About the course- at the end

I myself feel so grateful that I was lucky enough to take advantage of these great course especially to work with TPACK.  Using the “Weblog” a very interesting and new approach for me and of course which I will apply even in my future. The instructor has definitely had an impact on myself both personally as well as a professional, and I value everything that I have learned in this past course time.  Thank You so much! Since you have given me the tools to be all I can be next. At the end, I think and I advice every student in CIMA who need to be a real professional in educational science and technology should get involved in a course .

Reflection on the process of Designing TPACK lesson plan

For one of the two final assignments asked by our instructor, initially we have formed a group of four, two students from Ethiopia and two students from Indonesia.  That was really a good combination for our collaboration work and I can say that we had a nice time to share our idea. To start our work, the first question what we had was to decide which topic that we can do. Finally we found that “Designing TPACK lesson plan”  be convenient  for us to explain more about both the Teacher’s professional development and lesson plan based on our context.  The next day meeting was very much successful  to  more discuss and systematically organize our work after selecting the content and context. By the time, each group member had his own part to work on and to combine after awhile. To make our procedures more clear, I will try to briefly explain as follows:

The TPACK framework

During our design process, first we have clearly explained the TPACK framework based on Koehler & Mishra. The idea of explaining was to use TPACK as a model  and then try to make it ready for our lesson plan design  for the teacher, based on his competency and based on the context what we have already selected. In the TPACK framework, all the components, i.e. TK, PK, CK, TCK and TPK are briefly explained based on our topic. The teacher content knowledge to effectively present about “Earthquake”, his technological knowledge how to integrate computer and the Encarta 2008 software for the chosen content and the pedagogy which is collaborative and face to face learning has been analyzed in each component. In this case, an assumption was taken that the teacher has already prior knowledge on how to integrate the selected technologies for his lesson. However, we also proposed that there should be practical assessment need to take place before going through designing the lesson.

After analyzing the TPACK frame work, we have established our main goal which is  “enable teachers to teach the topic earthquake in  seventh grade learners by using Encarta premium 2008  particularly of using  the Encarta Geography.” To meet our goal, we have tried to show different options as a technology, i.e. Web quest, YouTube, Wikipedia and  Encarta 2008 and finally we have decided  to design with an appropriate technology for our context which is Encarta 2008. Then, the Dick and Carey Design Model was what we have chosen as a generic and basic model for the design of our lesson.

The Context

To design TPACK lesson, we first select our context to be Ethiopia a place where  limited technological resources are available. Our aim to choose such a context was to show the difference in technology availability, the school system and the overall conditions especially in developing countries. And then we found the country Ethiopia as a good example. Moreover, “The school of tomorrow” a private school  found in Ethiopia, makes sense for our design since we have some practical information about it. Ethiopia is a country found in the eastern part of Africa near to equator, about 78 million people living, and a very limited technology infrastructure available.

Lesson design process

During our lesson design process, first we have decided the three conditions which are Before, during & After which can make sense to systematically describe main issues. In the first condition “During”, we have analyzed the objective of the lesson,  the TK of teacher & students, the CK and PK of teacher. Not only is that, the pedagogy which is collaborative and face to face and the chosen technology also measured. Based on the assessment in “Before” , we have systematically described four series of lessons. Finally, we have selected one lesson as a pilot for complete design process based on the TPACK model with an assumption that, if the teacher gets support on designing one lesson, he can do the others.    

The very relevant model that we as a group convinced to adapt for our implementation was Fisser (2006) model where the process can start from Pilot to broader context. We also have tried to analyze its complexity while coming in to practice.  Then, in the “After” section, we have tried to analyze the evaluation process based  on  the idea of Harris and Hofer. On this regard, we have developed the rubric that will help as to evaluate the final impact of  our lesson design.

