Response to Koehler & Mishra Article

Response to Koehler & Mishra Article  

    This was a great article that really shows the need for “sustained inquiry and revision of ideas” in the field of teaching and more specifically dealing with technology.  Instead of just teaching the basics on how to use a certain technology, it makes sense to focus on a problem of practice and seek ways to use technology to solve the problem.  I like the reference to social constructivist theory in the reading and how Learning by Design is based on this.  It really tied us back to what we studied previously and it helped it to make more sense.  I think in this class here at Pacific we are indeed following this model and it will help us immensely as we transition to teachers in the coming years.  
    I think that a problem in the schools today that I have noticed is there is a huge gap between those teachers that use technology and those that don’t.  You can’t exactly force veteran teachers to change their whole way of teaching overnight but it would really help the students to be able to have some consistency between classes.  It would also help the collaboration between teachers that could benefit the students on many fronts.  I do think the “diversity of teaching styles” argument is somewhat valid but I think it wouldn’t hurt to have more teachers using technology in diverse ways.

Technology Project Update

    
    For my technology project I am going to create a Jeopardy game from JeopardyLabs.com using the Biology curriculum from my placement.  I would like to eventually create a game to use at the end of every unit of study for a fun way to prepare for the exam.  This could help a variety of learners to get a grasp on the big picture of each unit of study.  It could also help create a sense of camaraderie for students who aren’t involved in sports and are good at science. This fits well with the TPACK model due to the use of technology to enhance content knowledge. From a pedagogical standpoint, by knowing how students learn in different ways, this teaching approach will help to add to a more diverse learning environment that in conducive to a variety of learners. It could also be used as an assessment to judge how much the students know about the material.