Tech Play 1

1. Begin by describing student work that you might design using blogs. Use the TPACK Model to identify each aspect of the work. The following questions will help guide your thinking:   

 Content--What content you addressing? Considering the verb in the standard and Blooms Revised Taxonomy, what is the desired level of thinking from the standards?

We have a really big push in our district to begin preparing our students for the 4^th grade writing test as early as possible.  Blogs provide an excellent opportunity for students to read and write. Blogs provide a space where teachers and students can work to develop writing skills with the added benefit of an instant audience.  Students can also participate in cooperative learning activities that require them to share ideas or suggestions.   For this reason, I would use a blog in Language Arts, to help build students writing skills. I would have students to submit their weekly writing compositions to through a blog. Students would be required to read the contributions of their peers and provide comments or suggestions. These types of activities incorporate the synthesis and evaluation components of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Pedagogy--What pedagogical stance (or which learning theories or theorists) does this work support? In other words, whose “shoulders” did you stand on?

 This would involve integrating teaching and technology in order to address all learning styles.

Technology--What affordances can you identify for the technology selected? Justify the match of your pedagogical stance/strategy with the technology affordances. 

Students would need to have access to a computer and internet connection.  Most of the work would be done at school, so even if students did not have a computer at home they would be able to use the school computer lab or classroom computers.

2. Discuss other ways that this technology can be used in the learning environment.

A blog can serve as a classroom management tool. Blogs can be used to inform students of class requirements, post handouts, notes, or homework assignments. A blog can also serve as a question and answer board for students who may be having problems with an assignment.

3. Identify any obstacles to using this tool. What makes this tool worth using even with these obstacles?

I think the biggest obstacle to using this technology is the lack of access to a computer.  Outside of school, most of my students do not have access to a computer.  I work in a low socioeconomic area and most of my students are unable to afford computers in their homes. On top of that, we do not have a computer teacher, so most of them are extremely lacking in technology skills.  O teach them how to do an internet search , however even that can be seen as an obstacle, as they have a tendency to get off task and do searches for game sites and anything else they have an interest in.

Even with these obstacles, it is still very important for our students to be knowledgeable in the use of technology. If we are to prepare our students to be competitive in the job market of the 21^st century, it is imperative they have as many technological skills as possible. Even though the students may not have computers in their homes, the tiny bit of exposure they have in school could mean the difference between being employed and being unemployed. Therefore, I would still employ this technology in my classroom.