Using the TPACK Framework: You Can Have Your Hot Tools and Teach with Them, Too

In this article by Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler, it explains the actions we can take as teachers to implement technology or as students refer to them as "hot tools" as ways and techniques to help further our learning and understanding of concepts and ideas. As educators we should think in terms of using these tools to complement our ways of teaching. These technologies definitely have the potential to change our ways of teaching and learning. This article covered what technology means to each of us both back then, now and in the future. These tools that students are so intrigued by can be re purposed for educational purposes as well. We bring up this idea of re purposing but indeed it is not a simple task. The title of this article mentions the word or acronym TPACK. This simply can be broken to Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge. According to Shulman, "Quality teaching, Shulman argued, is the transformation of content and the act of teaching in a disciplined manner". pg 15 The question now lies of how we are able to re purpose technology? This article suggests that you must have the skills, competencies, and knowledge specified by the TPACK framework to successfully re purpose technology correctly and efficiently. Re purposing is only possible when the teacher knows the rules of the game and is fluent enough to know which rules can be bended, which to break and also which ones to just leave alone. The teacher must know the ins and outs of a specific technology tool to successfully re purpose it to educational standards. This article offers three examples of technology that can be re purposed; micro blogging, visual search engines, and music DJ software. It's quite amusing to find know that each of these technologies were set forth for entertainment but with the help from teachers, can be re purposed to educational needs. This article ends with a very powerful quote that I feel has the most meaning, "teachers need to develop a willingness to play with technologies and an opened to building new experiences for students so that fun, cool tools can be educational". pg 18

I feel technology has reached an all time peak and that while these students are so intrigued, we should re purpose these tools to be educational. When I was in elementary school, I had no computer at my house so when we went to the computer lab, I was excited and so intrigued to do math exercises on a tool that was so new to me. In one of my science classes her at CSUSM the professor used a technology tool that allowed the students to respond to answers via this tool. It escaped the routinely question and answer on a sheet of paper. It got the students engaged and wanting to learn and be taught. I do agree with the authors when they say that re purposing these technology tools can be very complicated but first as a teacher you must be willing to play and experiment. This isn't too much of a concern, as most teachers already own an ipod, iPhone, computers etc. Out of the three examples given in this article, I feel that I could use micro blogging. This would work great with group projects as the students can communicate with one another outside of the classroom setting. It's a complement to our face to face discussions. This would be very beneficial for the students who are too shy to speak up during class and can expand their minds through technology. Overall, re purposing technology would be highly beneficial to all students and teachers.