Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) attempts to capture some of the essential qualities of <a class="WikiLink" id="p-7631a6586157c294aa699e0dcfa6247009df9eb5" href="http://tpck.pbwiki.com/knowledge">knowledge</a> required by teachers for technology integration in their teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted and situated nature of <a class="WikiLink" id="p-1c3a09d9d8f9a2f36c4a6a96334e9cb8c8b73a34" href="http://tpck.pbwiki.com/teacher%20knowledge">teacher knowledge</a>. At the heart of the TPCK framework, is the complex interplay of three primary forms of knowledge: <a class="WikiLink" id="p-04a7e13fcccc9ce90d762d5ad9c4442057ac593b" href="http://tpck.pbwiki.com/Content%20%28C%29">Content (C)</a>, <a class="WikiLink" id="p-5130be6af8b735c398544ec6c4e19f0e33182732" href="http://tpck.pbwiki.com/Pedagogy%20%28P%29">Pedagogy (P)</a>, and <a class="WikiLink" id="p-24908791cfef8217a8a27816741bc46d8da4b717" href="http://tpck.pbwiki.com/Technology%20%28T%29">Technology (T)</a>.

To me, technology facilitator isn’t just about bringing technology into the core classrooms, it’s about the process - the process of learning how to plan a new unit in a new way, using new tools…

<p>The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's (ELI's) <em>7 Things You Should Know About...</em> series provides concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices. Each brief focuses on a single technology or practice and describes:</p> <ul> <li>What it is</li> <li>How it works</li> <li>Where it is going</li> <li>Why it matters to teaching and learning</li></ul>

For several years, many of us have been trying to make a case for thinking about education in new ways, largely as a result of technological advancements and their affects on how we use information.&nbsp; I think that many education leaders are listening now.&nbsp; I think that they are ready for clear images and stories about 21st century classrooms and what teachers and students should be doing to better prepare a generation of new century citizens.

I almost lost it when I read, in Cheryl Oats’ comment, “<em>..someone told me they didn’t want to learn one more new thing, they didn’t like new things..</em>“&nbsp; I would want to ask, “You call yourself a teacher?”&nbsp; Who more than teachers should be willing and eager to learn new things?

"The creativity it brings to all of us is remarkable," said Schlachter, who teaches fourth- and fifth-graders at St. Catherine of Siena School. "I'm teaching in a totally different way as a result."

It is not whether we can meet the same learning outcomes <br> with technology, but how do we use the technologies to enrich the experience, to go beyond what can be done in the face-to-face or other delivery environment.

Laptops make it easier for students to edit their copy and make changes without getting writer's cramp, he said. As a result, students are writing and revising their work more frequently, which leads to better results. And it's important, Silvernail said, that those skills translated when the test was taken with pen and paper, too.

"It's just a lot easier to edit, to self-critique. Our teachers engage students in a lot of peer editing. Not only are they helping themselves, but they're helping each other as they get to their final projects," Rebar said.

As Chris says often, “Technology is not additive; technology is transformative.”

Finally, the one real head twister that I got yesterday was during Chris’s own session when he was talking about how his thinking is moving away from the “having kids publish globally to the world” product piece of all of this a “let’s focus on the process of community building and publishing within the walls” approach.

The culture of sharing and participation that is created within the local community is more important almost that making those connections outside.

