Importance of TPACK

For my Educational Technology class this semester, we have learned a lot of way to effectively use technology in our teaching. Of course in today's world technology is a key part of our everyday lives so it make sense that technology would be too! One of our main and final assignments for the semester is a little thing called TPACK. Now, if you're like me you may never have heard of this before. This was brought up all semester but I never really had a clue what is is. In simplified terms, it is basically a lesson plan or a way of thinking that helps you organize a lesson in a way that ensures that you implement technology. If you still need more help this article breaks it all down!

So, you still might say "Why is this so important?". Well in my own words I am going to explain why I think it is important. I asked that same question in the beginning of this because it seemed like a lot of work for a simple outcome. However, in the long run it was really worth it! Our professor broke it down for us into steps. We had to think about what we wanted to teach, how it connected to technology and Bloom's Taxonomy and Learning Theories (all the good stuff). It was basically a Six-Step Lesson plan with just a little extra thought behind it. In the end, completing this assignment helped me see all the different parts that need to be included in lessons- thinking about your students and how they can specifically benefit from your teaching. It is all good and well to think about using technology in your lesson but if it is not used effectively or in a way that will actually benefit your students, is it really being used correctly? This TPACK assignment helped me see that sometimes you can plan to use technology but if you don't map it out and think about all the ways it is tangled into a lesson, the use of it might just be a flop.

All in all, this different type of lesson template made me think about things I may have never thought about before. Technology is a key part of our learning today and it is important to be used in teaching so our students know better how to use it in the future! This means not just the teacher using the technology to present or make things but also having your students use it too!

 

Picture: TPACK Image