Task 1 (TPACK). Journalist

Hi everyone! I am Ana, and I am the JOURNALIST this week. Today's article is an explanation of the process that we followed in order to do the TPACK (a model that is offered to teachers, related to an effective teaching and the interaction of knowledge and skills necessary for the effective integration of technology) activity and show you some photos of the process too.

First of all, I am going to explain the time spent in the TPACK activity: last Monday our School Organization and Educational Resources teacher proposed us an activity related to the TPACK model. After that, in groups, we started to discuss about how we could represent this model. Finally, we chose a robot as the centre of the mind map.

Why did we choose a robot? It is simple, the TPACK model combine technological knowledge with pedagogical and content knowledge, and we think that this technological knowledge could be express in the figure of a robot, which is formed by a computer ( advance technology: technological knowledge), a light bulb (due to the common representation of a light bulb such as a symbol of have an idea: content knowledge) and a screw (a screw must fit in with a nut, like a teacher with his or her students: pedagogical knowledge). In adittion, the robot represents the figure of a teacher, which needs the three components (technological, pegagogical and content knowledge) to function.

 

The second day was on Wednesday. On that day, we drew the computer, the light dumb and the screw on white cardboards and then we coloured them; Also, we drew the robot and some details such as the shoes or hands in a special material called “Goma EVA”, a plastic material with higher thickness than the cardboard that creates a 3D effect and a colourful design.

In addition, we had an excellent idea! Like bees, which are always busy, we decided to name our group Busy Bees and to wear bees ants and a star with our name, for example “Anastar”, “Miristar”, ”Bernastar”, ... during all the expositions of the group throughout the year. To complete the outfit and its features that will characterize our group, we decided that the “stars” of the group will wear glasses which have the form of a star. You will see the photos soon, at the end of the post!

The third day was on Thursday, at the School Organization and Educational Resources hour. We organized the information we had previously searched at home in order to prepare the presentation of the task and finished some details of the mural. Also we selected some images to represent the subjects of First Degree of Primary Education and prepared them.

 

 

  

 We had a problem, because the ink of the robot´s shoes flowed to one of the cardboards extreme, however, we were lucky, because that exactly extreme was hidden by another cardboard, so we weren´t worried about that. 

Here I attach a video in which some members wanted to surprise another member of the group by showing “accidentally” the spot of ink, nevertheless the result was not what we expected to be!

The last day was on Friday, and we met early in the morning at the university to finish the project. We wrote the rest of the information on the cardboards, drew some arrows with the purpose of giving a more schematical aspect to the mural and made a little change in the gears of the robot as some members believed that the class wouldn't appreciate them in the exposition which would be on Monday. Those changes were on three gears, one for each component of TPACK (Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge), so we decided to use three complete gears with some arrows going out of them for a better emphasis on the necessity of the three components for the functioning of TPACK (in this case, the functioning of the robot).

We also glued many parts of the mural, but other parts were glued throughout the exposition, with a special material similar to a gum, with the goal of achieving a more dynamic and interactive explanation.

Finally, today was the exposition of our work.
We have had a problem due to our group was formed by 2 stars, so We had to changed It at that moment such my colleage Gracia explained on her post (http://busybeestakeiteasy.blogspot.com/2015/02/task-1tpackstar.html?spref=tw).
I think that she got off the exposition well after all.

I attach some photos and video that I toke this morning of the mural. I also toke some photos of the other murals that belong to the others group os the class, but We will publish them in another post with the marks that We assigned to them.

 

Finally, the second part of my role consist on explore and comment a blog from inside the class and other from outside the class.

From inside the class I selected the "Merkats" group: http://meerkatsoyer1415.blogspot.com.es

I chose this group because I like how its star explained the TPACK task, but I have to write that the creativity of the mural was lacking.
I commented on the star post, which is this: http://meerkatsoyer1415.blogspot.com.es/2015/02/tpack-presentation-stars-pov.html?showComment=1424197522270#c8116992797399045531


As I commented on that post, I like how the star carried out the exposition, however, if the improve their mural for the next time, they will have a fantastic exposition, in other words, on my point of view is more important the content and the form of expression that the star had than they creativity of the mural.

From outside the class I decided to comment a post that resulted me very interesting. The author explain the TPACK model and wrote his opinion about it. He asked for some answer of people, so I could read many opinions of this model, and, of course, I write my opinion (at this moment my answer is in process to be accepted, so I prefer to put an image to be secure that all of you can read my answer).

The post is this:http://ictevangelist.com/technological-pedagogical-and-content-knowledge/#comment-389860

And here is my answer:

I hope you enjoy reading my post! 

XO XO, Busy Bees