Cooking with TPACK

This week I completed the Cooking with TPACK challenge for my EDU 7714 class. The assignment called for someone to pick a utensil, plate, and bowl, as well as a task for me to complete. I asked my dad for help and he picked a regular bowl, plate, and a chopping knife. He also selected #5 out of the bowl which corresponded to chopping veggies for a veggie tray. Based on my tasked, I was extremely pleased with his choice of a chopping knife because it made cutting through the hard veggies very easy. Had he selected a different utensil it would have made for a much more difficult task. The plate ended up working better than I had expected, but I still would have preferred to have cutting board. The bowl also worked, but it would have been too small had I been planning to cut a larger amount of veggies. The only tool I would have added would have been a peeler, because I feel that I lost a lot of the cucumber when I was trying to peel it with the large chopping knife.

Overall, I felt pretty successful with the process and I felt it definitely connected to what we do as teachers in the classroom. It became pretty clear to me that I could repurpose some of the technology (knife to peeler) but it did not come out as well as if I had been prepared with the right stuff. In the classroom, especially when using more advanced technology, we need to make sure that we as educators are prepared with the right materials and the students are also prepared with the correct materials. This video shows that a task can be completed without being fully prepared with the right tools, but it is definitely much harder and can get frustrating. Allowing students to try new things, but also being prepared with the right tools, technology, and materials, will allow them the best chance for success.

Unpacking TPACK

As education continues to transform and technology becomes more integrated into the classroom, we as educators need to make sure that we are using the technology to enhance our teaching and content rather than replacing it.

Koehler and Mishra (2009) developed the TPACK framework. This framework describes how teachers integrate technology into their teaching. Content knowledge consists of knowledge about a certain subject area that is taught, such as social studies. Pedagogical knowledge consists of the understanding about educational processes and operations or methods of teaching and learning. Technological knowledge refers to the understanding of what types of technologies are available, understand how they work and how they can be implemented in the classroom to make teaching more effective.

Although using technology in the classroom can be tricky, it is wholly beneficial to the students. I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity for each student in my middle school social studies class to have access to their own computer. This allowed me to use the technology almost on a daily basis. Admittedly, it is a hard balance to strike, figuring out when the technology enhances a lesson vs having little to no impact, and it is something that I know I will continue to deal with as my teaching career progresses.

Reproduced by permission of the publisher, © 2012 by tpack.org

I am drawn to the TPACK model because it simplifies the process of integrating technology. I also like that it can be broken down into its many parts:

Technological Pedagogical Knowledge- Understanding how to support your teaching style with technology

Pedagogical Content Knowledge- Understanding how to effectively teach your specific content

Technological Content Knowledge- Understanding how to support your content with the use of classroom technology.

I have worked hard to integrate technology into my classroom and set an example to other teachers that it is not scary. Yes it takes some extra work to integrate the technology into the lessons or come up with a way to use the technology to enhance the lesson. Yes, it may be a little scary the first time you look out at 25 faces and they have the blue light glowing as they boot up the computer. But most importantly, you must be confident with your knowledge of your teaching ability and content.

The students we teach are extremely adaptable and are willing to try new things all the time. As educators, we should take a page out of their book and try to integrate these new technologies into lessons that will allow the students more creativity and the ability to grow in ways previously not known. As the prices of these technologies drop and teachers become more familiar with the concept of students having devices in class, more and more teachers will see the benefits, both to their teaching style and the students learning abilities.