Conclusion and Working with TPACK

This time we all in a group are very happy because we have finished our assignment on time and we are familiarize with the process of designing the lesson based on TPACK model. On this regard, I personally really very interested especially when I thought and feel a courage that I can apply it next in my country. We all four people in a group, working in a single topic but very wide concept was a very nice chance to share an idea each other. The time was not only to do the assignment but also the chance to exchange variety of ideas, to know each other more and to understand what the benefits of collaborative learning means.

The clear goal what we have stated initially was also a good direction for us where to go and how to organize each topics. Once we have sated our goal and clear schedule, it was very easy to share our work and to follow up each other.

The assignment in general  was a nice ignition for me to go further with TPACK and to see more what the real situations in every educational context looks like. In addition, how technology can be selected and integrated, the context, the teacher competency, selection of pedagogy and the overall designing process. On this regard,  it  was a very good chance for me to visit several articles, literatures and different resources. And I myself feel so grateful that I was lucky enough to take advantage of this great course to work with TPACK.  I think and I advice every student in CIMA who need to be the real professional in education should get involved in a course . The instructor has definitely had an impact on myself both personally as well as a professional, and I value everything that I have learned in this past course time.  Thank You! Since you have given me the tools to be all I can be next.

Factors to stimulate teachers to integrate technology in education

Based on the TPACK frame work, technology integration in education can be explained that, the transactional relationship between all the three components i.e. Content Knowledge (CK), Pedagogical knowledge (PK) and technological knowledge (TK). A teacher capable of negotiating these three components can be defined as an expert or professionally competent on his subject. I will not explain what each component means In this blog but  the factors how the teacher can be stimulated to integrate technology in his education system.

First of all I can say that, the situation can be different based on the context where the teacher is available. For example, the factors for the teacher here in Netherlands may not be the same with the teacher in Ethiopia. Nevertheless, in both cases there can be a common factors which influence the effective integration of technology.  I prefer to explain the common factors first and then at the end to see the exceptional cases based on different context (in developing countries) as an example,  which I thought, may make sense to visualize some real situations.  

Common Factors

•      Professional Competence (Access, Confidence and Skills)

 First of all the teacher should have competency on technological knowledge how to effectively manipulate variety of technologies. Not only manipulating but also how to select an appropriate and relevant technology for his intended subject. Unless otherwise the teacher is capable, he develops anxiety and become negative to accept and to apply technology based on his way of teaching. In this case, the professional development program need to be in place to fill the skill gap, which will make sense for the teacher to be more confident and familiar with.

Filling the gap of technological knowledge of the teacher relevant with  TPACK concept become one of the stimulating  factor for a teacher to integrate technology in his education. In some cases,  there may be an age factor where some teachers completely not ready to accept the new technology approach.

• ·        Digital Divides

Individual differences between educators influence access to ICT, use, confidence and skills (Jones, 2004). The level of the teacher like age and gender are the main cases in this case. Teachers who didn’t know about computer for example get complex and lose confidence on his daily teaching process because he is looking the others using the technology. The gender  problem (gender divide) actually mainly happened in developing countries where female teachers had no chance to actively participate in technology, and also no chance to go further to build their capacity (due to various cases!!). Apart from gender and age, the teachers’ subject domain may influence to integrate technology.

The language also another problem in this case to be confident since it may be the second language for the teacher. In all cases to stimulate the teacher, the gender,  age and the language barrier need to be considered.  

• ·        Availability of infrastructures

The other main factor which can influence to stimulate teacher is the availability of ICT infrastructure within and outside the school. Unless infrastructure and access to technology in school is  available,  it is worthless to be competent for a teacher  to integrating technology. On the other hand,  if there is  technology in school, the technology itself will stimulate and pull the teacher to integrate it. In this case, the infrastructure may be the responsibility in macro or meso level. 

