My understanding of TPACK is that the teacher employing this method must firstly know how to use technologies; secondly know their content knowledge of the subject to be taught and lastly to have sound knowledge and experience of pedigogies that can be used to effectively teach the content.
A great way to explain what TPACK is was the Prezi clip created by our course coordinator Wendy Fasso.
This clip was uploaded to our reading material site and is a great resource as it is easy to understand.
If the clip does not play here is the link:
This teaching frame work is one that I think is becoming more and more important in the 21st Century classroom. Most classrooms have smartborads, desktop computers, laptops, iPads, iPods and a myriad of other technologies available in most if not all subject areas that can be utilised for learning. Also there is the countless thousands of apps and programs that can be used.
I believe that if the teacher in a classroom has access to all sorts of technologies and is not using them everyday is some way, the students of that class are being let down in their learning and abilities to express what they have learned in a new way.
An example I have of using TPACK to engage students is at a school I volunteer at where I teach robotics. The students were learning about different bugs, their biology and place in the world. Using the robotics I was able to team up with the teacher and have the students build a robotic 'bug'. Doing this allowed the students to be able to understand the 'mechanics' of the way a wing, legs or other body parts work in bugs. It was a hands on approach to learning but required alot of thinking and learning from mistakes to achieve an end result that looked and functioned like a bug. Later to present their assessments in this area I was asked to come watch some of the students results. This was a great experience as I got see the students had used the robots, stop-go clay animation, video and still cameras, movie editing software, web page design using programs like Dreamweaver and Illustrator and the use of websites like cooltext and programs like photoshop before printing out posters. Getting to see all of this allowed me to see how TPACK can be used not only to teach students and in helping them learn but also a tool to allow students to express their learning in so many different ways.
Therefore with my own studies in the class (managing e - learning) and my own experiences at schools I have been able to learn about and witness the importance of digital learning design for the students in this day and age to learn and express themselves in more engaging ways.
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