Melody Lam -- Blog Post #2 -- 1/28/2020

Definition of educational technology

I believe that educational technology are tools that are used to aid learners in achieving an outcome. I feel that "aid learners in achieving an outcome" is extremely important, as we find that teachers sometimes use technology with a minimal impact on student outcomes and learning. For example, using Canvas to collect assignments is a usage of technology, but it begs the question of whether or not it helps students achieve a learning outcome. However, if a teacher uses Canvas to deliver formative assessments such as exit tickets, then uses the data to give students feedback and/or reteaching opportunities, then this is an appropriate use of educational technology.

General Viewpoints

After reading the textbook and looking at the 5 perspectives concerning educational technology, I find that I resonate most with perspective 4: educational and instructional computing and perspective 5: educational technology as learning sciences. 

Educational and instructional technology is strongly utilized in the classrooms at Hough. The majority of teachers use either Canvas or Google Classroom to deliver and present learning content, collect assignments, and deliver feedback to students in a timely manner. When Khan Academy came out, it was a novel idea -- utilizing the growing power of the Internet to deliver content to learners in a self-paced format. Today we see not only the uses of Khan Academy but also Youtube and Google Cardboard/VR in aiding teachers in delivering content and unique opportunities for students. As I have said in the last blog post, increasingly in the computer science realm, we see applications such as repl.it, CodeHS, and Albert.io being utilized alongside traditional teaching methods such as direct instruction in the classroom. Currently, as a tech facilitator, I facilitate the usage of educational technology in the classrooms by offering my expertise in the technology and how it can be used to enhance the classroom experience for students.

As a learning scientist, I try to explore novel ways to incorporate computer models into classrooms. With the upcoming curriculum change in Discrete Mathematics, I plan to convince my DM teachers to incorporate programming opportunities to help students grasp the concepts in the class. If I had time, I would love to create programs to help students graph and visualize scientific data in real time, or create modeling programs so that students can see the effects of gravitational pull on large bodies.

I'm very much a systems approach kind of person. One of the biggest things that programmers learn as they start doing larger and more intricate programs is backwards design, which I feel is also a very good way to approach teaching. The reason why we use backwards design in programming is so that we have a clear vision of what the outcome of the program is before we spend time programming. It is very hard to not feel like you're shoehorning in technology into a lesson or classroom without knowing the outcome of the lesson or unit. Therefore, it's important that teachers and technology facilitators work together at the beginning of a unit to know what the demonstrated objectives are, and use the objectives to guide the choice of technology to use in the classroom. 

Existing Technology Integration Practice

TPACK drives a lot of my teaching -- but until this class I never knew that it had a name! 

For Technical Pedagogical Knowledge, I am an early adopter of technology. I love exploring the potential of technology and how it can be utilized in everyday life and in the classroom (which may be two different uses). When it comes to technology in the classroom, I utilize cloud based services such as Google Drive and repl.it. I learned the hard way that NC CTE's curriculum in computer programming is unfortunately a barrier for my students. I found out that most of my students use Macs, but the curriculum is Windows only! After the first semester I moved towards a flipped classroom so that students could practice in the labs where they did have access to a Windows computer. Cloud based services also are very useful as students can do work on lab computers and continue at home without the need of physical medium, which is easy to lose. I use Youtube and quizzes on Canvas to quiz students on what they have learned on the videos at home in my flipped classroom.

In the realm of Pedagogical Content Knowledge, I utilize backwards design when developing my lessons, by making sure that I know what my students should be able to demonstrate on the summative assessment and going backwards and developing lessons that lead towards the demonstrated objectives. I also use a lot of visuals to visualize computer science concepts, as students have a hard time visualizing what is happening in the computer as code is executed. For example, I use a picture of cubby holes to demonstrate how arrays work in the computer and what happens when things get replaced.

In Technical Content Knowledge, I utilize repl.it as a way for students to practice their programming skills. I used to use some advanced features of a development environment to demonstrate what happens in the computer but students with no background in computer science found that to be way too confusing. 

For the general TPACK framework, students utilize cloud based services such as CodingBat to get quick practice on small problems in order to build confidence. I used CodingBat's teacher features to see where students were struggling to address misconceptions. I also often utilize very common mistakes that even experienced programmers have trouble. In AP Computer Science A, the CollegeBoard has lab experiences where students are tasked with completing a shell of a program. These lab experiences generate discussion of misconceptions and common concepts and algorithms that are used in programming, such as summing up a list of numbers or counting vowels in a long form text.

Areas of Improvement

The biggest area of improvement for me is to be able to increase my TCK and TPK in subject areas other than mathematics or computer science. I know that teachers at Hough utilize a myriad of modeling programs to model scientific concepts, and I also know that a lot of these programs are outdated and/or not maintained. With the removal of Flash content, a lot of these programs can't even be run on modern computers. I need to work on first knowing the content of science curricula in NC, then work on finding technology that can be integrated into existing lesson plans that can either replace or even enhance the experience for students. I want to explore Google Cardboard and AR as a way for students to explore scientific concepts and ideas, but I also know that developing these technologies requires buy-in from not only teachers but curriculum developers and companies.