Technology in the Classroom

This week's lesson was all about TPACK and before taking this class I never knew what TPACK was. TPACK stands for Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge and is an educational framework to design classroom instruction. A visual aid of what I am referring to is located below.

In education, classrooms have always included the content and pedagogy in lessons but with technology becoming popular, classroom lessons should be starting to incorporate technology more into them as well. But before adding that piece of technology into your lesson there are some questions that you should consider such as:

• Is this the best technology to prepare students with for the modern world?
• Will this help students think and learn more deeply?
• How will this technology empower student to control their own learning?
• Have you considered the content and pedagogy before the technology was picked?
• How does this technology align with your school?

When it comes to incorporating technology into the classroom there can be many positives like:

• It is student centered and allows students to be able to collaborate with peers
• Using technology creates an interactive, higher understanding 
• It makes students more motivated and excited to learn
• Helps to create higher order thinking 
• Increase in reading and writing skills 
• Expands opportunities to students and gives them a chance to have new experiences that they may not get at home

But there with positives come some potential barriers as well. The biggest problem that I see (which is also my biggest struggle) is not knowing how to integrate technology into a lesson and knowing which is the best to use. Other barriers that I can occur are:

• Trying to decide what type of technology to use 
• Learning how to vary instructions using technology
• If the technology is glinchy or slow this can cause student (and teacher) frustration
• The technology is fun but does not align with the standards 

Knowing what TPACK is and how important it is to the classroom motivates me choose the best technologies to use in the classroom that will help enhance my lessons. Not only do I want to make sure that my lessons are the best they can be but I also want to make sure that the technologies I pick will fit the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) standards that will help my students become well-rounded learners.

In my next few blogs I will be reviewing and talking about my experience using different types of technologies that could be used in the classroom. Stay tuned for my next blog which will be all about my adventures and thoughts with the comic tool bitmoji.