My Reflection

This reflection is the continuation of my previous reflection posted Monday, 11 October 2010. This time my reflection focuses on the TPACK. In my opinion TPACK approach is the concrete example of what I have learnt so far in this course. TPACK gives more room for the teachers to be flexible in teaching. Let me give an example about flexibility related to the delivery and logistic. A teacher may just records his lecturer then distributes it to the students when he is not able to attend the class. If the teacher has a good understanding about TPACK, the effect of recorded lecturer will be the same with the face to face meetings.

From the example above I can see clearly the use of technology in supporting education. However, I just imagine how this example works in the developing countries. What kinds of technology should avail? What kinds of technological knowledge the teachers and the students should master? Can the current technology and current technological knowledge of the teachers and students support the implementation of the TPACK?

Now let me talk about the pedagogical approach. In the collaborative learning and problem based learning, one common characteristic both these two approaches have is the students should work in group.  I, myself, believe that when working in group there should be a real interaction among the students. However, it can be the case that students cannot meet together while they have to do a collaborative learning. Now as a teacher I have to choose, not teaching them using a collaborative learning or still teaching them using collaborative learning with the hands of technology. In my opinion if I already know what technology best supports the nature of the subject matter and the pedagogical approach, I would let the students study using collaborative learning even though they are separated. This sounds very promising, yet, I myself have never experienced it. I become curious. Is integrating the pedagogical knowledge with technological knowledge simple like it seems? Or yes It is simple but it needs much effort and creativity.