Normally, people would make a PB&J sandwich using a knife, but today, I made it with a potato masher…Before I get into that, let’s talk about TPACK and how that led me to the masher.
TPACK is a theoretical framework that describes the intersection of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge. To deliver quality education to our students, educators should have some sort of knowledge, so that we can integrate technology in our lessons. The online journal, On Learning to Subvert Signs: Literacy, Technology and the TPACK Framework, describes one aspect of TPACK, which is the idea of re-purposing “existing technical tools for pedagogical purposes” (Kereluik, Koehler, & Mishra, 2011, p. 1). Re-purposing tools allow our brains to work on creativity, exploring new technology, and developing our pedagogy of teaching in a 21st century way. This is exactly what I practiced this week.
After I learned more about TPACK, I completed a cooking challenge. I asked my mom to get me three items from the kitchen: a plate, bowl, and utensil (and of course she kept asking me questions about how big, small, what utensil, etc.). I asked her to just get me whatever, so she got me this plate, bowl, and potato masher…
Then, I labeled some post-it notes from 1-5. I folded the paper up and picked one: #4! Which was a PB&J sandwich.
Finally, I used my tools to make the PB&J sandwich. See video below:
It was way more challenging to use a potato masher to make a sandwich than a knife would have been, but I think that is the purpose of the activity. We should try and explore different tools and technology to gain knowledge, so that we know how to strengthen our teaching and pedagogy to include technology. Even though some tools may work better than others, we will not know if we don’t try.
References:
Kereluik, K., Mishra, P. & Koehler, M.J. (2011). On learning to subvert signs: Literacy, technology and the TPACK framework. The California Reader, 44(2), 12-18.
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