TASK 2-Star

Hi! I´m the star of our group during this week. This role has been really exciting for me, I´ve tried to motivate all my workmates and I think that all of them have done a great job. Definitely, we make a great team together.

This week we have explored the concept TPACK and ACAD Framework, trying to recreate its nature and features in an information map. So, I have done an in-depth research on both concepts.

First of all, we have read the documents and watched the videos. Then, we have answered the different questions about the main concepts. According to the first question, TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) is the complex interplay of three primary forms of knowledge: Contet, Pedagogy, and Technology. It describes how teachers’ understanding of educational technologies interact with one another for being effective in pedagogical practice in a technology-enhanced learning environment.

On the other hand, ACAD means Activity Centre Analysis and Design framework. It is a model of design about how a system produces an outcome as a result of activity. The focus is on the whole system rather than just the user, it establishes that learning is based on what people do by thinking, feeling, moving, reflecting, etc.

TPACK

ACAD

In the second question, we have talked about the essential TRACK elements,which are: Content, pedagogy, and technology. The interaction of these bodies of knowledge, both theoretically and in practice, produces the types of flexible knowledge to successfully integrate technology use into teaching.

In the third one, regarding the essential ACAD elements, as learning designers and teachers we can influence a set of dimensions to achieve the desired activities and the intended learning outcomes. These dimensions are Scenography, Epistemic Design and Social Design. Scenography refers to learning being situated in a physical context, weather in the classroom or online. On the other hand, Epistemic Design implies proposing tasks for students so that they can acquire desired contents and achievements. Finally, regarding Social Design, it deals with how to get students to work together. When these three elements interact, knowledge can be shared by everyone across the different scale levels.

In the fourth question, we have talked about how TPACK would be useful for us. So, we have answered that the TPACK framework helps identify the knowledge teachers need to know in order to appropriately incorporate technology into their teaching. Using email to communicate, for example, affords (makes possible and supports) asynchronous communication and easy storage of exchanges. Email does not afford synchronous communication in the way that a phone call, a face-to-face conversation, or instant messaging does. Nor does email afford the conveyance of subtleties of tone, intent, or mood possible with face-to-face communication. Understanding how these affordances and constraints of specific technologies influence what teachers do in their classrooms is not straightforward and may require rethinking teacher education and teacher professional development.

Finally, in the last question we have thought about how TPACK and ACAD are related. So, these concepts are related because both of them are about the teacher´s skills and knowledge. However, they have some differences. Firstly, TPACK is more focused on teacher´s knowledge, ACAD is more student-centered. The objective of ACAD is focused on the whole system rather than just the user. Nevertheless, both approaches strive to help teachers self-evaluate both their knowledge and workspace, so they can seek ways to improve their teaching techniques.

After this investigation about these new concepts, we have been looking for information about information maps or graphic organizers. We have found that there are many different ones such as:

Buzan’s mind maps

Spider diagrams

Concept maps

Bubble Maps

Tree Map

Finally, we have chosen the concept map to work with the ACAD-TPACK concept because it shows concepts and ideas and the relationships among them. We find this type of map the most comfortable to work with when it comes to talk about knowledge, since it is a concept map and we can show the connection between the ideas.

To sum up, and answering the question about if there is any important part of the Teacher’s action which hasn’t been included in the TPACKACAD model yet and if TPACK-ACAD is sufficient to understand a teacher’s job, we concluded that TPACK-ACAD covers almost everything a teacher does in the classroom, but a teacher’s job does not end in the classroom. A teacher must also follow students’ development over time and make sure they achieve their developmental goals. This tutoring part is not included in the TPACK-ACAD approach. So, it will be required to focus not only in the classroom, but also in students´ development and achievement.