When I watched the video for Implementing TPACK and read the article for TPACK, I realized that I have already been implementing this approach for years. I didn't realize that there was such an approach though. It definitely makes sense that leaders should be familiar with the TPACK approach. In some districts, there may be a large amount of educators that are still sitting with only pedagogical or content knowledge. Possibly administrators too. If we want teachers to buy into integrating technology, then we must have administrators that model this passion and behavior. We must promote administrative technology leadership. For example, if faculty meetings were organized using the TPACK approach, then teachers could see what is expected of them being modeled by their own leaders which might encourage them to integrate it within their own classrooms.
I really liked the infographic where it showed the four levels of "teacher confidence in technology." First of all, I would like to change the title to "educator confidence in technology" though. The reason is so that it can include administrative leaders in that mix. If administrators are instructional leaders then they need to be practicing this TPACK approach. The second point I wanted to make is that I think that most teachers probably fall in between the Survival and the Mastery level. I believe that once a teacher gets to Mastery level, then they are more likely to quickly move on up to Impact. I feel like that in our digital age, most teachers need to be planning and teaching at the Impact level. I teach in a small district, but I am very lucky because I am a part of an English department where we are at the Innovation Level. Four of the six of us will be presenting in some way(possibly in the digital square) at TCEA 2017 this year. Three of us recently led a PD training where we taught Google Forms for data analysis, Quizlet for scaffolding, vocabulary, and skill retention, and Padlet for application, collaboration, and exit slips. I feel like by our district allowing us to lead like this has really allowed our entire department to reach an Innovative level in regards to Tech integration. It has been great to have the support from our district leaders.
The TPACK acronym would have been really helpful for me to know about 5 years ago when I first really started experimenting with tech integration. I remember going through phases of focusing more on the "cool" apps and tech tools rather than on "skill-based" tech integration. I had the first pilot one to one on my campus and by the end of that year, I found that I should have started planning with the TEKS on the ground level rather that starting my planning with the Tech Tools at the ground level. When I implemented that pilot program, I didn't really have any direction in regards to laying out a plan of action to incorporate device usage, so I had to research, learn, figure out, experiment, teach kids tech skills all in addition to teaching my content while trying to keep my pedagogy in check. It was challenging! After seeing that I wasn't able to cover all aspects of my curriculum that one year, I realized that having an understanding that technology should be carefully added only after the base TEKS/skills are planned is of the utmost importance.
I feel like I am at the point to where I see technology integration as an instructional strategy. In my eyes, instructional strategies have been embellished and have gotten more engaging by way of tech integration. For example, instead of stopping at making word walls, now you can add a QR code onto the word posters that will link a student to possibly a student-made vine(AV project) where the student is applying the vocabulary word by acting it out or discussing it. And with that integration, one has worked through several stages of Bloom's Taxonomy.
Another example is now we are scaffolding using various levels of retrieval study methods on Quizlet to help differentiate for students as they study for their vocabulary tests. I'm currently doing a study to see if use of Quizlet raises my student test scores. So far, so good! I am seeing much improvement!
A third and favorite example is how technology has now torn down our classroom walls by allowing us to expand our students' learning around the world with real world connections and collaboration through blogging, Skyping, and Google Hangouts.
So yes, TPACK is super important to know about if we want to engage our students in today's world and if we want our teachers to grow as well.
Like I said above, TPACK has mostly advantages and is positive because it can take one's instructional strategies to new heights which will in turn be more engaging for all learners.
As far as disadvantages, as you can see from my thoughts above, I am pretty passionate about incorporating tech with content and pedagogy, but not all teachers are. I can see that teachers could be resistant to tech integration so this creates a problem. I can also see that sometimes tech integration can provide distractions to students if not taught and practiced properly. Teaching digital citizenship is key to smooth distractions out. I can also see how if integrated too early in lower grades and too much, students could possibly miss out on some key fundamental skills such as spelling, handwriting, sentence writing, and essay writing. So having more of a blended classroom in elementary and middle grades would be key so that we are best preparing the students for secondary level work which then helps prepare students for college prep.
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