and that students can learn from resources they prefer to learn from. Disadvantage is that implementation in practice is not always feasible; when the student prefers to write an assignment in German but the instructor can’t speak German, there is a problem. Using different approaches is also more time and effort consuming for instructors.

Flexibility in relation to delivery and logistics
Flexibility in relation to delivery and logistics is about flexibility of the time and place where contact with the instructor and other students occurs, the methods (the technology for obtaining support, and making contact), the types of help (is communication available, and is technology required for it), the location (is there a need of technology for participating in various aspects of the course) and the delivery channels for course information, content and communication. An advantage of this kind of flexibility is it may save time for learners, however it may be more time consuming for the instructors. A disadvantage is that logistical aspects can quickly become unmanageable.

Concluding
When the flexibility increases in an educational setting, the education is not necessarily getting better. More flexibility does have some advantages, like more and new choices for learners and instructors to alter their own times of working, to save time and to choose from different approaches, but at the same time is the implementation in practice very complex and not always feasible.

Reference:

Chapter 1 from
Collis, B., & Moonen, J. (2001, second printing 2002). Flexible learning in a digital world: Experiences and expectations. London: Kogan Page.

Getting started!

In this course I hope to learn about different pedagogies, and how technology can support flexible learning in relation to specific pedagogies. In what way can the education be more effective, or better when using technology? In what way can education be more flexible, and what pedagogies can you use to realise it? What are the effects for the learners when technology is used? That are questions I hope to find an answer on.

I have a specific interest in things I can also use as a teacher in my work. I hope that I can apply or use some aspects I'll learn here in my own lessons. That's one of the reasons why I think that I'm going to like the use of real cases in this course.

Enough so far, I hope I've shown a little bit of myself in relation to the course!