Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK)

One of the main topics that we focused on this week was Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge or TPACK for short. For those who are still unsure what TPACK actually is, it's an approach that stresses the importance of connections between content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and technological knowledge. From a personal standpoint, I feel that TPACK is important for all education professionals to understand and have knowledge about the three concepts. With this knowledge, they are able to create an effective classroom environment for learning. As long as your lesson has that instructional planning that went into making it, the lesson will be successful as well as meaningful for the students. There is no need to include all three parts into each and every lesson, in fact, at sometimes you may not be able to incorporate all parts, and that is just fine. 

As you can see in the chart above, each of the three sections overlap with another in parts, which makes the planning and use of at least two of the three sections. These interactions are titled: Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK), Technological Content Knowledge (TCK), and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). Incorporating all sections into each lesson is the educators ultimate goal for writing lesson plans, but there are many other areas of knowledge that the teacher can incorporate into their lessons as well.       

Why is it important for teachers to understand the TPACK Framework?

I personally feel that all concepts being presented with the TPACK Framework are very important to understand for the educator. Without the use of technology, learners are unable to interact as much as they would be able to with the opportunity of using technology in and outside of the classroom. With no content, learners will not learn any of the subject matter required for learning. Without pedagogy, the educator will not be able to learn how their students’ actually learn and which teaching ways are more beneficial. All three parts of the TPACK Framework are very important for all education professionals to learn because without them, their students cannot have the best education that they deserve.

How will this impact you as a future educator?

As a new teacher coming into the world, knowing about the TPACK Framework and how it’s used is very important. I plan to use TPACK with all of my future lesson planning to make sure that all of my students receive the best possible education that they can. I feel that by using TPACK I will make myself a better teacher, and my students’ better learners all within one classroom. From the educator’s point of view, I feel that TPACK will be used in many generations down the road because of its ability to cover the different types of knowledge all within one lesson. In my future classroom, TPACK will play a huge role because I want all of my students to be successful in and outside of the classroom.

Grounded Tech Integration

While reading this article I learned, first, that technology integration efforts most often begin with what the teacher is least familiar with: meaning the actual technologies themselves. Even though becoming familiar and comfortable with the technologies, this alone will not ensure the most successful technologically facilitated teaching.

As a teacher, you need to focus on the students’ standards-based learning needs rather than the technology tools and resources. You must be easily adaptable to the many different teaching styles and levels of technological expertise. As the teacher, you must learn and apply rather quickly with very few additional resources required, even in those more resource-scarce settings.

There are five basic steps when planning a learning event, regardless of the actual planning model used.

• The planning must begin with appropriate learning goals. These goals are usually framed by the district, state, and/or national content based curriculum standards.
• Once the goals are determined, consider a series of eight practical pedagogical decisions to help determine the specific parameters of the learning experience you are planning for your classroom.
• Now you can determine the nature of the specific activities that will make up the learning experience.
• After the activities are determined, you must then select appropriated assessment strategies to progress monitor the students’ progress in achieving the targeted learning goals.
• You must now select tools and resources.

One big thing that you must remember when planning, is that “as students’ learning needs and experiences develop, as contextual conditions change, as teachers’ expertise grows, and as curriculum requirements shift, the decisions and choices made at each of the five stages of planning will similarly change.” With each new development, you may need to modify and make accommodations to help the students. These steps can easily be incorporated into planning with many of the different planning models.

Hi, I'm Kelsey Westrum!

I am currently a Senior at Iowa State University majoring in Elementary Education, with a specialization in Special Education and a Learning Technologies minor. I plan to graduate in December of 2014 and hope to get a job as an elementary strategist three special education teacher.