• ·        Integrating with Curriculum

The integration of technology in curriculum at national or school level will make easier and confident for a teacher to apply it. Integrating in a curriculum means widely accepted by leadership and properly designed by professionals. In this case, the support will be easily available for a teacher in case of any gap during the process, from the National as well as school level . The teacher also feel confident since the overall structure will support his activity.

Participating the teacher as a design team while developing the curriculum also the main factor to stimulate the teacher. Because, the teacher will feel a sense of ownership and develop responsibility for his education system.

• ·        Technical support ( ICT coordinator, design team)

Technology is always dynamic and there is always an update which need to be in place. The ICT coordinator and the design teams are aware of that and always support the teacher to make him familiarized with the new technology. Which also give more confidence for a teacher to update himself.

• ·        Students prior knowledge

It will be very easier for a teacher to design his lesson and to integrate based on the available technology, if his students have prior knowledge about technology. To solve such problems, some countries include ICT as a main subject in their curriculum.

To sum up, basically the teacher become more confident and can be stimulated to integrate technology if he knows his content (subject matter) very well, if he knows various pedagogical approaches supported by technology, and knowledge and skill on how to access  technology based on his subject matter. However, the availability of infrastructure in the school, the digital divides, curriculum support, technical support from experts, and students prior knowledge to technology can be the other main factors to stimulate the teacher to integrate technology. 

Additional factors (especially in developing countries) may be gender, the monthly income for a teacher, support from leadership, complete absence of students technological knowledge and failure to have basic infrastructures like electricity and accessibility to Internet.  At the school level, important contextual factors are socio-cultural setting of a school and structural characteristics like government ICT policy, ICT infrastructure and school type.

Flexibility – Pedagogy – Technology combined with TPACK

Over the past four weeks we have learnt different topics such as: Flexibility in learning, Pedagogical approaches, Technology integration and TPACK (Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge). In each topics there was lecture, detail discussions and assignments  which helped us to know more about the course. Let us combine them and see the added value of  TPACK in short.  

 Now a days, there are a lot of chances available for students so that everyone can get skill & knowledge not only on a traditional way of education  but also with different kinds flexibility supported by  technology. Technology helped learning by making  more flexible, but it doesn’t mean that only for distance learning but much more. In addition, the different kinds of flexibility learning can be also supported by variety of pedagogical approaches to achieve the required learning goals. And the carefully selected technology to address the specific content  by using an appropriate pedagogical approach become the paramount factor to attain the desired educational goal. However, for all listed benefits,  there is one and main area of binding , the teacher, whose  role become the main factor for the successful achievement of any educational system. According to the TPACK model, a good teacher is expected to be competent  in the areas such as, Content knowledge (CK), Pedagogical knowledge (PK), Technological Knowledge (TK), Technological Content Knowledge (TCK), Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). But, how the TPACK can be combined with the topics leaned so far?

 Flexibility – Pedagogy – Technology - TPACK

According to Collins and Moonen (2001), flexible learning is a movement away from a situation in which key decisions about learning dimensions are made in advance by the instructor or institution, toward a situation where the learner has a range of options from which to choose with respect to key dimensions. The value of flexibility is to have a variety of opportunities for the learners in order to attend in a different way, such as, locations, different courses, interactions, form of communications, or study materials. In this case, the teacher is the main decision factor to facilitate & make the system available. As clearly stated, the availability of technology & infrastructure in school, the readiness for teacher & the cooperation of institutions in all areas become the main factors for flexibility of learning. What else?

As discussed before on the other post, pedagogy has been called "the art and science of teaching," the "knowledge and skills that practitioners of the profession of teaching employ, in performing their duties of facilitating desired learning’s in others", as Dunkin explained. Now a day, the innovation of new technology and its availability brings an advantage for the current application of different kinds of pedagogical approaches. A lot of pedagogical approaches can be supported by different ways of technological integrations, which leads the learner to me more motivated. Some of the approaches are,  Self study, Discussion, Authentic activities, Collaborative learning and Resource-based learning. These and other kinds of pedagogical approaches are mainly integrated with relevant  kinds of technology with an active role of Teacher.

