During the course ‘pedagogies for flexible learning supported by technology’ I learned a lot about the relation between content, pedagogy and technology. Nowadays, the last term is often forgotten in education because teachers don’t have the knowledge, skills and time to use technology in their lessons. In the course we learned what the advantages of technologies can be and how we can make the integration of ICT possible.
In this post, I will reflect on several aspects of the course and I will use the term ‘REFLECT’ as a recurring theme. I will describe my experiences, feelings and skills that I’ve attained during this course by referring it to the several letters of the word ‘reflect’.
R refers to readjustment, relation and ready.
When I first heard of the course name, I thought we would learn a lot about different kinds of technologies and how they work. But I had to readjust my first vision because we didn’t only learn which kinds of technologies are available, but also how you can use these technologies to make lessons more effective. The term ‘supportive’ was very important in this case because technology didn’t only support a kind of pedagogy, but also the other way around: pedagogies can support a specific kind of technology and that was really new for me. This vision was based on the TPACK framework, which I’ve never heard before in other courses. The TPACK-framework gave me new insights in how to integrate content, pedagogy and technology in such a way that lessons will be very effective. The three elements have to support each other, so there has to be a relation between these three elements. During the lesson we also learned how to integrate these TPACK aspects in practice. And this is also where our final assignment was about: designing based on TPACK. There was an option to choose between designing a TPACK-based lesson and designing a professional development program for teachers. I choose to do the latter, because during my previous education I designed a lot lessons for pupils. To develop something for teachers instead of pupils was quite a new experience for me. Teachers are, most of the time, not motivated for new interventions in education because they don’t have the time to deal with it in practice. Teachers also don’t have the skills and knowledge to use technology. So it’s very hard to motivate and prepare teachers to use technology in their daily lessons. In our final assignment we wanted to make the teachers feel ready about using technology by motivating them in a practical way. We designed a professional development program in which teachers see how easy it is to us a kind of ICT that is integrated in their lessons. Teachers don’t want to teach additional lessons because they don’t have the time. But when technology is integrated in a simple way, they will be open to integrate it because they won’t have to do additional things. But how to reach that goal?
E refers to embedded, eye-opener and effective.
In my opinion it’s important that teachers see the need of the use of technology. When they are obliged to use ICT, they won’t use it in their lessons because they like it or see the advantages. That’s why we choose to use the lessons of the teachers and integrate some kind of technology in it. In this way, teachers are able to integrate and choose the kind of technology themselves. They can adapt the kind of technology to their own lessons and their own class situation. When teachers are able to do this, they will integrate technology more and more often so technology is embedded in their lessons without a lot effort. The kind of technology that will be used by teachers depends on the context in which the teacher teaches his/her lesson. It was quite an eye-opener to me that a book and pencil are also kinds of technologies. When I heard of the term ‘technology’ I directly associated it with computers, digital whiteboards, laptops etc. But during this course I learned that other materials can also be a kind of technology. During the lessons about TPACK I discovered that a lot emphasis was on the technology part. I also discovered that the technology can make lessons more effective because pupils learn in a different way. Technology can also make things clear in such a way a book could never do. The technology part can support the pedagogy, but also the other way around, as a said before. But how would this work out in practice?
F refers to flexibility, fit and functional.
During the first session of the course, we learned about different kinds of flexibility. We talked about the way in which lessons could be made more flexible by adapting the pedagogy, content and technology. These three aspects of the TPACK model are influencing the flexibility all the time. When, for example, the technology supports the pedagogy the teacher has to be more flexible. When a teacher has 4 digital photo cameras, the pupils have to be split up in groups so the pedagogy changes: there will be a lot more collaboration and the teacher has to deal with it. He/she has to have the skills and knowledge how to deal with groups of pupils that work collaboratively on a task. But it can also be the other way around, for example: when the pedagogy supports the technology it can be possible that pupils perform a kind of discovery learning. The kind of technology that fits with this pedagogy is for example an online learning environment. The elements have to fit with each other. When a certain kind of pedagogy doesn’t fit with the technology or content, the effects will be low. It’s also important that the use of technology has to be functional. Teachers are not capable of managing difficult and complex tasks with technologies, so the way teachers use and implement the technologies has to be very simple and functional. The teacher must have the opportunity to integrate the technology very quick, without much effort, not time-consuming and with high results. It’s important that the school supports the use of ICT and supports teachers to reach high results. But how can a school support this?
L refers to leader, learning by design and long-lasting.
The integration of a school-wide ICT implementation is largely dependent of the attitude of the management of a school. When the school management doesn’t support and guide teachers in how to integrate ICT, they won’t be motivated. The school leader plays a major role in this implementation process. That’s why we choose to involve all the team members of a school in the professional development program. When only the teachers are involved, there’s no overall goal for the school and there will be no monitoring by the school management. During the sessions in the professional development program we decided that the teachers must be involved actively. This active process can be supported when teachers work together in teams, so called teacher design teams. These teams design their lessons based on the TPACK framework. This active and collaborative process is called the learning by design principle. It’s also important that the implementation of the ICT-use will be long-lasting, that’s why teachers need to develop themselves constantly. In my opinion it’s important that teachers will be monitored by the school management and that they will be involved in several training sessions so their knowledge and skills will be up-to-date. This long-lasting development should not only focus on the integration of ICT, but should also stimulate the maintenance of the knowledge and skills of content and pedagogy. But how to accomplish the long-lasting training?
E refers to encourage, experience and educational results.
Nowadays, teachers have a lot of training days: each with a different subject and goal. But when the TPACK training comes in, they will be trained in several aspects. The teachers will not acquire knowledge and skills in content, pedagogy or technology. But they develop themselves in these three elements at the same time because they develop themselves in TPACK: an integration of content, pedagogy and technology. It will be quite an experience for the teachers to deal with something that is not familiar to them. They should be encouraged by the school management and other teachers. The encouragement comes also from the pupils that achieve better when the lessons become more effective because of the use of ICT. That’s where the overall goal of ICT-integration comes in: the educational results of pupils will rise when the component of ICT is well implemented in a lesson. When teachers see the results of an intervention, they would be motivated to use and integrate it. But in my opinion, teachers first need some proof of the effectiveness.
C refers to collaborate, commitment and context.
When teachers work together in teams, they learn from each other and they give each other feedback. Maybe this is something that teachers are not familiar with, this depends on the characteristics of the school but also on the individual characteristics of the teachers. Before teachers can work effectively together in teams, they need to know how to collaborate with each other. The other factor of this basis for designing in teams is associated with the relationship between teachers. They have to see the needs and the overall goal of the training so every teacher has to be committed. Maybe a preliminary training for working in teams in required before the teachers can work together according to the principles of the teacher design teams. The whole effectiveness of the professional development program depends on the context in which this takes place. The context also determines what kind of content, pedagogy and technology will be used and how it will be implemented in a school. But how can a professional development program be adjusted to a specific context?
T refers to total conclusion.
After following this course and reflection on the several sessions, the final assignment and the implementation, I learned a lot about TPACK and especially about how to deal with technology. It was a big experience for me to deal with it from a different perspective: the development of teachers. In advance, I thought I knew a lot about technology, but this course gave me a lot of new insights that I never thought of before. It also gave me some ideas of how to integrate technology in my own class because I’m a teacher in primary education myself and the results were promising. I experienced that I, and my pupils, had a lot of fun while working with technologies and that we learned a lot. I think, when both teachers and pupils, learn from a new intervention it’s the optimal effect that you want to reach.
I will recommend this course to other students because we all learned a lot from this course. Even when you’re a teacher or designer yourself.
