TPACK...Packing it all up for successful technology integration

Over the past week, I have learned a great deal about TPACK.  TPACK stands for technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge.  These are three keys pieces for successfully integrating technology into the classroom.  

Content knowledge is the ‘What do you want students to learn?’  Pedagogy is the ‘What is the best strategy or way for students to learn this specific content?’  And finally, technology is the ‘What tools can I use to support the pedagogy to learn the content? Below is a short video that further explains TPACK.  

The diagram below shows the relationship of the three elements and the area in the middle known as TPACK.

Photo Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TPACK-new.png

Many times teachers find a really cool technology tool and want to ‘make it work’ in their classroom.  So, they design an assignment or project around that said tool.  However, the opposite should be true.  Content knowledge and solid pedagogy come first, followed by the technology component.  Dr. Harris and Mark Hofer stated in their article, “Grounded” Technology Integration, that technology integration should focus more on the student learning standards than a particular tech tool and stressed that the technology tool should be selected last, not first.

So, how does it all work?  Let’s look at an example.  

Content Knowledge: Finding elements that will bond (HS science)

Pedagogy: Hands-on experiment; create hypotheses on which elements will bond together

Technology: Use 4D Elements & Google Spreadsheets

In this example, the high school Chemistry teacher is about to begin a unit on bonding elements.  She would like to determine the prior knowledge of her students on this topic and allow students to explore and hypothesize which elements will bond together.  She decides the best way to teach this is to have the students in small groups of 2-3 and hypothesize from the list of elements which elements they think will bond.  After the content and pedagogy have been determined, the next step will be determining the technology. The teacher decides the best tool to record their predictions is on a Google Spreadsheet.  After students have predicted which elements will bond, the students will test their hypotheses with 4D Elements, an augmented reality app for chemical bonding.  Students would use the paper element blocks to determine if the elements bond.  Again, they will record their findings on their Google Spreadsheet.  In this example, it is used as a pre-learning, exploratory exercise.  However, it could also be used as students learn each new bonding pair or as a review.     

Students using the 4D Elements app to find elements that bond.

Hopefully this example gives you a better understanding of TPACK.  Technology is not the first component to consider, but the last to be added to the mix.  As you learn more about TPACK, I found this website on the Learning Activity Types to be quite helpful.