So I know what content I’m going to teach. And I have different ways to teach it so I can choose which way provides the best learning experience for the group of students I have. But what do I do with all of this technology that’s flooding our schools? This is where the framework TPACK helps. Like the final piece to an ever-changing puzzle, TPACK completes the picture.
Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Tpack.jpg
All of the things that we already do in the classroom come together in different ways for different lessons. TPACK helps them fit together better, with the “ideal” lesson including all of my pedagogical knowledge about how to teach the lesson, my content knowledge about the subject matter, and my technological knowledge about the tools and resources to take the lesson to the next level!
This framework is relatively new to me, so I wanted to find resources that would give me a better idea of how to best implement technology into lessons. While not directly related to music, this matrix developed by the Florida Institute for Instructional Technology provides an excellent framework for figuring out where you are in your technology integration and provides suggestions or guides for how to take your teaching to the next level. While that’s a wealth of information, I wanted to find something that directly related to my music classroom. This youtube video provides examples of TPACK applied to different music contexts.
Armed with that information, I wanted to find some resources that I could use with my students. I have a computer with projector, document camera, and a single iPad available in my music classroom. Students have been working on rhythm reading skills so I wanted to find resources that would be best used in teaching that concept.
There is an app that was released last March (Chrome Music Lab). This is a free lesson plan they created using the app and shared online. I like that it uses a combination of paper/pencil work and iPad work so I could have students working on their own or in small groups and passing my iPad around.
Then I stumbled onto this gem. RhythmBee is an idea that I could adjust and have my students use for recorder time. It would be easy to have them record a short video on my iPad of their recorder playing and would provide a unique and quick way for me to individually assess student performance.
Armed with this information and resources, I’m ready to put my TPACK puzzle together. How could you better use technology to enhance your teaching practices?
