TPACK

Technological

Pedagogical

And

Content

Knowledge

This week was all about TPACK.

TPACK really is just the incorporation of pedagogy, content knowledge, and technology.

It was really interesting to see the venn diagram and how all of these things work together to really create the best classroom setting and learning environment.

Clearly, it is necessary for teachers to have a good understanding of pedagogy and content knowledge.

These things have been researched and studied for years; what makes an effective teacher?

But TPACK proves that it's more than just those things, that the technology aspect needs to be considered as well. Merely having good pedagogy and a thorough gathering of content knowledge isn't enough. A truly effective teacher takes more than just those things. To really expand and expound a teacher needs to incorporate the technology.

Why is this so beneficial?

I can see incorporating technology as being such a benefit to students. Children of society today are extremely technologically savvy. They have always had technology at their fingertips and to incorporate it into their learning will only better assist them in their process. As teachers we try to use tools and methods that will be most effective for our students; we look for ways to connect what we are teaching them with what they already know, using their background knowledge. What better resource than technology? What greater background knowledge to draw from than just that. Technology is easy for students, it's natural and to use it in the classroom only seems natural. Students will benefit as they have the opportunity to work with something they already know and to build upon their own knowledge using technology as that platform.