Theoretical Framework
This project aligns with two theoretical frameworks -- SAMR and TPACK. It specifically aligns with TPACK because it allows for interaction between content, pedagogy, and technology. This learning module and its accompanying activities is a collaborative environment that is student-centred and delivers content that helps develop note-taking skills in an online environment, using a multitude of internet technologies. These technologies include not only this website and the integrated classroom blog, but also YouTube/TED Talks, online corpora (TED Corpus Search Engine [TCSE] and Corpus of Contemporary American English [COCA]) and Google Documents.
This unit aligns with SAMR because certain tasks fall under the umbrellas of "modification" and "redefinition" (Romrell, Kidder & Wood, 2014). Modifying tasks include Learning Task 1, Learning Task 2, Learning Task 4 and Learning Task 5. These are all tasks which bring learning online, and while versions of these activities could theoretically be achieved without the help of technology, technology allows for them to be redesigned and reimagined (Romrell, Kidder & Wood, 2014, p. 82). Unlike traditional paper methods, which may only allow students to collaborate with one or two classmates, using technology to teach note-taking allows students to fully collaborate with multiple peers, and allows for easy revisitation and reinforcement of concepts learned both online and in class. These tasks also allow students to access multimedia such as TED Talks, which would be a lot more difficult to access without the help of the internet.
Learning Task 3 is an example of a redefining task because this task could not be completed without technology (Romrell, Kidder & Wood, 2014, p. 82). This task involves students completing an online scavenger hunt that involves searching corpora, which are large databases of written or spoken texts. A task such as this one would be difficult to complete without access to computers or the internet, as even the highest quality dictionary does not contain nearly the same amount of linguistic information as a corpus.