EDT 414

EDT 414 - Application of Instructional Design

This course provides students with necessary skills to apply Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) instructional design process in a specific area. Here's an example of how I broke down this technological tool to analyze and design an instructional plan.

This course was really helpful in breaking down all the aspects of TPACK and assuring that lesson plans enhanced by technology include all sections. First and foremost, I appreciate that there were multiple resources provided to us to study TPACK. I am a visual learner and prefer reading over listening, as I get easily distracted, so having an article to read at my own pace and repetition was useful. I also found it helpful to read comments left on TPACK.org as well as this discussion to fully understand the lesson better.

TPACK stems from “technological pedagogical content knowledge”. It is model that demonstrates the integrating roles of technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge. In terms that were more comprehensible (to me at least), it highlights the relationship of technological knowledge compared to a teacher’s knowledge on the subject and of teaching methods.

I am not an educator, but technology has always had an important role in my education. Because of this, I am a strong advocate of technology, and in my career, I plan to incorporate it into as much of my future curriculum as possible. Technology can be accommodating to students of all learning styles. It can be useful in demonstrating the way subject matter relates to real-life situations. As stated in the article, it is also important that a “teacher understands which specific technologies are best suited for addressing subject-matter learning in their domains and how the content dictates or even changes the technology or vice versa”. If a technology does not complement a lesson or is not appropriately utilized, it could hinder the learning process or become distracting.