TPACK

TPACK stands for Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge. It is a way to think about using technology to integrate into your teaching.As I have started the education program I have been learning all about what we as teachers need to teach (content) and how we should be teaching it (pedagogical). This is the first class however that I have learned how to use technology to successfully and effectively teach. As our world has become more and more dependent on technology, it is of incresing importance that the level of technological understanding for teachers increases. There is a wealth of technological resources for teachers and the classroom that will enhance learning for nearly all ages adn all subject matter. As we as teachers become more aware and proficient with the resources available to us, our ability to effectively teach curriculm will increase; we will be using our TPACK.
Each week as we have been introduced to new resources, I have become increasingly excited to be able to use these resources in my future classroom. I was never able to participate in such unique interactive learning activities such as the ones we have been exposed to. I explored many of the different resources this week but one of my favorites was the Kidsperation program. I had one class my freshman year that required us to make concept maps for all the topics we covered in class and I found it to be one of the most profitable learning activities I ever had. It required me to use higher levels of thinking and really apply my learning rather than just repeat memorized facts. This program used interactive concpets maps along with several other interactive activities to help supplement knowledge in writing, science, math, reading, and social studies. I think this would be a great program to expose children to. If they are able to use these activities to use a higher level of thinking, there learnign will be so much more meaningful for them.