TPACK in the Arts Classroom

by Jamie Kasper
Associate Director, AECIn last month’s article, I wrote about LoTi: Levels of Teaching Innovation. LoTi is a model to help educators look at how they use technology and instructional strategies to support student learning in the classroom. This month, we’ll look at another model, TPACK.

TPACK stands for Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. From the TPACK website: “Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) attempts to capture some of the essential qualities of knowledge required by teachers for technology integration in their teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted and situated nature of teacher knowledge.”  Basically, the TPACK model explores the premise that we cannot teach technology in isolation. It has to be tied to content and pedagogy. Think about this: in the 1500s when the pencil was new, people generally did not study how to use the pencil. They used the pencil as a tool to transfer information. We can say the same thing about technology: while we can spend a limited amount of time learning the skills to use it, we eventually need to move beyond skills to think about technology’s use in learning. TPACK gives us a model to think about the intersection between technology, content, and instruction.

One of the implications of TPACK is to change the way that professional learning occurs. Instead of using workshop time to learn about new initiatives or programs, the TPACK model encourages educators to use workshop time to use technology to solve classroom problems. For example, instead of spending the day with a speaker who talks about and shows interactive whiteboards, educators should spend the day exploring the whiteboards and related software, then designing specific lessons or units of study that use the whiteboards most effectively to support student learning.

I recently had the opportunity to talk with Nancy DePlatchett, Curriculum Advisor for the Kennedy Center’s ArtsEdge program. Nancy wrote a chapter on TPACK and arts education in “Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Educators” and has assisted in populating the Kennedy Center’s redesigned ArtsEdge website. The site features unit and lesson plans in the arts paired with technology resources, as well as ideas for instructional strategies; this provides an easy, accessible way for arts educators to begin to combine technology, pedagogy, and arts content in the classroom.

Now that we have explored the models of LoTi and TPACK, we’ll finish up the series next month by looking at HEAT. I’d love to revisit these topics in the future using examples from our local arts educators; go to AEC Connect to share how you’re utilizing LoTi and TPACK in your classroom.