Week 3 Part 1 - TPACK

What is TPACK? It is an acronym that stands for Technological Pedagogical And Content Knowledge. So it is basically combining your knowledge of technology, pedagogy and a certain content and applying that to your teaching, all at once. So if I was teaching let's say, history, I could have my students work in groups to create a documentary using a movie maker on the school computers. In the documentary students will not only present facts they know, but their views on that figure. This is essentially TPACK.

I believe it is important for a teacher to have this sort of knowledge for a few reasons. For one, using technology makes learning more exciting, and often makes the learning more personal. It allows the students to internalize their learning. Another reason is that the world is getting more and more technological. I have babysat for 2 year olds who can do certain activities on a computer. 7 year olds have cell phones. Technology is quickly entering into all aspects of our lives and is growing. Teachers need to know how to take advantage of this trend and help to engage their students in whatever content they teach by using technology.