Technology/TPack Lesson

First, provide some details regarding:

• Learners: My learners will be students in grade 3.
• Learning outcomes: The students will gain a better understanding of math, such as adding, subtracting, percentages, multiplication, and division. By the end of the lesson, the students should able to successfully complete mathematical problems through technology.
• Assessment: I will track the students’ progress by walking around and seeing the success of the game. We will also play a game as a class and I will informally assess the students through questions and answers. I will ask students individually to answer the questions, which will give me a better understand of the students’ knowledge of the concepts.

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. Below is one of the good examples from previous reflections:

• The lesson would begin with introducing the students to the website smartboard.someschoolgames.com. This will take a couple minutes to bring up on the smartboard. We will discuss how to play the game “Math Millionaire.”
• The students would then spend the next 10 minutes exploring ways to solve mathematical equations that they have already been working on in the classroom.
• 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 have the students get into groups of 3 and begin playing math bingo on ABCya.com.

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.

The use of technology supported my teaching strategies by giving the students a different way of doing math. The students were just playing a game, but what they didn’t realize is that the game was actually helping them with their math skills.

2. How effectively the use of this technology may enhance students' understanding of and learning from your particular content in this activity.

I think the use of technology enhanced the students understanding. I do think it could have been a little more in depth and it would have enhanced it even more. However, overall I do think that the use of technology would engage and motivate the students to do better and to try and understand the content area better.

--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.

Some of my strategies were group work, because doing the lesson we worked as a group to solve problems on the board. Everyone had their own piece of paper and did the problem independently, but we all agreed on a answer. I also used drill-practice as well in my lesson. The students had to work on the problems and come up with the best answer before putting in their answer on the computer. I do think these strategies help students comprehend, because it gives them a chance to fail, but then try again for the best answer. I was also walking around the room to help any struggling student.

• 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!

I think some pre-conceptions of students of all different ages and backgrounds is that they do not enjoy math. I would mostly be concerned with the student’s motivation. When doing math, many students either get it or struggle in getting it. So the students have a lack of motivation.

--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.

I think the instructional strategies would be role-play when we did millionaire math. In millionaire math the students can pretend that they are really playing for money. So when they come up to answer the question, they need to be certain of their answer, so they will go back down to zero and lose all their money.

• 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.

Some classroom management strategies I would use, would be to stay positive even when a student got an answer wrong. The students would be coming up to the board and answering the questions, so if the student got an answer wrong, I wouldn’t bash them. Instead, I would stay positive with the student and help them solve to get the right answer.

--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. 

The use of technology would enhance the students understanding of math. In this lesson, the class had already been taught the entire basic math that they need to complete this task. So the use of technology in my lesson was really just a refresher. It was a way for the students to have fun, while getting better with the math strategies we have already gone over.

• 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?

I think students can practice the content in a way that keeps them motivated and engaged. Students today are surrounded by technology, so incorporating it into classroom only enhances it. In my lesson, students got to play a game-like activity. This helps students to stay engaged, because they are having fun and learning at the same time. Students can also use this technology when they have down time in the classroom. If students complete their work early, then they can use the technology and practice more problems. Again, it would be fun and allow them to learn.