PART B - Application of TPACK

I have spent a lot of time making sure my wicked project will be meaningful. TPACK allows me to check my project and dig deeper.

Clickers are the technology of choice for my project. The reason I am focusing on clickers is because they allow me to reach my teaching goals. As a teacher, there are two goals I strive for; to make teaching interactive and meaningful for students. The strategies I use as a teacher are based around these two goals. I feel that using clickers will help me reach my goal. If used correctly, clickers will make lessons more interactive. Students will be able to give instant feedback to questions. Students will also feel they have a role in the lesson by giving feedback. This piece will allow for a new level of interaction. This is important to me because not all lessons are hands on. Sometimes, you have to sit at the front and talk things out. Clickers will help make those types of lessons even better. My other goal is to make learning meaningful. Clickers will help me reach this goal by giving students more time to think, process and make connections. Studies show that it takes students up to ten seconds to create the question they want to ask. With clickers, they can take that time and answer when ready. Or, suppose you let students "click in" whenever they have a question. This lets students work stress free. Clickers will enhance my teaching strategies by allowing me to reach my goals in new ways.

Too often, we try to fit the content to the technology. When we do that, we tend to lose focus of what we are really doing. For me, I am trying to make the technology fit and enhance my content. My goal is to make the content come alive and become more effective by adding in technology. I feel that this is the ultimate goal. With that being said, I do not intend to make clickers part of everything. I recognize that some lessons are best without it while some may benefit. However, I feel that clickers will be incredibly effective in large group lessons and lecture based lessons. Another way to use clickers may be as "check ins" to see how small groups are progressing. For example, I would often have groups of two or three working around the room. Students could use their clickers to let me know how much time they need without getting off task. Some content will be affected by adding in clickers. However, clickers are an easy technology to learn. Because of this, clickers should not distract from the teaching. In the event that they do, it may be necessary for the teacher to store the clickers and only pass them out at certain times. The goal is not to take away from the content, but to make the content more interactive and meaningful.

I have brainstormed what content and lessons will benefit the most from adding in clickers. As I mentioned above, connecting technology to the content needs to be done thoughtfully. So, I am putting in a lot of thought into how I present the clickers and in what areas they are used. The goal is for the clickers to enhance the content, not take away. One of the main reasons I like clickers is that they allow me to constantly check in without taking away. For example, when teaching a new topic, it can be challenge to know if everyone is understanding. You could use clickers to have "check ins." Ask students, "how do you feel about what you are learning; good, okay, ahh!" This will allow the teacher to adjust and not lose any time.

Thinkfinity!

MERLOT is a great resource that I am so happy to have finally discovered. Since being introduced, I have spent hours looking for lessons, articles and ideas. One of the great sites I found is called Thinkfinity. I had never heard of this site before, but I am happy I have. By clicking through the site, I found a great lesson idea that I would love to do! The lesson is called,"I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Someone a Letter." The lesson focuses on the lost art of letter writing. Most students today do not understand how important letters were to generations before; how private, heartfelt and crucial they were to peoples' lives. Students are able to experience the power of letter writing first hand by reading letters from important people throughout history.

All teachers know the importance of evaluating a site or source before we use it. Using the MERLOT system, I evaluated the site Thinkfinity.

Quality of Content:

1. Does the software present valid (correct) concepts, models, and skills? Yes! Not only does Thinkfinity have a variety of resources, the site also connects you to other great resources.
2. Does the software present educationally significant concepts, models, and skills for the discipline? Yes! The site is full of educational resources. The tagline for the site is, "Thousands of free lesson plans and educational resources for teachers."

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool:

1. What stage(s) in the learning process/cycle could the materials be used? This site is a link to a wide variety of resources. Not only does the site offer a great variety of lesson plans, the site also offers interactive and a standards alignment section. The site can really help you build the best lessons possible, from the ground up. In addition to in classroom teaching, the site also provides teachers with information on professional development. This is a very holistic website as it covers all areas of education.
2. What is(are) the learning objective(s)? What should students be able to do after successfully learning with the materials? After using this site, teachers should feel more connected to other resources to help them as an educator. While this is not a site for students, students will certainly benefit from the resources found on this site.
3. What are the characteristics of the target learner(s)? Target learners for this site can be anyone, simply depending on what learners you are working with.
4. Does the interactive/media-rich presentation of material improve faculty and students' abilities to teach and learn the materials? The site is full of lessons, audios, media and interactive that are free for teachers. The lessons also outline how to best use these resources.

