zondag 21 november 2010

my thoughts about the course

We just finished the course pedagogies for flexible learning supported by technology. I’m glad that I took this course because I learned a lot about TPACK and about designing a professional development program. As a final assignment we had to develop a professional development for teachers about TPACK.  I have up till now more been focusing on education for children then the education for teachers. In my later career it is very likely that I will be designing for teachers or other professionals so I thought that designing a lesson plan for teacher about TPACK was a very useful final project. When we got the assignment I wasn’t sure what I should be doing when designing something like a professional development program. You cant just, like with children, invent something fun and educational and just do it. With a professional development you have to think about so much more. Like the autonomy of the teacher and making something that they can really apply in there own classroom. The course had to be really practically and at the same time really connect with what the teachers already know.
            I also didn’t really know what should be included in a professional development course. I didn’t know if you have to show the teachers the complete reasoning behind the course or that you just give them the course with the objectives beside it. I still don’t quite know how much detail you must give the subject of the course but I think that it will depend on the situation. Another thing that was challenging for me was how much detail there should be in the program. Because ours was fictional I didn’t know to what extend we should have worked it out. We opted to give a overview of the program and just work out 1 day to show in greater detail what we meant.  
            The course in general I found interesting as I said before. I learned a lot about TPACK and working with it but (there is always a but) I think the focus is a lot on incorporating digital media in the classroom. Not that there is anything wrong with this but when I first started to learn about TPACK it was said that its not just about digital media but about all things that you use to teach with. Like a chalkboard or a book, but after mentioning this there is nothing done with this. It is often said that teachers haven’t reached TPACK yet but when you take into account that technology is everything that you can teach with then teachers are doing pretty well. I think that teachers haven’t reached TPACK yet with the digital media. This can be a real problem in education because the students are growing up in the digital age and have to learn about technology and how to work with it. So to summarize I like TPACK it gives a real clear framework for integrating technology in the classroom and I think that it is something that could be very useful in my career after Educational Design (whatever that may be).  I also like the fact that when I started the course I simple thought about flexible learning as distance education. Now I know better and really recognise what is flexible about the other courses that I take so I can see that im really applying the knowledge that I have learned here.

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