TPCK Chapter 4 English

• The chapter doesn’t really give me tons of insight. I can think of a few answers to some of the statements concerning preservice teachers appearing on page 94.

1. The first is that I feel many preservice teachers do not (or did not) use technology because they were not taught by teachers who used technology. They probably like (or liked) their teachers (and school for that matter), and see little reason to alter what has always worked for them.
2. The second is that one of the studies was done in 2000, which is a great deal of time as far as technology is concerned. I think if the study were done today, one would find that preservice teachers would be much more comfortable with integrating technology and would be much more successful doing so.

• As far as the other studies that found that preservice teachers relied heavily on one or two models: What new (or veteran) teacher doesn’t rely on what they already know how to do? It would be crazy for a brand new teacher to take on brand new technology when they are already taking on new classes and being introduced the idiosyncrasies of new attendance and grading systems that ARE new technology (even if they are not linked to student learning). I feel like it is veteran teachers who are usually less willing to try new technology and applications.

• It all comes down to time. New teacher “Laura” used the Internet and was successful in doing so, but she did not have E-TPCK.

• Nell” used lots of her personal time and was dedicated to making her unit work. She trained herself, wrote grants, bought software, and was obviously driven. This is not often the case with veteran teachers.

• There is no “content focused” training in either situation. It all came down to who was willing to sacrifice her own time to make technology work for their students.

• We (luckily) have the technology at Mt. Blue. Now we need training and time to create stimulating learning environments for our students through the use of this technology. I’m glad that this chapter supported these beliefs.