For my class, I was tasked with creating a cooking video with utensils that I didn't choose. My wife chose a plate, bowl, and a masher for me to make a sandwich. The struggle was making sure that I used all the utensils. This is similar to what I do in the classroom on a daily basis. Sometimes my principal asks us to use resources and doesn't give any other instruction. It requires teachers to experiment in order to figure it out. The reason that we were given this task was so that we could relate this experience with the TPACK(Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) framework in our professional setting (Mirsha & Koehler, 2006, pg. 1017). Like in the classroom, I could apply the TPACK framework to my experience here. The required element of using all the tools brings in TPACK well because I had to use the masher as a teaching tool in a way that I wasn't accustomed to. I had the knowledge of the uses for a smasher, but I needed to come up with the different technological capabilities and relay that pedagogically to the audience in this new context (Mirsha & Koehler, 2006, pg. 1029).
This experience also made me consider the political aspects of this framework as well. As I said earlier, my principal will ask us to include technology without any training. I look at this as a political stunt. To avoid being perceived as appeasement for the district, administrators need to provide support. One could also include incorporation of a framework like TPACK to be inherently political as well if an administrator is being asked to enforce it. This does not mean that TPACK itself is political, but people make it political as they do with many ideas or concepts(Winner, 1980, pg. 122).
References:
Matthew Eichstaedt. (2024, January 28). Cooking with TPACK [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/XeLyKCGACNU
Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054.
Winner, L. (1980). Do artifacts have politics? Daedalus, 109(1), 121-136.
Comments