Flexibility learning which is designed in a way with relevant pedagogical approach, supported by different  technology, brings a valuable  impact for an educational change. To be more clear, there are main areas which have to be discussed, Content, Pedagogy & Technology.

·         For any kind of education a clearly known content is expected, which means on the other word, the actual subject matter that is to be learned or taught.

·         On the other hand, the pedagogy which is the processes and practices or methods of teaching and learning and how it encompasses (among other things) overall educational purposes, values and aims need to be clearly known. This is a generic form of knowledge that is involved in all issues of student learning, classroom management, lesson plan development and implementation, and student evaluation. It includes knowledge about techniques or methods to be used in the classroom; the nature of the target audience; and strategies for evaluating student understanding.

·         Then how to use standard technologies such as books and chalk and blackboard, as well as more advanced technologies such as the Internet and digital video comes. This would involve the skills required to operate particular technologies. In the case of digital technologies this would include knowledge of operating systems, and computer hardware, as well as the ability to use standard set of software tools such as word processors, spreadsheets, browsers, email etc.

We can see one example : A college teacher need to give Business Administration course for his diploma students in different mode. Some of his students are learning off-campus while some of them are in-campus and the others are by far distance in other country. This may be a challenge for the teacher on how to manage all the issues in order to address as per the students demand. The school is equipped with the required technology & the system can work.

First of all, the actual subject matter that is to be learned or taught should known by the teacher as discussed before. The teachers must know and understand the subjects what he teach, including: knowledge of central facts, concepts, theories and procedures within a given field; knowledge of explanatory frameworks that organize and connect ideas; and knowledge of the rules of evidence and proof as Shulman explained. This is considered as the Content Knowledge (CK). Then, which processes and practices or methods of teaching and learning and how it encompasses (among other things) overall educational purposes, values and aims need to be clearly known by the teacher (PK). Finally, the teacher need to know how to select the standard technology which can support his learning activity as per the required content & the teaching method (TK). So that, he can address the required content with any kind of flexible way, with the appropriate kind of approach supported by the standard technology. It will give him also an additional benefit to create a various ways of approach, even for those students who are in-campus to have group discussion, chat room, or other ways of online contact.

To sum up, the whole topics learned during the last four weeks, which are flexibility, pedagogy & technology tells us how the teaching and learning process become smooth and handy to foster a countries education system. And the TPACK, which has an added value and has great impact towards the teacher’s competency and his knowledge for implementation. In short, the whole topic tells us, the teacher with Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge become the main area to be seen carefully, so that the whole education process will function properly.

TPACK - on my own word

Two months ago, one CIMA student who was  joined his master program for 2009/2010, explained about the TPACK on his last defense of his thesis work . At the time, I have been there to attend the session and I heard the first time what TPACK mean. More or less, I have got an idea even though with some confusion. Now, I thought,  it is my turn to explain what TPACK mean, from what I have learned so far, during  the lecture and reading some articles. Moreover, I am very glad to  post on my weblog,  an explanation of what  TPACK means  and some details based on my own word.

TPACK- an abbreviation for Technological Pedagogical & content Knowledge-  is mainly focus on the required knowledge for a  Teacher on his subject matter (Content), pedagogy and the way how to integrate with the required Technology. In this case, it may be necessary to raise the issue of knowledge in each of the area (Content, Pedagogy & Technology). To make it easy, Let us take an example of one Technical school giving “Maintenance & Repair”  as a main course and a teacher is responsible to give a topic “basic assembly and disassembly” for one week. In order to effectively address the subject matter to students with the required skill & knowledge, the teacher should be capable and competent in the following areas.   

