Week 2 Engagement Activities

Engagement Activity 1- Productive Pedagogies
Here we were asked to create a process of a learning task for our learners. Me being the 'typical' English/History mind chose to... evaluate a source!! I know you are all sitting on the edge of your seats! With this process we were then to link it to the elements of productive pedagogies. Creating a task that meets all the pedagogies is near impossible, but this exercise showed me that if I have the processes and elements in the forefront of my thinking it is simple to alter what seems to be a simply linear task into something engaging and inclusive for the students.

Here is the diagram of my process to the productive pedagogies, sorry about the format I am still learning how to make everything look 'pretty'. 

Engagement Activity 2- TPACK in plain English

The next task bestowed upon us was converting the rather technical pedagogical framework, TPACK, into plain English terms so even novices of Education could understand it. Now I consider myself a novice, so I wrote it in a way that was easy for me to understand. Hope this works for everyone else. 

TPACK: Without all the technical mumbo jumbo

Technological, pedagogical and content knowledge, or TPACK for short, is a teaching structure that incorporates effective teaching strategies with the use of appropriate ICT. TPACK’s basic principle is that teachers must first start with a solid content knowledge, having extensive information in a specific field is valuable in informing the learner, it makes the teacher the expert. Secondly a comprehensive understanding on how best to teach the knowledge is a must, this is the pedagogical practice, knowing what techniques and strategies to employ in the classroom so learning is completed is quintessential to success in education. Lastly TPACK’s specialty element is employed, what is the most effective and appropriate technology to use that will not only support the learning but also enhance it. It cannot be as haphazardly as asking students to submit their responses to a task through an online interface the learning experience must be built upon the use of ICT, where the lesson would not deliver the same richness of content without it. Supporting the TPACK framework is Blooms Taxonomy, it supports the leaning manager in deciding what level of thinking students will be engaged in. The TPACK framework assists teachers in creating a 21^st century classroom, where students are taught the skills to become lifelong learners, to adapt to the ever changing technological world around us and to think with higher order thinking skills in and outside of the classroom. 

Engagement Activity 3- Working in a Wiki- See Reflection 2