TPACK

In the video TPACK in 2 minutes we learned that TPACK can “increase students’ motivation and to make the content accessible to students”. I think this is one of the most important reasons why it is necessary for teachers to start integrating technology in their classrooms, especially in an era with “digital natives”.

In her video TPACK 101, Claire Kilbane says,

“Knowledge of the TPACK concepts should enable you to communicate more effectively with other teachers in your community. It is expected that better communication will support collaboration and enable more powerful and relevant uses of technology to transform education.”

In my opinion, collaboration between teachers will helps us to improve and develop new and better teaching strategies. It is true that thanks to technology we can “transform education” by giving students more and varied opportunities for their success. However, I also think that when trying to integrate technology in our classrooms, we will have to face some difficulties. One problem is the fact that some students don’t have access to electronical devices or the Internet. If you work in a school with fewer resources, it is expected not to be able to use as much technology as we would like to. In addition to this, I think another problem could arise from some teachers or principals refusing to deal with technology, because it is “too hard to learn” or “an extra responsibility.”

In despite of the difficulties that we might have, I believe all teachers should try to include as much technology as possible in our classes. This is not only beneficial for teachers, but mainly for students! Teachers can use multimedia presentations and other tools to explain some topics in detail, for instance. We know students have different learning styles so technology can really help us with this, but teachers also need to encourage students to use some apps or websites for their tasks and publish their work when it is finished as well.

I am going to teach Spanish so my main goal will be to help students be able to communicate in this foreign language. I will take advantage of the technology not only to make them practice the language (using audio tools, websites like TalkAbroad, Youtube videos to introduce them to other cultures, etc.) but I will also use it to make them show me what they learned. Just to give an example, I think some students will prefer to make a video roleplaying a conversation in Spanish instead of doing it in front of the class (we know they will also enjoy including pictures and editing videos!). Knowing that they are going to share their work with more people than just the teacher can make a lot of students more motivated and willing to improve in whatever subject we are teaching.

Other references:

• “Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge” by Jill Thompson
• "Integrating Technology in the Classroom" by Nada Salem Abisamra