First, the teacher should be more familiar, expert and also multi-dimensional  on how to assemble & disassemble variety of mechanical parts in order to properly address for his students. He should be more experienced in both the concepts, procedures, theoretical & practical aspect of the topic, so that for any raised questions & problems he is there. This will assure how much the teacher’s content knowledge (CK) is.  The second important point is, the capacity to choose effective and may be easiest  method to address the course to the students, so that the students can acquire the required skill & knowledge. In this case, the teacher need to have knowledge about the methods, how to manage the classroom, how to prepare lesson plan and how to evaluate his students. This is clearly meant Pedagogical Knowledge (PK). The kind of instructional media (Technology) become the next issue where the teacher need to know to effectively address his lesson. In the case of traditional pedagogical approach, the teacher may use chalk, books & blackboard and he may be expert on how to operate them. In addition, in practical session, he may show the students in laboratory on how to assemble & disassemble parts (real situation). On the other hand, he may choose another way of using technology, like showing the students by using simulation techniques, or different medias. Whatever it is, the main point is weather the teacher is capable and familiarize with that technology or not, so that he can be flexible with the different pedagogical approaches. It can be how to operate computer, how to use different software, how to manage the right kind of software and may be devices. This clearly tells us what Technological knowledge (TK) mean.

The teacher need to know, not only the subject matter he teach, but also how could he use different kinds of technology applications. The teacher can choose different kinds of simulation applications to address his subject for his students in different ways. To do this he need to have Technological Content Knowledge (TCK). Using different ways of pedagogical approach for the specified subject & choosing an appropriate technology i.e. web technology, chat room, discussion forum, etc. to address the chosen approach needs the teacher’s Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK). On the other hand, the teaching approach need to fit with the content of what the teacher learn the students. In this case, the teacher will be expected to have knowledge on choosing the right pedagogical approach for the specified type of content and this shows the teacher’s Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK).

Finally, TPACK which means, the technological pedagogical and content knowledge where a teacher need to cope up with, to integrate an appropriate technology in his educational system for the better attainment of his specified goal.  The knowledge  about his subject matter (content), the knowledge how to choose different methods and approaches based on the content and the knowledge on how to choose the required technology based on both the subject matter & learning approach and the knowledge how to use & operate that technology to foster the required skill & knowledge for his students, in short mean TPACK.

My Reflection on: Flexiability, Pedagogy & Technology

It may be my first time to see such lot , deep & very important topics covered properly within short period of time. For me, the past three weeks were really very interesting, where  I have been more familiarized with the different new topics. Moreover, it was  a good chance for me to rewind my mind and  recall what was looking like my past experience in my school time. It was completely different.  During the last three weeks lecture : flexibility in learning, pedagogical approach and the use of technology were discussed in detail. The discussion on the importance of flexibility with its definition and the different kinds of flexibility in learning process was clear and completely different from what I have in my mind before. Before, it was my understanding that flexibility in learning means distance education. But now, I get a clear idea that my previous perception was not right!.  Especially after doing my assignment and uploaded to my first weblog, It creates me a feeling like I ride two horses once. Because, that was a chance for me to know more about the topic through reading several relevant articles and then to know  how to interact with the new envirnoment (weblog). 

The topic Pedagogy & pedagogy approach was the other very important discussion which I have gotten a lot of idea in it. It was started with the general overview of what pedagogy means, its definition  and proceed through the different pedagogical approaches. In the discussion, the importance of each pedagogical approaches have been covered. It was also a good chance for me to find different articles to be more clear on each approaches because of the assignment given. In that case, I have seen different important models of pedagogical approaches and their importance and on this base how can they integrate with technology.  The benefit of technology integration with education and its pedagogical advantage was also the main issue during the last lecture. How the teaching in different models of pedagogical approach can be managed (through Course Management System) and on this base how the technology can be applied was also the main issue which has been addressed during the lecture.

In general, all the topics covered during last three weeks were very important and creates for me good chance to interact with the new environment. Moreover, the methods, the assignments which leads me to read more and  the interaction with weblog, which I like them all very much !!