Travis Schrake

Professor Wu
EDCT 5011
5/25/2019

Week 2 Reflection Strengths and Weaknesses in the TPACK Framework:

This week’s articles was useful when reflection on my teaching practices in a digital
landscape. Looking at the the TPACK framework shows that connections between technological,
pedagogical, and content knowledge. These three areas within classroom learning overlap, the
reading simplifies these connections to represent these specific areas. To simplify, the “C” is the
what, “P” is the how, and “T” is technology.
Overall, the goal of this framework is to show these connections. This, as the authors
suggests, creates a “coherent and nuanced understanding of technological pedagogical content
knowledge” (p.g 1046). Knowing these areas of knowledge and how they connect can offer more
substantial training for educators. One training method that the reading suggests is creation based
learning. This is where a user creates content through digital mediums, like movies.
One strength I see in my classroom is on the “TP” side of the framework. Technological
pedagogical knowledge, from my interpretation, involves balancing accessibility to technology
with favored pedagogy within the classroom. In this respect I feel my science class shows off
this concept well. Our teachers are fortunate enough to have access to chromebooks throughout
the day. Even though chromebooks are far from the only technology available, they are a
window to various software tools and websites. I do my best as a facilitator of knowledge to
show students how to properly use this tool. One method that I use is the design approach.
Having students create the content helps them see a new perspective while applying the skill to
show master or growth.
An area of weakness in my classroom would be in the “TCK” aspect. Technological
content knowledge involves using the appropriate tool to address content knowledge. Although
our classroom has various resources to help present the content, I feel that I lean on only a
handful of tools. Upon reflection I consistently use less than 10 specific tools to drive content
understanding. This is something I connected with when looking at our end of the year surveys
last week. Consistently students requested the removal of a specific tool used in the classroom.
One of the overarching reasons for this was because it was boring or disengaged students from
the content. I am using this information to guide my lessons next year, but I didn’t consider the
limited toolset I choose to use. Moving forward I plan on expanding this toolkit to develop as an
educator.