Cooking With TPACK

When we set out to do a task we need to select the right tool for the job.  That’s obvious, but we may not always put this into practice. Unless schools are thoughtful about it, they may not choose the right tools when selecting technology to be used in the classroom.  Instead of selecting tools (iPads for example) because we “need technology”, handing them out to students and then charging teachers to come up with a way to use the devices in their classroom, the TPACK framework (Mishra and Koehler, 2006) says we need to consider whether or not an iPad will work well for teaching a specific topic effectively in the environment of that particular classroom and that school.

In this “Cooking With TPACK” assignment, we were asked to select various items from the kitchen. We then chose a random number which corresponded to a task that we needed to complete with the items selected. My selected task was to create a fruit salad using a bowl, a plate and salad tongs.

It’s no surprise that while salad tongs work well for serving a Caesar salad, they were not the ideal tool for slicing fruit. They worked fine for slicing a banana, but when it was time to cut a lime, a knife would have been better. This is analogous to a teacher using an iPad in the classroom because he or she was told to use it.  For some tasks, it may work great. For others, it may not. For example, the iPad can be an excellent tool for creating and sharing a video. However, the same tool might not be ideal for typing an essay. The right tool for the job lies in that “sweet spot” where technology, pedagogy, and content all meet.

References

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M.J. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for Teacher Knowledge. Teachers College Record Volume 108, Number 6, June 2006, pp. 1017–1054. Retrieved from https://d2l.msu.edu/content/DEVELOPMENT/2017/courses/DEV-candacem-2017-CEP810Master/Articles/mishra-koehler-tcr2006.pdf?&d2lSessionVal=XfUxWkrK71SZ0tVAIkbCOCjgz&ou=628350&&d2lSessionVal=rpAqJcgvsobatSrG0Jk0bp9ok&ou=663261