Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)
If I were to isolate the one aspect of teaching that has changed the most since I began teaching nearly a quarter of a century ago, it would be the use of technology. Not only has technology flourished in the past decades, but its availability in schools has also had a significant impact on the teaching profession. However, much of the technology available to educators was not designed for schools. So “[i]f educators are to repurpose tools and integrate them into their teaching, they require a specific kind of knowledge that we call technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK)” (Mishra & Koehler, 2009, p. 15). Mishra and Koehler (2009) updated Lee Shulman’s framework that illustrated the overlap of pedagogical and content knowledge (PCK) by including technological knowledge. This new framework is shown in Figure 1. TPACK refers to the intersection of expertise in the three areas.
This framework enhanced my understanding of integrating technology through the revamping of my previous confidence and identity building unit that was based on storybooks and did not use technology. In this new module, technology is used to deliver the content of the core competency of Positive Personal and Cultural Identity (BC Ministry of Education, n.d.) as well as the language objectives used for ELL support based on the BC ELL Standards (BC Ministry of Education, 2017). This delivery involved technological content knowledge (TC). The research done for the formation of the Our Stories module, enabled the expansion of my technological pedagogical knowledge (TP). At the start of course this had been the TPACK area that I felt I had the most room to grow in. The success of this identity affirmation module required growth of both my TC and TP knowledge and thus has expanded my TPACK and resulted in an engaging and transforming learning experience for students.
This framework enhanced my understanding of integrating technology through the revamping of my previous confidence and identity building unit that was based on storybooks and did not use technology. In this new module, technology is used to deliver the content of the core competency of Positive Personal and Cultural Identity (BC Ministry of Education, n.d.) as well as the language objectives used for ELL support based on the BC ELL Standards (BC Ministry of Education, 2017). This delivery involved technological content knowledge (TC). The research done for the formation of the Our Stories module, enabled the expansion of my technological pedagogical knowledge (TP). At the start of course this had been the TPACK area that I felt I had the most room to grow in. The success of this identity affirmation module required growth of both my TC and TP knowledge and thus has expanded my TPACK and resulted in an engaging and transforming learning experience for students.
SAMR Model
The SAMR Model (Puentedura, 2013) is illustrated in Figure 2. “[T]he SAMR model … includes four levels of technology integration (substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition) and provides a framework to support educators and instructional designers in creating optimal learning experiences” (Romrell, Kidder & Wood, 2014, p. 1). Using this framework for the current project allowed me to consider integrating technology at different levels. I substituted my use of storybooks with videos, but many of the videos used in this module are multimedia (including animation, sounds, music) which augments the learning experience since multimedia stories have been found to improve story comprehension and expressive vocabulary for elementary-aged learners (Takacs, Swart & Bus, 2015). The substitution provides “functional change,” and the augmentation provides “functional improvement” (Romrell et al. 2014, p. 4). These two types of integration enhance the learner’s experience (Puentedura, 2013).
Other activities integrate technology at the transformation level. Dual-language books allow students to not only read and listen to online publications in English, but they can also read and listen to the same books in their home languages. This change in the activity of reading and listening to storybooks “allows the learning activity to be redesigned” (Romrell et al. 2014, p. 4). Since they can now read or listen to the same book in two different languages, it allows their stronger language to help them with the development of their other language. As well, creating multimedia All About Me stories redefines writing and illustrating. It now allows students to include pictures of artifacts, sounds, music, and photographs, which is not possible with only paper and writing utensils. These technology modifications will transform the learning experiences (Puentedura, 2013) of my English Language Learners.
Other activities integrate technology at the transformation level. Dual-language books allow students to not only read and listen to online publications in English, but they can also read and listen to the same books in their home languages. This change in the activity of reading and listening to storybooks “allows the learning activity to be redesigned” (Romrell et al. 2014, p. 4). Since they can now read or listen to the same book in two different languages, it allows their stronger language to help them with the development of their other language. As well, creating multimedia All About Me stories redefines writing and illustrating. It now allows students to include pictures of artifacts, sounds, music, and photographs, which is not possible with only paper and writing utensils. These technology modifications will transform the learning experiences (Puentedura, 2013) of my English Language Learners.
Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP)
The SIOP model was used as a framework for planning the six lessons of this module. “SIOP is the term for this empirically validated model of sheltered instruction designed to make grade-level academic content understandable for English learners while at the same time developing their academic English language proficiency” (Echevarría, Vogt & Short, 2017, p. 19). It promotes effective use of technology and includes 30 features that are grouped into eight main components (Echevarría et al., 2017). The SIOP model has been developed over 20 years using research and development studies (Short, Echevarría, & Richards-Tutor, 2011, Short & Himmel, 2013, as cited in Echevarría et al., 2017). Having received SIOP training recently, I was inspired to prepare each lesson, to begin with the content and language objectives and then build background knowledge. Strategies, interaction, application, and review activities are incorporated. The lessons should be delivered at a suitable pace and speech level to learners
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