Tuesday, July 9, 2013

TPACK

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Blog Post: in your own words, explain what TPACK is and the effect you believe this framework could have on instruction. 

                TPACK is a combination of knowledge of subject matter, the understanding of the underlying processes and practices of what is being taught, and the ever-changing technology that we can use to learn.  The technology relationship with teaching is not to be thought of as simply a tool for the teacher but the driving force that lets students create a deeper understanding of the content and how things work in the world.  This opens a huge door for the endless possibilities and creations that students can learn from.  The once teacher-led classroom can become an investigative hub that keeps turning because technology is continuously changing.   

Blog Post: Considering Blooms’ Taxonomy, tell me what level the team activity was and explain your answer.

                The team activity level was analyzing.  When we did the comparison chart, we had to break-down the material into elements, we had to compare those elements to decide how they relate to one another, and then we organized them into a checklist after comparing all the elements.  During that process, we gained knowledge and understanding of what the different standards contained and how they interacted with each other.  We had to apply that comprehension to analyze the different elements and create a comparison chart.  We also broke them apart and evaluated them.  The overall product was consistent with Bloom’s Taxonomy level of analyzing but did involve all levels.  

Blog post: Tell me about the reasoning for your choices in the 3rd World Farmer simulation and the implications of that reasoning. 

               

                I played the third world farmer simulation game at least a dozen times.  My husband helped me play it the last time and forbade me from ever playing it again.  I tried many different strategies and at some point lost everything.  How do you pick yourself up from losing everything, especially all family members? I have an aunt that is Chinese-Indonesian and when she was a young girl, the government came in and took everything they had.  Her parents were pharmacists so they still had their job but they lived from day to day.  They did not have enough money to shop for more than one day’s worth of food.  She has horror stories of those times, but now lives in America.  This game affected me greatly.  Feelings of hopelessness and despair are not that far away for Americans today.  We as a country are very vulnerable to having the government take everything away.  It happened in 1929.  But Americans are not as equipped to handle that today as they were then.  How many people grow food, preserve food, make their own clothing, milk their own cow, and are able to live without running to the store several times a week?  My reasoning behind my choices was pure survival and trying to protect my family.  Simulations can be a great tool to use in the classroom but with great caution.  The teacher has to make sure and analyze each part of the simulation to insure that it will deepen student understanding of the curriculum being taught and that it is age appropriate. 

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