Ease of Use:

1. Are the labels, buttons, menus, text, and general layout of the computer interface consistent and visually distinct? The layout of the site is very clear and easy to navigate. I was able to figure out what I was doing very quickly. The search bar on the right side of the homepage is very helpful and easy to understand as well.
   
2. Does the user get trapped in the material? It is easy to spend a lot of time looking for information because of how much is available.
   
3. Can the user get lost easily in the material? There is a lot of material, but the site does a nice job of organizing everything. For example, lesson plans are organized by topic and by grade.
   
4. Does the module provide feedback about the system status and the user's responses? The site has a "Get Connected" tab which helps keep you in touch with the site creators. There is also a blog that users can follow to get even more out of Thinkfinity.
   
5. Does the module provide appropriate flexibility in its use? Yes.
   
6. Does the learning material require a lot of documentation, technical support, and/or instruction for most students to successfully use the software? No, it does not. The lessons and all other resources are very straightforward in implementation.
   
7. Does the material present information in ways that are familiar for students? All of the lesson plans I have looked at have been very student friendly. Users can also write reviews for the lesson plans and how they have modified them to fit their students.
   
8. Does the material present information in ways that would be attractive to students? The site has a section devoted to student interactives. Interactives are a great way to incorporate technology and attract students to different subjects. In addition to interactives, there are media resources available, which are always a great way to grab students attention.

I hope you take advantage of this great resource, Thinkfinity!

Learning Styles

It's funny to me that I am so aware of how everyone else learns, but I don't really know what my learning style is. I have loved learning about the ways people learn. But, can I be a great educator without knowing how I learn?

So, I took a few quizzes and read a few articles to find out that I am an auditory learner. An auditory learner is one that learns best through listening. I was a bit surprised by this because I live by my planner and I love to take notes, so I assumed I was a visual learner. A visual learner is someone that learns best by seeing, taking notes, writing things down, looking at pictures, etc. However, after doing research and thinking about my habits I realized I do learn better through spoken word. With my online class, at first I thought it would be easy to simply read directions and prompts and complete assignments. However, I quickly found that I had many questions that I wanted to ask someone. I wanted someone to explain to me how to do things. In addition, I have found that I enjoy watching videos and clips more than reading articles. I also take more from the videos than I do the readings. These characteristics help define what an auditory learner is.

One style that can be a challenge for me is kinesthetic learning. It is not that I do not enjoy doing things, however, I do not like to fail. So, I would rather have someone show me and explain for me how to do it before hand. Once I have the ground rules, I am ready to get my hands dirty.

Want to learn more about learning styles? Click here!

I think that we are all a mix of each type of learning style; it's just that one is more dominant than the others. I think it is important to remind our students that. It is easy to become dependent on one way of learning, and it is important to know what works best for you. However, it is also important to learn how to make the other styles work for you. For example, even though my preferred style is auditory, I still enjoy writing things down and I am learning to be successful with only reading material. As teachers, we need to guide our students so that they become comfortable with their learning style. I think it is important for us to give students chances to learn how they learn best. In addition, it is also our job to challenge students to learn all learning styles so that they can be successful in the future.

Glogster vs. Blogs??

Glogster is a great tool I recently learned about! This would be great in the classroom for any subject. It would be great to see students my goal boards out of Glogster. They could post pictures, words and videos of things they hope to accomplish in the future.

My Glogster is about my Professional Learning Network. Every item on my Glog is someone or something that I network with and learn from on a regular basis.

Social Networking at Work

I always thought I was pretty informed in the world of social networking. I love Facebook, and I tend to waste a lot of my time on Facebook. But, Facebook was the limit of my networking. I had heard of Ning, and I always intended to open a LinkedIn account, but I never got to it.

I have used Facebook to connect with my job in Residence Life - after all, my main focus group is college students that are constantly on Facebook. I promote events, speakers and meetings through group pages. It is also a great way to build community because we post photos of everyone getting involved. However, I never looked at social networks as a teaching tool, especially Facebook. The reading, Social Networking Goes to School, opened my eyes to all the ways social networking can be used in the classroom. I love the idea of using Twitter to have students help each other with math, how cool is that?

Educational Networking is also a new idea to me - I knew social networking was a great way to stay in the loop with friends and family but I never thought about connecting with other educators. I have already spent a large chunk of time checking out MACUL on Ning. I have also found news ideas on Twitter - something I never thought I would connect with work! I intend to utilize the groups available to me on Facebook, Ning, Twitter, etc. to become a better educator.

I look forward to learning more about social networking tools in regard to work. Once again, finding ways to make teaching and connecting easier!