Chapter 3
TPCK in K-6 literacy education It’s not that elementary!
After reading this chapter, I am thinking about how the meaning and definition of literacy and how it has changed since the advancements of technology. I continue to think about the impact that technology has made upon the field of education and even more specifically within literacy development. I know firsthand, that teaching is complex in and of itself and with the responsibility of integrating technology the task becomes increasingly difficult. Mind you, this integrated teaching happens while being aware and sensitive to all the childrens’ abilities and background experiences. I can honestly say that I am still struggling with the balance of all of this almost daily.
The research sited in this chapter reveals positive results when using technology to teach literacy. This confirms my beliefs of the value of technology in all areas. Technology has proven to increase comprehension, fluency, motivation, understanding, positive attitudes, and it gives children a greater sense of control. There seems to be many practical (both intended and unintended) outcomes when using technology to teach literacy (reading and writing) skills. Researchers have found that using new technologies children have longer written samples, greater variety of word usages, sentence structures, more accurate mechanics and spelling, better revisions, responsiveness, and overall better understanding of the writing process. I take away from this chapter the affirmation that technology can provide rich learning environments that promotes collaboration, creativity, and constructivism.
This chapter also makes me think about all the knowledge a teacher must possess in order to be able to teach effectively and integrating technology. The authors did state that a mentoring program would be useful for teachers to practice and reflect upon their uses of technology. I think that is a great idea in theory, but in elementary education time is always a factor, unfortunately.
This chapter has given me some specific ideas to incorporate into my classroom routine as well as various professional resources for myself. For example, I will include the idea for writer’s workshop, by having the children use Inspiration for the graphic organizer piece and they are already familiar with Pixie to create the pages of the book. I also like the transformational idea of sharing their work using SubEthaEdit to give feedback to the children at an individual level, providing the children with meaning and for an intended audience. Electronic books, KidPix, Inspiration, iMovie, podcasting and digital storytelling are very appropriate for my age level. There are many resources that I am interested in and I intend to research more and become familiar with after reading this chapter.