Jun 26, 2013

Cooking with TPACK: Cutting the Cheese

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We were tasked with cutting a block of cheese using a random plate, bowl, and kitchen utensil to lay it out for a cheese plate. In our bag we got a small wooden bowl, a kiddie plate, and a whisk, and a block of cheese.

None of the tools were really suited for slicing the cheese. We used the handle of the whisk to saw through the cheese.

As far as educational purpose, this is usually how we are introduced to technology. We are giving a tool like an iPad or a SmartBoard and we aren't exactly sure how we are supposed to use it. We have to gain some insight into  our particular to tool. Mishra and Koehler (2006) argue that learning about technology in this way does not lead teachers to be able to integrate into the content or the pedagogy.

And sometimes we have to shoehorn the technology into what we have to teach because that is all we have available. Other times we are given a tool and we can find new novel uses for tools that no one has thought of before. One example, that Punya (2012) has talked about, is email. It was meant to send electronic text to and from computer. Now we can use to share pictures, send documents back and forth from computers, and lots of other things.

We also need to spend time evaluating the tools that we are given. I would never go to my kitchen drawer looking for a whisk to cut cheese. There are plenty of other tool, and even specialized cheese knives that I have that I would use first. Granted, I don't need the specialized cheese knife, just because it is available. A regular knife does 95% of the job.



Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2006). Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge. (T. Bastiaens, J. Dron, & C. Xin, Eds.) Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017–1054. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9620.2006.00684.x

Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. J. (2012, March 31). Teaching Creatively: Teachers as Designers of Technology, Content and Pedagogy on Vimeo [Video file]. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/39539571

1 comment :

  1. Thanks for sharing your learning process for your Cooking with TPACK quickfire. The main purpose of the assignment was to think about what does this activity has to do with teaching, technology integration, and TPACK? Your reflection did a nice job of relating the task directly back to what this means for us as educators in relationship to teaching with technology. I would have liked to see a bit more about this activity may have changed your thinking about this idea or if it just confirmed things you already were thinking. Overall great job; I especially liked the discussion of sometimes using tools that are adequate to get the job done.

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