What is TPAC (sometimes TPACK)? It stands for Technology, Pedagogy, And Content (Knowledge). It refers to the relationship between the three in how a teacher teaches in his or her own classroom. See another website on TPACK here.
As mentioned earlier, technology in the classroom is on the rise and will not be slowing down any time soon. When used to further teaching (and not just using technology for the sake of technology) it is an incredibly important part of a teacher's toolbox. There are so many different, positive ways to use technology, many of which we are only beginning to uncover. When combined with content knowledge and pedagogy it becomes an unstoppable force. Pedagogy, for those who don't know, is how a teacher chooses to teach. For example, does he or she lecture? Use a flipped classroom where the content is given to the students outside of class ahead of time? Use some sort of slide show to present the information? Use fill-in-the-blank notes? Use group discussion and debate? Many times, technology is already used in some way in a teacher's pedagogy, such as in a slide show lecture. Content knowledge is obviously the "what" that the teacher is trying to teach. Art, Music, Science, PE, Math... How well a teacher teaches their students what they need to learn depends on the teacher's pedagogy and, if they choose to incorporate technology, how well they do so. Technology, pedagogy and the content all need to work together for a teacher to teach students well. If a teacher wants to use a lecture format in their teaching, it wouldn't make much sense to give all the students iPads or laptops in class to work with. The technology would only be distracting and get in the way. However, those items would be very useful if the teacher was using a flipped classroom where they gave their students the information ahead of time and instructed them to make a presentation in class about what they learned. Like I said before, each aspect of TPACK needs to work together.
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Virtual reality, augmented reality, and virtual field trips all have many uses within the classroom.
Virtual reality and going on a virtual field trip allow students to study a subject that is hard to teach in a classroom. For example, a teacher could show the class how sea life works by immersing them in a virtual ocean. In stead of just pictures, the students could see how the animals all interact with each other. It would also be a much more engaging way to teach a specific topic. Students would be much more interested and excited to learn about something they get to look at and manipulate on their phones instead of read about in a text book. Augmented reality would allow students to discover things all around their classroom. The teacher could come up with an augmented reality scavenger hunt for the students to find the topics they will be learning about. This would also let the students have a chance at being creative. The students could each come up with their own realities and everyone could make their own little world inside the classroom. Virtual tools allow the teacher to meet the students where they are at. Children now-a-days are growing up with this technology. They will be using it in the future and need to learn how to use it now. Before, kids would play outside and socialize face to face. Now, kids can do crazy things with computers, phones, tablets, and more. Simply put, they are growing up in a different world, and we as future teachers, need to prepare them for it the best we can. I am preparing to become a high school PE and theater teacher, so the idea of technology in the classroom is interesting to me. In general, the use of technology in a high school classroom cannot be underestimated or understated. Students of this day and age are growing up with technology the way the last generation grew up with balls and outside play things. It's just another part of their everyday lives. So technology in the classroom is one way to meet the students at their level. It is also what we are predicting the future to be based on. While we are in a self proclaimed Technology Age, it does not look like the production of new technology or use of modern technology will be slowing down any time soon.
In terms of my preferred PE position, there is much less I can do in terms of integrating technology into my classroom. My main goal is to get students moving, get them to learn the importance of lifetime activity and health, and to be motivated to engage in physical activity on their own and outside of the classroom/PE gym. With technology in the PE classroom I could have them looking up new and exciting games that they want to play, the rules and history to games they had never heard of before, and maybe even physical fitness feats they want to challenge their classmates to. In a health classroom I could have them put together slide shows on important health related topics, taking notes, writing reports, and even just doing general health related research. In my theater classroom technology could be of a little more use. There is also already a great deal of technology in producing a staged performance, so initially I could teach the students about that. Students could research plays and information on play writes, write and submit scripts to their own plays, record videos of them acting out plays to be shown to the class (especially if anyone has major stage fright). The students could record others performing plays for reference and critique the other students' work with voice overs or other notes. I could record (or use a recording of) a short bit of dialogue between characters and have the students act out the dialogue before and after seeing it acted out. On the other hand, I could switch that around and have the students record appropriate vocals to a silenced scene before seeing it acted out with sound. Both of these would give the students a chance to see how the same scenes and dialogue can be played differently and it could give them tips on how how they can improve their acting. |
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April 2017
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