Podcast

I have been having a hard time choosing a topic for my podcast project. I thought about doing a lesson on baking cookies because you can incorporate math and science. I see there are a couple baking podcast in the works already so, I then decided to do the podcast on my favorite animal, the elephant. I think I will aim the podcast at a younger audience (1st or 2nd graders) and talk about their life span, where they live and what they eat.

Multimedia Learning: Mayer & Moreno

"multimedia learning should be theory based, educationally relevant and scientifically rigorous"

While attempting to accomplish these goals with multimedia learning, Mayer and Moreno point out the importance of reducing the extraneous cognitive load.  When using technology while teaching (powerpoint, podcast, etc.)  it is easy to overwhelm the student with too much information.  For the best education, in conjunction with technology, it is very important to realize you must slow down the lesson so the student can fully grasp all of the information presented.  Tools like powerpoint make it very easy to rapidly go through a lesson.

I know I have had classes that were purely powerpoint sessions and most of the time me and my classmates would have to go back and review the powerpoint lesson on our own because the information presented was presented too quickly and it was hard to fully internalize all of the information.  The best way to learn is through the combination of words, pictures and sounds, however, as educators it is important to realize how overwhelming this combination can be.

TPCK!

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge or TPCK!

Authors, Koehler and Mishra, state that TPAK is "a complex interaction among three bodies of knowledge:
content, pedagogy, and technology."  Their intent is to "describe how these bodies of
knowledge interact, in abstract, and in practice, to produce the type of flexible
knowledge needed to successfully integrate technology in the classroom."  (p. 1)

As educators it is important to realize how these bodies of knowledge interact and what effect the interaction has on the students as well as the teacher.  Education and technology are both ever changing arenas and it is important to stay flexible in a "dynamic environment", especially in this day in age when computer technology is ever present in almost all areas of life; learning, researching, building (i.e. architecture, websites, graphic design etc.), calculations, communications and entertainment.  It is important for both the instructor and the student to know how to effectively use this technology not only in the classroom, but outside the classroom as well.  TPCK is a a way to effectively integrate technology into the curriculum.

The authors presented this chart in their article and below I have given a brief description of it's contents:

Content Knowledge: Subject matter and what is to be taught in the curriculum.
Pedagogical Knowledge: The process, practices and methods of the teacher.
Technological Knowledge: The knowledge and understanding of technology.
Pedagogical Content Knowledge: The Pedagogy if a certain topic or subject matter
Technological Content Knowledge:  How to technology can be used to build on existing knowledge.
Technological Pedagogical Knowledge: The methods used to teach technology.
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge:  The integration and interaction between all of the above.

The authors state that the goal of TPCK is "to provide insight into how the complexities and tensions of teaching can be brought together to mutually develop teachers and students knowledge." (p. 24)

Welcome!

Hello!