Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Ed Tech vs.Tech Ed



Educational technology teaches through the student using technology, such as using a keyboard to learn typing. It is using technology IN education; the use of technology as a tool in the educational learning process. It's the means by which we teach the students, using technology to teach about a specific subject.

Technology in education means teaching technological literacy. It is the ability to "use, manage, understand, and evaluate technology in general" (iteaconnect.org). This is a process which allows students to learn about and implement a new technology. An example of this could be the computer used for the typing. We are teaching them to understand technology by using it. It's using technology in the educational process.

At our school, we don't have much technology at our disposal. We have two computer labs: Lab A, which is the specialty lab and belongs to the specialty teacher; and Lab B, which is an extra lab in which we are assigned a one hour time slot to use during the week. We also have a "mobile" lab, which consists of 40 (or so) old laptops that may or may not work at any given time, and most lose their charge in a short amount of time. We are also assigned a one hour time slot. So, if the planets align and we can work out our schedules just right, we can get two hours of computer time per week. Also, the teachers each have an iPad. Needless to say, I don't spend a lot of time on technology education. We usually only get to use the computers for taking math tests and practice tests for writing (educational technology). But I do use my laptop and iPad as a tool for teaching, ie, showing cool videos or awesome interactive apps, and things of that sort.

TPACK is a network of combining technology with content knowledge with pedagogy, or best practices. We use our best practices with our content knowledge, our content knowledge with technology, and our technology with our best practices. In using a combination of these, we are teaching the students well. But now we need to start implementing the tech in all three as much as possible and bumping it up; not just replace, but using it for teaching and learning, some augmentation, more modification, and some redefinition.

I'm not really comfortable with my understanding of TPACK and/or SAMR, so I can't really get too deep into it with my limited understanding. But I think I am getting some sort of grasp of them. :)

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