<p>According to the survey, the majority of middle and high school students (51 percent of students in grades 6 through 12) indicated that "games make it easier to understand difficult concepts. Forty-six percent said they'd learn more about a subject if information were presented in a game format; 44 percent said gaming "would make it more interesting to practice problems"; and about a third said that "the use of games in schools will help them learn how to work in teams and see the direct results of their problem solving activities."</p> <div id="square"><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=3,0,0,0" id="Ad" height="280" width="336"> <param name="movie" value="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration 2.0/collaboration_336x280v4.swf?clickTAG=http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=36080713/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=93737584"> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> <param name="quality" value="autohigh"> <param name="bgcolor" value="none"> <embed src="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration%202.0/collaboration_336x280v4.swf?clickTAG=http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=36080713/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=93737584" wmode="transparent" quality="autohigh" swliveconnect="FALSE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" height="280" width="336"> </object> <noembed>&lt;A HREF="http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=36080713/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=93737584"&gt;&lt;IMG SRC="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration 2.0/336x280_Collaboration.jpg" ALT="Collaboration 2.0" WIDTH="336" HEIGHT="280" BORDER="0"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;</noembed> <noscript><A HREF="http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=36080713/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=93737584"><IMG SRC="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration 2.0/336x280_Collaboration.jpg" ALT="Collaboration 2.0" WIDTH="336" HEIGHT="280" BORDER="0"></A></noscript> </div> <p>Teachers were apparently even more enthusiastic about gaming, as 65 percent indicated that they thought educational gaming would be an effective tool for students with different learning styles and would help engage students in coursework. More than half said they'd like to learn more about educational gaming, and some 46 percent said they would "like to receive specific professional development on how to effectively integrate gaming technologies into curriculum," according to the survey.</p>

<p>According to the survey, the majority of middle and high school students (51 percent of students in grades 6 through 12) indicated that "games make it easier to understand difficult concepts. Forty-six percent said they'd learn more about a subject if information were presented in a game format; 44 percent said gaming "would make it more interesting to practice problems"; and about a third said that "the use of games in schools will help them learn how to work in teams and see the direct results of their problem solving activities."</p> <div id="square"><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=3,0,0,0" id="Ad" height="280" width="336"> <param name="movie" value="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration 2.0/collaboration_336x280v4.swf?clickTAG=http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=79093549/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=86059397"> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"> <param name="quality" value="autohigh"> <param name="bgcolor" value="none"> <embed src="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration%202.0/collaboration_336x280v4.swf?clickTAG=http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=79093549/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=86059397" wmode="transparent" quality="autohigh" swliveconnect="FALSE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" height="280" width="336"> </object> <noembed>&lt;A HREF="http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=79093549/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=86059397"&gt;&lt;IMG SRC="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration 2.0/336x280_Collaboration.jpg" ALT="Collaboration 2.0" WIDTH="336" HEIGHT="280" BORDER="0"&gt;&lt;/A&gt;</noembed> <noscript><A HREF="http://ad101com.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=00003efce00ea3bb00000000/acc_random=79093549/site=THE/area=std/aamsz=336x280/pos=m03/pageid=86059397"><IMG SRC="http://ad101com-images.adbureau.net/ad101com/THE/Collaboration 2.0/336x280_Collaboration.jpg" ALT="Collaboration 2.0" WIDTH="336" HEIGHT="280" BORDER="0"></A></noscript> </div> <p>Teachers were apparently even more enthusiastic about gaming, as 65 percent indicated that they thought educational gaming would be an effective tool for students with different learning styles and would help engage students in coursework. More than half said they'd like to learn more about educational gaming, and some 46 percent said they would "like to receive specific professional development on how to effectively integrate gaming technologies into curriculum," according to the survey.</p>

the standards require teacher-candidates to exhibit knowledge, skills, and dispositions that equip them to teach technology applications. Candidates also have to show they can use technology to support student learning of content.

<p>Joel Colbert, who heads the committee on innovation and technology, says the handbook seeks to make the point that stand-alone technology classes are now obsolete. </p> <p>“We are saying that’s not the way to integrate technology into teacher training, because each subject area uses technology differently,” Colbert says.</p>

Well-integrated technology opens social networks for students and allows children to develop key social skills, according to two recent studies conducted by researchers at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In 2003, there was a study that showed that all this writing online was actually making kids <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20030520/1943254_F.shtml">more comfortable</a> with writing in general. In 2004, a study showed (like this one) that with a little instruction kids easily <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20041223/1427218.shtml">understood the difference</a> between texting and writing. In 2005, a study actually found that kids were <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20051031/1836235.shtml">better writers</a> than in the past "using far more complex sentence structures, a wider vocabulary and a more accurate use of capital letters, punctuation and spelling" even if they sometimes let a txtism into their writing. And, in 2006, a study showed that students showed <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060731/1938242.shtml">no ill effects</a> from widespread text and IM messaging.