Mission 4: Tools to Support Learning I

The two teacher technology integration models, TPACK and PEAT, remind me of my two graduate degree programs. The TPACK model--Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge--represents the first program, completed after a four year undergraduate degree program. I took one technology-focused course, "Teaching with Technology," in which I learned about different digital tools and some level of integration. I was able to successfully tie together Latin content, the pedagogical strategies I was learning in my methods courses, and technology integration.

The PEAT model--Pedagogical, Ethical, Attitudinal, and Technical Dimensions--represents the DDLS program, started at the end of my seventh year of teaching. This updated model and my updated learning integrate the intangible, empathetic, meaning-making aspect of technology use. Through the DDLS core courses, I learned about responsible and ethical technology use and information using and also learned how to instruct students in those domains. The attitudinal dimension is represented by the spirit of a teacher-designer: someone who is always seeking to create a more preferable impact for existing situations.

The Bittersweet Patriots came up with the following PowToon video as a parody of "The Most Interesting Man in the World" beverage commercial. We combined aspects of both the TPACK and PEAT models in our edited video.

It had been awhile since I had completed a video editing project and used the DEAPR process; my last group storyboard project was a video essay that was completed just before schools closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Reviewing video editing tools through the "tools to support learning" lens clarified my understanding of how video production could lead to greater engagement and learning that is transformed by technology. Our Mission 4 assignment was to transform our knowledge about the TPACK and PEAT frameworks into a 30 second commercial. We worked through the basics, research, storyboard design and encoding (gathering) of multimedia. One group member assembled all ideas into a PowToon video to be shared.

My biggest takeaway from repeating this process is that video production and editing are technological and software skills that must be explicitly scaffolded prior to the stage when students construct knowledge. Supports such as a storyboard design document and examples of video production techniques greatly enhanced my understanding of how to carry out this process. Our group chose PowToon as our video editing tool because we were familiar with the tool from previous assignments and the PowToon user interface and experience promote easy multimedia combination and creation. Powtoon, however, is not a free tool; we had access through our instructor's institution license. If I were doing a video production performance based assessment with my classes, I would need to do an affordance analysis of all available tools, such as Adobe Spark and WeVideo, to see which would be the best fit for my lesson objectives, product requirements, and cognitive goals.