Using Technology in Science and Math

TPACK is a really interesting concept. It makes me think back to my Child Development days. Just like children develop cognitively, physically, socially, and emotionally, TPACK is composed of technological, pedagogical, and content components. As children grow in all their developmental domains, it makes them into a whole person. All the domains are important and interrelated but some children develop better in some areas than they do in others. If children make good progress in all their developmental domains, the value of their being will equal more than just the sum of their parts. And so it is with TPACK. Some teachers will be stronger in content areas, some stronger in pedagogical areas, and other is technological areas. But as we grow and develop in all three, we will give our students an exponentially better learning experience. It's not enough just to teach content, to foster a natural and interesting learning environment, or to integrate useful technology in the classroom. We need to let all these areas enhance one another to make our classrooms that much better. It will make learning more meaningful.

One of the technologies I explored this week was Stellarium. I loved it. I don't know how early we can start using it in schools but once kids start learning about constellations, stars, the night sky, etc. I highly recommend using Stellarium. It allows you to see what the night sky looks like anywhere in the world at anytime. It looks just the same as if you went to a planetarium or went camping and looked at the stars outside. But it has some really cool features. My favorites had to do with the constellations. First I went to the current night sky conditions for my hometown. Immediately I felt happy because I felt like I was close to home. Then I used the feature that outlines the constellations so you can see what stars make up each of the constellations. You can also get it to put the names of each constellation on the screen. But my favorite was adding the artwork. After looking at the weird stick figure shapes and seeing the names of each constellation, it was really neat and helpful to see the artwork that showed the picture behind the stick figure. It really helped the constellations pop out and I could see the image conveyed in the name. It was really cool.

Week Two Fun

Wow! What a busy week this has been! But it has been good because I learned so much and joined some groups that I really believe will help me as a teacher. I'm excited about del.icio.us and Goodreads. What great resources they will be to me as a teacher...internet links and books...they're so essential. Plus it's fun to see what other people are looking at and reading.

RSS seems like such a cool idea. I had never even heard of them before this lesson...but how cool. "Really simple syndication"...and it really is really simple. I look forward to having a one stop place to get all my updates. And as I get my own class it will be awesome to have the blogs of my students and other teachers right there for me in one place.

Also, I never even really considered copyright laws when it came to teaching so it's good to hear that I have rights to use things and it's even better to know what my rights and limitations are. I guess that's why it's so important to be educated.

My Technological Background

Well. This is exciting. My first blog and my first blog entry.

I don't know what to say. I'm definitely not technologically savvy. But I'm not an idiot either. My first experience with computers was probably when I was in 9th grade and I had to take a keyboarding class. I think shortly thereafter my family got a computer. I'm probably older than most of my peers in this class so that was probably when you were all still in elementary school. I don't think my family is that far behind the rest of the world. =)

I've never really taken any computer classes or anything. So I'm actually really excited for this class because there's a lot I need to learn. I took the online section because I can read and follow directions and because I can probably figure this out as I just do it and get used to it. I figured out Facebook and email and the internet on my own so I'm sure I can figure out blogging and all that other good stuff too. That's my background. Just playing around with different applications. I know the basics of Word and PowerPoint and Excel and I can do a search on the internet and send attachments in email and play on Facebook. The rest I'll just need to be exposed to. So here I go.