TPCK Reading

1.

Content: The actual subject matter that is to be learned and taught
Pedagogy: the process and practice or methods of teaching and learning
Technology: both commonplace, like chalkboards, and advanced, such as digital computers.
PCK: (Pedagogical Content Knowledge). PCK exists at the intersection of content and pedagogy. It represents the blending of content and pedagogy into an understanding of how particular aspects of subject matter are organized, adapted, and represented for instruction. The content knowledge that deals with the teaching process, including the ways of representing and formulating the subject that make it comprehensible to others. PCK identifies the distrinctive bodies of knowledge for teaching. It represents the blending of content and pedagogy into an understanding of how particular topics, problems, or issues are organized, represented, and adapted to the diverse interests and abilities of learners, and presented for instruction.
TPK: (Technological Pedagogical Knowledge) The knowledge of the existence, components, and capabilities of various technologies as they are used in teaching and learning settings, and conversely, knowing how teaching might change as the result of using particular technologies.
TCK: (Technological Content Knowledge). The knowledge about the manner in which technology and content are reciprocally related. Teachers need to know not just the subject matter they teach but also the manner in which the subject matter can be changed by the application of technology.
TPCK: (Technology Pedagogical Content Knowledge). Technology, pedagogy, and content overlap to lead to four more kinds of interrelated knowledge (the 3 definitions above). TPCK is the basis of good teaching with technology and requires an understanding of the representation of concepts using technologies; pedagogical techniques that use technologies in constructive ways to teach content; knowledge of what makes concepts difficult or easy to learn and how technology can help redress some of the problems that students face; knowledge of students’ prior knowledge and theories of epistemology; and knowledge of how technologies can be used to build on existing knowledge and to develop new epistemologies or strengthen old ones.

2. Dynamic equilibrium is another way to say essential tension. The traditional view of the relationship between the three aspects argues that content drives most decisions; the pedagogical goals and technologies to be used to follow from a choice of what to teach. However, things are rarely that clear cut, particularly when newer technologies are considered; and that’s where the tension comes from.
3. TPCK represents a class of knowledge that is central to teachers’ work with technology. This knowledge would not typically be held by technologically proficient subject matter experts, or by technologists who know little of the subject or of pedagogy, or by teachers who know little of that subject of technology.
4. Teachers need to be trained to use technology and acquire a basic understanding of most used programs. Not only being trained to use new technologies but using technology in the classrooms will help teachers become more comfortable with it.
5. Some of the reasons that emphasis on competencies and checklists of things can be problematic are because of the rapid rate of technology change; inappropriate design of software; situated nature of learning; and an emphasis on what, now how.
6. Design-based activities are used to help teachers develop the deep understanding needed to apply knowledge in the complex domains of real-world practice. They also make a nice bridge to many of the models of project-based learning. In the learning technology by design approach, emphasis is placed on learning by doing, and less so on overt lecturing and traditional teaching.
7. I agree with Shulman’s argument about teaching because I also believe that a teacher cannot be taught very specific things that they will use with every child. Not all people learn the same and therefore teachers need to be able to be flexible in their learning and teaching and grow and think through new experiences.