Technology Integration Models and Barriers
9
Lisa Dietrich
Lisa Dietrich<EMAIL_ADDRESS>University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Abstract
TPACK refers to the knowledge and competencies at work within the complex profession of teaching, examined through the lens of the Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge infrastructure. Closely aligned with the interdependent relationships between these competencies exists the implications of those conditions created once technology is figured into the equation. Mishra and Koehler posit that the competencies inherent in the three core knowledge areas, must work in tandem with pedagogical content knowledge, technological content knowledge and technological pedagogical content knowledge for the essence of TPACK to be fully realized. Essentially, fluency within and between these core domains is required for successful adoption of technology within the curriculum.
Keywords: curriculum, pedagogy, teaching, technology, TPACK.
Introduction
The concept of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) was first introduced by Lee Shulman in 1986, and later revisited by Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler in 2006. Over the past 20 years, the progression of technology and the flexibility it offers educators to enhance and promote learning, prompted Mishra and Koehler to incorporate a technological domain, to speak to those emerging affordances. Education has gone through a transformation with technology at the helm, reconfiguring the pedagogical landscape and opening doors for more robust teaching and learning opportunities for both educators and students. In many classrooms, the presence of technological tools is interwoven into the fabric of many teaching pedagogies such as those involving mobile applications. The restructured TPACK model encapsulates Shulman’s three original domains and their interrelationships within the educational context. Mishra and Koehler’s reimagined framework goes further to detail the complex interplay between Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge once a teacher has elected to integrate technology within the curriculum, unveiling the intrinsic role that technology now assumes within the classroom environment.
What is the TPACK Model?
Punya Mishra and Matthew Koehler, developers of the TPACK framework, contend that uniting technology within the classroom has further complicated the teaching profession. They propose that understanding how these bodies of knowledge, both theoretically and in practice interact, will provide teachers with the types of flexible knowledge needed to successfully integrate technology use into their teaching practice (Koehler & Mishra, 2009).
Utilizing Shulman’s Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) framework to form the basis for their model, Mishra and Koehler identified three core components at the heart of good teaching practices: Content, Pedagogy, Technology and the interrelationship among and between them. The domains are represented as PCK (Program Cont