TPACK- English

I completely identified with the preservice teachers knowledge of technology integration in English. I had one typing course in high school, one technology course in college, and am just learning how important it is to expose my students to the tools they’ll need to be successful in life. Early on, I thought technology should be taught in one class and English in another. Now I’m realizing what a huge impact technology can have when it’s integrated within the context of the content being taught.

As our teacher said, UMF is on the “cutting edge,” by teaching students TPACK. This chapter demonstrated how the University of Minnesota is also on this edge by teaching under the Ed-U-Tech model. There is no better way to learn than giving preservice and novice teachers experience to create and share technology integration ideas with one another. Seeing, doing, and telling is how most of us learn best.

One area that I feel UMF lacks in is the introduction of technology before asking us to use it. We’ve been shown how to set up many accounts, but not properly taught how to navigate and use them. Jumping in before I was ready has been very confusing, mainly because I don’t know the purposes behind using one technology over another, how best to use it, and what each program can allow me to do. This is where an introduction to technology course would have been extremely helpful. Our book said it best, stating that “the modeling (of technology) was gravely important as preservice teachers need guidance and support to make important connections between course material and technology applications (p. 94).”

The big technology ideas that I took from this chapter included communication via email and discussion boards, and using Inspiration, StorySpace, HyperStudio, Claris Works, and the internet to create projects. I want to look further into many of these programs to see how I could use them in my Title 1a lessons.