Week 3

TPACK stands for Technological Pedagogical And Content Knowledge. Pedagogical knowledge is basically having skills and knowledge about how to teach. Content Knowledge is knowing the facts about a particular subject such as History of Math. And, Technological knowledge is what we're learning in this class. It can be anything as simple as how to use Windows, to something much more complicated such as using a programming language to run a program. These areas also overlap. Technological content knowledge would be combining math with a 3-d calculator. You use both your knowledge of the subject and technology. Technological Pedagogical content is knowing how to best use technology in your teaching, and which forms of technology would be most beneficial to your students. Pedagogical Content Knowledge is combining the facts with the best way to teach them. I think this is probably the most common form of teaching, and the way our parents learned most the time when they were in school. TPACK combines all of these aspects. It is bringing in technology to best teach the content or facts using the pedagogical knowledge that you have.
It's important for teachers to have this knowledge because we are in a world FULL of technology. Students will be using technology for the rest of their lives, and we might as well teach them to become comfortable using all kinds of different technology. Also, this is such a great tool for teachers! It can assist in motivating students, when otherwise maybe science alone didn't motivate them. By using technology we can intrigue our students. These students will be using these various types of technology in their future careers, and so they might as well become familiar with it now, and have fun with it! It can also assist in helping children have a greater understanding of subjects, technology is often a great way to help children get a visual of what they are learning.

Science/Math Technology Explored

Stellarium: Stellarium is a science site that allows acts as a sort of planetarium. It shows you a realistic sky in 3-D. It looks like a great tool to use in the classroom. As I explored this site, I found a screen that showed what the constellations look like, and along with the constellations they have their animal or figure of what the costellation was named after right on it. So, they have a picture of Orion to better show how Orion is named, and what the actual stars in the constellation represent. This site would be a great way to encorporate technology with science, along with my pedagogical Knowledge!

Week 2

Remember to add everyone from your group to Good Reads!

What have you learned about RSS & Web 2.0 tools and how might you use one of these tools as an educator?

I learned that RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. It is basically a way for us to look at all our favorite websites from one place, such as on a blog. It will show you the latest articles, or updates from your favorite websites. I learned a little more about Web 2.0 also. I learned that Web 2.0 applies to any website that can change. Websites like Facebook, Delicious, Good Reads, and blogs can all be added to, and changed often. You can change it, or like Facebook, friends can add to your page.

As an educator I think a blog (as your RSS) is a great idea! I love that I can access Good Reads, and particular websites that I like from a blog with one easy click. It would help in finding information I might want for my classroom quickly. In particular, Good Reads is a great idea to have as an educator so that I can sort through all the books I've read quickly to find a book for a 3rd grader who enjoys science fiction. Because it has you organize every book as you add it, it's done! You have easy access to all the particulars of that book that you may otherwise have to look up again (if you hadn't used Good Reads). Or, I might be able to recommend particular books to parent's.

Week 1

Technological Background & Experience: I've been using computers since my elementary days. At my current job I am on the computer a lot doing data entry. I passed the technology test to get into the program! :o)