Task 2: History of the group

During the third week of the course, we had to face task 2, called Exploring TPACK.

First and foremost, Lovely teachers group got together on Monday and discussed the different topics that could be interesting and appealing so as to develop our understanding about this concept.

https://youtu.be/nSF0NhWgKD0

After having several ideas in mind, we got to the conclusion that a palette could be a great option to give shape to our information map. This was a kind of metaphor to reflect that teachers are like artists, whose task is ‘drawing’ children’s education. It could also be understood as a representation of creativity or a symbol connected to the Art subject taught at school.

Later, we chose the way we were going to organize ourselves in order to work: although each of us had a specific role in the group, we decided to cooperate to perform several duties, such as the creation of our information map. This is why we divided the activities among us so that we worked in little groups and were more effective. For instance, while Sara was drawing the palette, Andrea was cutting out the details we were going to decorate it with.

Our teacher Linda established that there were different roles among groups and that, each week, every one of us would have a different function. To be truly fair, we decided to assign the roles by raffle:

- Facilitator: it has the duty to organize the dynamics of the group. This way, if there are any problems or arguments among group members, it would be in charge of solving them. However, we are adults and know that all ideas ought to be respected and that what most people think is what should be carried out. Moreover, it could contribute to answer the questions that the presentation should include and keep an eye on the blog’s presentation so that our posts have the fewest grammatical mistakes possible. This week, it is Ángela's role.

- Journalist: it has to reflect the history of the group in a post in our blog. It ought to include the process followed to develop the task, as well as the way we organized ourselves in order to be truly effective. Besides, it takes pictures and records videos to show in our blogs how was the fulfillment of this task. Another key point of being a journalist includes looking for and commenting interesting blogs (from inside and outside the class) to get information related to the technological world that could influence in a positive way our learning. It is Bea's duty this week.

- Analyst: its main aim is assessing each individual in the team’s work during the week and reflecting it in a rubric, giving reasons to the grades assigned. It also has to carry out an appropriate reflection including all the information of our performance, such as the best parts of cooperating with each other or the things we learned while preparing this task. Natalia was in charge of these aspects for this task.

- Translator: it is in charge of choosing and defining the five concepts that better reflected the main points of the task. Andrea carried out this role.

- Curator-farmer: it has the duty to organize and post in the blog the academic resources used to get the information we used to develop our work. In a mind map, it has to show the references in APA style. Moreover, this will be also used by every curator-farmer of the week. We mean that, at the end of the four-month period, it will be completed with all the resources used in the tasks required for the subject. It was Elena's responsibility this week.

- Star: at the beginning, Ana would be the voice of the group, however, we were told that this task required two stars. That is why Irene also became one. They had to present the work on Wednesday in front of the class. Furthermore, they had to post their work, or some evidence, in the blog.

- Workers: as our group is composed of eight people and there were six roles, we decided that two people would be ‘workers’ -Irene and Sara-. Their main responsibility was to collaborate with the rest of the team and give a hand when necessary. However, when our teacher Linda explained what we had to do, she told us that this task required to stars, so Irene became another one. Besides, Sara performed a crucial role for the fulfillment of our work -the creation of the information map-.

On Wednesday, our stars had to present our group work in class, maybe one of the most difficult roles that these kinds of tasks require. This is mainly because of the nerves, as loads of people stare at you, the teacher evaluates your performance…

When Linda arrived, we organized the classroom as if they were kind of ‘stations’ occupied by the stars of the groups and their collages. The rest of the people had to pass through the ‘stations’ in order to listen to their classmates’ presentation, as if we were in a speed-dating. And so did Linda to assess our works and to give us some feedback.

We were actually fascinated with our mates’ work, as we were able to see incredible pieces of art and listen to fascinating speeches!

Ana María and Ana represented Spice girls.

Andrea and Elena were stars of Teachers’ formation group.

Angosto and Nerea told us about TPACK from Teachers’ team perspective.

Lola, Universal teachers’ star, gave an appealing speech.

Majo and Irene represented Fireproofessors in a funny way.

Paco and Marina belong to Teach perfect group

                          Alba and Moa, the stars of Empty 21 group.

When our teacher saw our group’s performance, our journalist was not there to listen to her. Nevertheless, the stars told her that she had listened to them carefully and added nothing. That is why we asked them later about her opinion. She looked as though she was happy with our work and told us that our information map was actually creative. She outstanded the idea of representing the context with a paint brush.

Not many people in our class included in their TPACK work the context, despite its importance. You can teach dealing with technology, pedagogy and content altogether, but, if you do not take into account the environment, it will never be effective teaching. But other things ought to be considered, in our opinion, to make this framework ideal, such as values or affection. In the 21st century, teachers must act on new knowledge, since, as the well-known educator Dewey said: “If we teach children today in the same way we did it in the past, we are stealing their future”. One of the main aspects to take into consideration is the fact that the environment in the classroom ought to be based on respect and equality and not on a power-submission relationship between the teacher and pupils.

Thanks for reading!

See you in the following posts ;)