Collaboration Part 2

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TPCK in in-service education: Assisting experienced teachers' "planned improvisations"

The author suggests that “TPCK focused professional development for experienced teachers should be qualitatively different from similar professional learning opportunities for most novices,” (p. 256) because they are likely to learn more quickly due to their experience. Using “flexible design scaffolds” (p. 256) to accommodate the limited time experienced teachers have to devote to this process of learning, unlearning, and adapting is suggested.

From what I observe at our school, it is clear that there is still much more progress to be made nearly four years after this book was published in order for teachers to use technology as “transformative devices” (p. 253) rather than as “efficiency aids and extension devices” (p. 253). 

One of the major points made at the end of this chapter is that the “primary goal of such professional development and reflection could be to develop and act upon TPCK in and to whichever forms and extents experienced teacher practitioners choose” (p. 268). This shows once again how technology has qualities of being effective and accommodating regardless of the approach, philosophy or activity types teachers use and are familiar with.  This is demonstrated well in this course where each teacher comes from a different background teaching different subjects and levels, yet we all are learning at the same time to use technology in the subjects and grades we teach.  For me it is also reassuring that regardless of whether I’m working with a verbal or non-verbal child, a child with severe cognitive disabilities or a child with Asperger’s syndrome, I can start in an area and level with technology that best suits the characteristics of individual students.

The information about telecollaborative and telecooperative activity structures and activity types are good resources for me to consider.  In fact reviewing these has inspired me to want to investigate how one particular student I know might begin communicating and learning telecollaboratively with other students who are also autistic.

Guiding preservice teachers in developing TPCK

The focus of this chapter is on preparing preservice teachers as they develop TPCK.  One of the major challenges for preservice teachers is not having learned their particular subject with the use of technology.  Consequently preservice teachers are required to learn how to teach in a different way than they were taught, incorporating new and emerging technologies.  This is difficult because “how a person learns a particular set of knowledge and skills, and the situation in which a person learns, become a fundamental part of what is learned” (p. 224).

What do preservice teachers need to develop TPCK?  In a nutshell, these “teachers must be prepared to rethink, unlearn and relearn, change, revise, and adapt” (p. 225).  Preservice teachers need actual and varied experiences to relearn, rather than lectures alone.  For example, in this course we had a presentation about intellectual property and now we are incorporating these concepts into our designs.  The question “What strategies support students in learning about the technology as they are learning with technology?” (p. 240) is something to be reflected upon continuously.

Only on certain occasions as required by an IEP does an assistive technology consultant come to our classroom, assess a student and give (invaluable) guidance.  This type of consult is very expensive, not necessarily focused on typical technology and may not be ongoing. Otherwise, our students are at the mercy of what knowledge the teacher and ed techs have learned on their own about technology.

To remedy this deficit at my school I think professional learning communities should be focused on technology for special educators (teachers and ed techs).  In this way some of the methods suggested for teaching preservice teachers could be employed for learning and practicing technology.  Research teams could be created to investigate “what accommodations are needed for the various diversities of the students—physical, cognitive, personal, cultural, social and technological” (p. 231). What a luxury this would be.

Placing the magic in the classroom TPCK in arts education

Although I have enjoyed the text on TPCK, this chapter was my favorite.  The information related to education and the arts is most relevant to the classroom I work in because many of our students are unable to learn and express themselves in typical ways. Skills that otherwise might remain hidden often emerge when an activity is focused on music, art or movement. I often refer to Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences because of this.

While this chapter is supportive of teachers of the arts, emphasis is placed on the need for all teachers to incorporate the arts into their teaching.  Clearly there is no better way to do this than through technology.

How far we have come since I was an undergraduate. One of my professors enthusiastically developed a PLATO program for students to enhance their abilities with music theory. Now the Internet allows us to watch free performances daily from the Kennedy Center, learn about other cultures through music, art and dance, and use websites that introduce and improve our skills in any of these arts. It is truly an exciting time to be alive!

The quotes I love most from this chapter are “the arts are the magic in education” (p. 190) and “technology provides an opportunity to marry the power of ideas with the power of the imagination” (p. 189).  The websites provided are a great resource.

While it is difficult to keep up and teachers may find themselves surpassed by their students’ understanding of technology, I think this can actually be a benefit for building stronger collaborative relationships between teachers and students.

Finally, “one of the most poignant results of technology use in the music classroom is an increased, more accurate understanding of other cultures” (p. 179).  This is true for all of the arts and in my view, increasing accurate understandings between cultures is the foundation the progress of our world (and education) is being built upon.

Literacy TPCK Team

Literacy and TPCK

A repeating theme noted in responses to the Literacy chapter in the TPCK handbook, is the changing nature of literacy due to technology. It is evident that literacy educators must respond to the opportunity that new technologies put forward. Teaching literacy will continue to be redefined as new technologies are developed.

In order to adapt to these new opportunities, there is strong support for pre-service teacher training such as one-to-one mentoring, participating in modeling activities and ongoing communication with classroom teachers who are using technology in their teaching of literacy. Research has shown that technology-mentoring programs significantly increase use of technology by teachers in their classrooms.

Positive Aspects

• Students using hypertext and hypermedia are “more motivated and seem to have a greater sense of control over what they can access and read.”
• Technology encourages students to take more initiative than with traditional materials.
• Technologies can improve understanding of material and teachers are able to provide “student-centered models of instruction” with technology.
• Technology such as the worldwide web may provide the only or major form of socialization for people who are severely autistic and high functioning.
• Technology may also “help to create cooperative learning and social environments” for all people.

