TPACK – technology, pedagogy, and
content knowledge. Teachers today
strive to find the balance and intersection of these three areas. The way we teach has changed in many ways in
very little time. When I began my
teaching career in 1998, I remember carting my personal Compaq computer into my
office. One of the secretaries said
something to the effect of, “Why do you need that thing?” I was one of the first in my school to have a
computer and recognize its value to my work.
It wasn’t long after that when all teachers and staff received desktop
computers. We began using email to
communicate with one another, and then to communicate with the parents of our
students.
Fast forward to today. I communicate almost daily with parents
through emails or electronic newsletters.
I post pictures and videos of my students on our school’s Facebook page
and website. Students in our middle
school have gone to 1:1 iPads. Most of
their homework is turned in electronically.
Teachers enter grades electronically and parents can monitor their child’s
progress.
In the midst of all this
technology, teachers must maintain a strong foundation of pedagogy and content
knowledge. The teacher must know their “stuff.”
“In music, this means that teachers need
to have a general background in music theory and music history, as well as have
well-developed aural and performance skills” (Bauer, 2014, p. 13). A good teacher not only knows their content
area, but knows how to translate that knowledge to others while creating a
classroom atmosphere that is safe, challenging, and exciting. Effective teachers find ways to integrate
technology so that it works with their content and pedagogy. The outcome and use of tools will be
different for every teacher (Bauer, 2014).
As I reflect on my own teaching, I
find that many of the ways I use technology have indeed become transparent as
Dr. Bauer (2014) described. They have
become so commonplace, I take them for granted.
On a day the projector is not working or the power source to the
computer breaks down, I realize just how dependent I have become on technology. Now in my everyday teaching, I use a
Smartboard along with Smart Notebook. They
are amazing tools that help me to organize the material I teach while taking
away a lot of paper clutter and storage around my classroom and office. It takes time to create innovative slides for
lesson plans, but the outcome in student response is worth the time and effort. Most curriculum texts now come with CDs that
include Smart Notebook slides or other PDFs.
Instead of wheeling the TV cart
down to my room, I use my desktop computer to play DVDs or online videos using
my Smartboard and projector. I have a
large collection of CDs for the music I use in class. I have slowly started the process of
transferring the most-used tracks to iTunes.
With my classroom iPad, I am able to access the music I need and
organize it into specific playlists.
I believe that I am only using the “tip
of the iceberg” when it comes to technology.
That thought is both exciting and a little overwhelming. I look forward to learning more technology integration
strategies and finding ways to implement them in my teaching. I am also reassured by Dr. Bauer’s (2014) idea
that “technological approaches shouldn’t be used for technology’s sake. They should only be incorporated when there
is a clear benefit to learning” (p. 10).
Teachers must use their expertise in content and pedagogy to make
decisions about how to best incorporate technology. At the same time, teachers must continue to
expand their knowledge in all three areas to best support themselves and their
students.
Bauer, W. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for
creating, performing, and responding to music. New
York, NY: Oxford.
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