21st Century Learning and Educational Technology: Understanding the TPACK Framework

I am attending this session at MACUL even as I write. Here is an overview of what I gathered about the session by Punya Mishra.

“For facts, go to Google. For wisdom, come to me.” That is what makes us as teachers different than all the amazing content that is available. This changes how we teach. There is still a need for the connection between student and teacher because the need for wisdom or the application for all the content still requires that personal touch.

We also have to change what we are teaching. The transformation of content due to technology. Think about how technology has changed mathematics, art, science, physics, music, engineering, history and political science. How has education changed because of technology? Now we have multiple ways to represent the content. It changes because we are no longer constrained by print alone.

TPACK – Teaching has always been about TPACK. Whether it has been about slateboads, computers, or websites. We have always thought about the technologies available to us and how we can integrate them. This reminds me of how excited I was to take shower board from Home Depot, cutting them into a square foot board, and thinking of all the ways I could utilize that as a resource. Are today’s technologies any different?

What does not work? Technology/Pedagogy/Content being completely separated. When you consider them in an integrated manner, you will be effective.