Concerns

• Perhaps content should come first from the teacher as noted in one response: “if we cannot teach the students to read and write and rely on technology to do that, what would we do if the technology crashes?” A good point. What about the affect of learning from a machine instead of in the arms of a loving parent or family member for those very early days of literacy
• The book notes that 95% of children in elementary school have the ability to become literate. One response suggested this figure probably does not includes ELL or the special education population. “Good teaching with technology will look very different for individual teachers who teach students with diverse instructional needs.”
• It is a challenge to provide literacy-rich environments for students with limited access to technology at home.
• Teaching literacy will continue to be redefined as new technologies are developed. Will literacy teachers be able to keep up?
• Educators need to be open to their students having many more skills than teachers do about some technology strategies.
• The literacy goals hold all teachers accountable for the literacy of all students. This is not just the responsibility of the literacy teachers.
• Technologies becoming outdated.
• Important to consider the context of adults reading at a 3rd or 4th grade level in creating a balanced TPCK approach.

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Resources


Pre-K

• PBSKids provides online reading games

Elementary

• Mixbook is a free tool, that was originally designed for creating digital scrapbooks. However it adapts very well to the literacy classroom for the purpose of digital story-telling. It may not be quite as polished as known KidPix, but it is free.

Middle School

• Kidblog "is designed for elementary and middle school teachers who want to provide each student with an individual blog." The advantage over regular blog sites is that the students stay within the community defined by the teacher,and no student contact information is made public.

High School

• Read 180 Reading Program is a proven software program for reading for grades 4-12. It is in this category of high school because it accommodates students with age appropriate materials for special education, or English Language Learners, or any child who is behind. It is a comprehensive system of curriculum, instruction, assessment and professional development designed for any student reading two or more years below grade-level.

Across All Grade Levels-Non Mainstream Cultures

• Learning Ally is an educational lending-library serving people who cannot effectively read standard print because of visual impairment, dyslexia or other physical disabilities. Founded in 1948 by Anne T. Macdonald to address the needs of the growing number of soldiers who were blinded in action during World War II and who were unable to take advantage of a free education through the GI Bill due to their disability. Serves individuals with print disabilities from kindergarten through college and into adult careers.
• Bookshare is another resource for accessible books and periodicals for readers with print disabilities (individuals diagnosed with a print disability cannot access print in the standard way). It is free for all U.S. students with qualifying disabilities (because of a grant). Includes a searchable online library for readers of all ages with communities for different groups. An especially attractive section is for university students for students who need textbooks. There is a university partnership where College and university partners upload books they have scanned for their students to the Bookshare site. This saves time and money for universities by reducing duplication of effort: “scan once, share many times.”
• ReadWriteThink provides K-12 Teacher resources including lesson plans and professional development tools for language arts and literacy.

Collaboration with Colleagues: Stage 2 Performance Task

 I met with the regular classroom teacher of my 4^th grade student on October 19, for 20 minutes. The previous week I sent an email to request this appointment and briefly described the nature of my project.  Since my student does not go to the regular classroom very often, I arranged for her to spend a little time reading to this teacher so the teacher would have an idea of her capacity. At this stage of my leadership development, I felt it was important to initiate this activity so this teacher could more accurately determine if the project I am designing will be appropriate for this student.

Although I felt a little uncertain as to my ability to clearly describe the different stages of my project, the teacher was very interested as I shared the information on my Integrated Unit Planner, Stage 1 and 2 and the rubrics.   After I explained my project she looked at the documents more closely.  She feels that including photographs in the timeline will make the project feel familiar, meaningful and concrete for my student. She suggested breaking the steps into small enough chunks and not making the sessions too long for the sake of my student’s attention span. She feels this project is reasonable and workable.

I also talked about the final stage of this project, which is teaching one of my student’s friends (who is also in this teacher’s class) how to make a timeline and brochure for her family.   The teacher looks forward to helping me facilitate the inclusion of this friend, before it is time to begin that stage of the project. 

I was also (finally) successful in connecting with another professional who is a very intelligent and creative special education teacher. She had a treasure of thoughts for me to consider and I left inspired and energized by her contributions.  As my project develops I plan to meet with her again for more input. At that time I hope to be so at ease with the technology I am using for this project that she will have the opportunity to be inspired by the new skills I have and perhaps want to use them. She does not yet use technology to the extent I am learning to use it.

At the end of the semester after the meetings with my colleagues have been completed I will show my gratitude and respect for their time and guidance in a small but significant way.  

An integrated framework for educating world language teachers

This chapter was full of information that I would like to study in more depth, such as the different approaches/hypotheses of learning a second language. The study of world languages is an important subject because I believe the ability to communicate is one of the cornerstones to establishing a peaceful world.

Research has shown that “a major strength of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is its potential for opening doors to connect people and to build communities while promoting cross-cultural communicative competence” (p. 116).  Clearly, these new technologies “grant both the students and teachers opportunities to build cultural bridges” (p 116). 

Technology used for learning a language has been found to make learning more efficient when using multimedia technology; help with learning and retaining new vocabulary when using hypertext and hypermedia; and enhance reading, writing and conversation skills with the use of real-time networks.

            The challenges of incorporating technology in the world language classroom are similar to those mentioned in other chapters.  For instance “new technologies upset the status quo and demand that teachers reconfigure their current understanding of technology as well as of the three components” (p. 118). The lack of training and uncertainty also contribute to the slow rate in which technology is being incorporated into the classroom.  As emphasized in the chapter on mathematics, “there is no single technology solution that applies for every teacher, every course, or every view of teacher” (p. 117). Therefore teachers need to become open-minded and learn to imagine what is possible.

            American Sign Language (ASL) is a world language used in many special education classrooms.  My colleagues and I are very grateful for the ASL online resources that provide movements to translate words. It is much easier to learn words in sign language by seeing the actual movement than by looking at a book and trying to imagine accurate movements from illustrations.