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Cooking with TPACK
Cooking with TPACK
When we use technology in our classrooms, we often encounter many problems: students are too excited to focus on the task; the technology couldn’t help students acquire the content knowledge; teachers’ pedagogical knowledge cannot be combined with the use of technology, etc. I read about TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge). It was formally published in 2006 by Michigan State University scholars Dr. Matthew Koehler and Dr. Punya Mishra. I did a “sandwich experiment” to illustrate how technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge are combined.
Revised version of the TPACK image. © Punya Mishra, 2018.
Without letting me know first, my mom picked a plate, a bowl, an utensil (a kitchen knife) for me, and picked #3 task——make a peanut butter & Jelly sandwich. In this experiment, technology knowledge is “how to” use the tools; content knowledge is “what it needs”; pedagogical knowledge is “how to “ make it. Kitchen knife is for cutting vegetables, not for spreading butter or jam. It got me thinking: does the technology benefit students’ learning? If it doesn’t, how can I modify it? I didn’t have peanut butter, so I used butter instead. When students don’t have adequate content knowledge, can I provide other ways to support them? I don’t need the plate or bowl, and it makes me wonder if I’m giving too many technological tools that causes students to be distracted?
In the article Do Artifacts Have Politics? (1980), the author Langdon Winner mentioned: “we noticed ways in which specific features in the design or arrangement of a device or system could provide a convenient means of establishing patterns of power and authority in a given setting. Consequences for society must be understood with reference to the social actors able to influence which designs and arrangements are chosen.” (Winner, 1980) This tells teachers that products are created for and used by specific groups of people. We need to be careful when choosing technologies and making accommodations for students, just like using a kitchen knife to spread peanut butter.
References:
Candace R. (2013, April 26). TPACK in 2 minutes. [Video]. Youbute. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=FagVSQlZELY
Mishra, P. (2018). Revised version of TPACK image [Image]. https://punyamishra.com/2018/09/10/the-tpack-diagram-gets-an-upgrade/
Winner, L. (1980). Do artifacts have politics? Daedalus, 109(1), 121-136. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org.proxy1.cl.msu.edu/stable/20024652
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