”The beauty of TPACK is that it is a great framework to embed our technical knowledge into our preexisting content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. It creates a sense that technology needs to be ubiquitous with education, not a separate entity.” This Step B of the Wicked Problem Project was a bit confusing. I really had to think about what was being taught, who was teaching it, how it was being taught., in addition to how technology would be effectively embedded into the plan. By identifying that we (Wheatley and myself) are teaching teachers (the “students”) how to use two web 2.0 technologies (Google Calendar and Weebly) to create and share their lesson plans with one on one tutoring (pedagogy).
The technical pedagogy for the solution of saving teachers time with lesson planning means that the effort a teacher puts into our current system, Homework Hotlink”, can be greatly minimized. For example, See Mr. B’s lesson plans for this week. He has clearly put in some time creating columns, adding color and creating his lesson plans within this document. If he had to change Monday, for example, because of a snow day, he would then have to re-do his entire week and do so from school. If he had his lesson plans on a Google Calendar and embedded it in Weebly, he could do so simply by logging in to his Google account a within a few clicks, be completely up to date and do so from home, his phone or anywhere. As a matter of fact, Ms. C,one of our current “students”, noted the ease and joy of editing her lesson plans after the snow day. This also addresses the technological accessibility concept.
Although our “Homework Hotlink” doesn’t necessarily represent this, lesson planning is different than ten years ago. It was literally a pen and book with squares option only! Next it went to the ridiculous “Homework Hotlink” form mentioned in part A. Now, with our plan, it will evolve into its next phase which is very technologically driven and in a more user-friendly format.
Technology has to a tool that makes teaching easier, this possible solution is just that. As a teacher that teaches 8 sections of two different classes each year, as well as others, I really appreciate the ability and savings on my time to have a Google calendar created to simply re-date my lesson plans rather than do them again and again and make copies and put them in appropriate mailboxes and substitute folders. Time is saved not only in that I don’t continually have to do them, but when a student is absent, they can be responsible for going into the site, which I have created, to see what they’ve missed and do it. They don’t disrupt my class time with ‘What did i miss?’ questions or ‘Where’s my make up work?’ Additionally, parents can easily add teachers’ calendars to their own to be cognizant of important due dates and study times. In a perfect world, students with their own cell phones and/or Google accounts can do the same and use it as a digital agenda, in turn saving paper and the school tons of money on student agendas.
Technology, content, and pedagogy work together seamlessly with our solution. Simplicity inundates all stakeholders. Our current method is embarrasingly out-of-date and makes us seem technologically inferior... thus doing a disservice to our learners.
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