TPACK

I have a confession to make. I have a bit of an intellectual crush on Punya Mishra. Iwas

introduced to the TPACK materials a little over a year ago when I attended a Community of Practice at Prairie Lakes AEA. We were working on technology integration f

or out district and Dianne Jackson asked if I had read any of the TPACK info. Up to that point, I had not.

Dr. Mishra is a professor of Educational Psychology and Educational Technology at the college of education at Michigan State University. The focus of his current research is TPACK or Technology, Pedagogy and Content Knowledge.

TPACK is a framework to understand and describe the kinds of knowledge needed by a teacher for effective pedagogical practice in a technology enhanced learning environment. Reading his materials and getting to go to a workshop run by him have focused my energies in how best to do my job. I was fortunate to be able to see Dr. Mishra again at ITEC this year. Punya was a featured spe

aker at ITEC and had multiple sessions that were designed to cover different areas of his research. I was not able to attend all of them, but I was able to catch a few and will definitely watch the rest when they become available on iTunes.

The concept behind TPACK is summed up in this Venn Diagram. There are teachers who have vast amounts of knowledge on their topic, yet they lack the skill to be able to "teach" that to anyone. There are those who have the best pedagogical skills known but

have no content knowledge. And there are those who have skills and content, but lack technological skills to be an effective 21st century educator. It is the goal of Dr. Mishra and TPACK to offer assistance in the joining of all three areas.

Dr. Mishra spoke at 5 sessions, the topics ranged from an introduction to TPACK to creativity to taking TPACK to the next level. Not being able to go to all of his sessions was a bitter pill to swallow, but alas my duties to the board were better served in my proper place, the Vendor Hall. All in all, the research and the opportunity to see Punya in person have energized me to work harder at making my school district a more technology friendly place. I can best describe Dr. Mishra in four words "he just gets it!" I would recommend that if you ever get the opportunity to see him speak or attend one of his workshops, that you jump at the chance. Read his research and the research on his research. You will be very glad you did.