One of my personal challenges to this model is that it places equal emphasis on the three components; technology, pedagogy and content. I think that content is starting to take a backseat to thinking about how we actually use the content and knowing how to search out and find the content that we don’t know. I am reminded of the debate we had in residency and thinking with a connectivist approach would support this notion. I don’t see myself as a connectivist, but I do believe that content is not the large educational factor that it once was. I would argue that the research into 21st century education places less emphasis on content and more emphasis on 21st century competencies including the integration of technology in a comprehensive fashion.”Knowledge of core content is necessary, but no longer sufficient, for success in a competitive world. Even if all students mastered core academic subjects, they still would be woefully underprepared to succeed in postsecondary institutions and workplaces, which increasingly value people who can use their knowledge to communicate, collaborate, analyze, create, innovate and solve problems. Used comprehensively, technology helps students develop 21st century skills” (Maximizing the impact, n.d.).This model lacks the integration of 21st century competencies which I think are necessary when program planning for K-12 learners and therefore makes it difficult to work with in a practical sense. I agree that an experienced program planner would indeed be able to use 21st century competencies in structuring, developing or refining a program using the TPACK framework. Where I think the TPACK model could be more defined is in regards to content knowledge. Kohler and Mishra (2009) explain content knowledge as teacher’s knowledge about the subject matter to be taught or learned. They further state that content knowledge is of critical importance to teachers and do acknowledge that this knowledge includes established practices and approaches towards developing that knowledge. This could then include 21st century competencies but I think that with the push to develop these competencies in today’s learners there could be a specific emphasis on this. I think that when most educations see content as part of the TPACK framework they are more likely to think of specific subject content as opposed to 21st century fluencies. I think that these fluencies are becoming more and more important and influential, especially in the K-12 educational sector. I came across this article by Cox and Grahan (2009) which would help educators see where 21st century learning fits into the TPACK Model. I especially liked this part: “In the elaborated TPACK framework proposed here, the definition of pedagogical knowledge is simplified to focus on a teacher’s knowledge of the general pedagogical activities that she might utilize. General activities are independent of a specific content or topic (meaning they can be used with any content) and may include strategies for motivating students, communicating with students and parents, presenting information to students, and classroom management among many other things. Additionally, this category includes general activities that could be applied across all content domains such as discovery learning, co- operative learning, problem-based learning, etc.” (p. 62).

References:

Cox, S., & Graham, C. R. (2009). Diagramming TPACK in Practice: Using an Elaborated Model of the TPACK Framework to Analyze and Depict Teacher Knowledge. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice To Improve Learning, 53(5), 60-69. doi:10.1007/s11528-009-0327-1

Maximizing the Impact: The pivotal role of technology in a 21st century education system (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/p21setdaistepaper.pdf