When it comes to specific pedagogical strategies, content knowledge, and tech resourcefulness, we often have our “go-to” teaching partners to reach out to. We sometimes speak in terms of the Math Lead, Social Studies Lead, or even Concept Mapping teaching partner who provides the leadership and knowledge which supports our learning team and community. In other words, we TPACK with our teaching partners collaborating with our distributive expertise and leadership skills.
Building on this idea, how does your school/district support introducing new technologies? Does it leverage the TPACK construct to help support the implementation of new technology? Here is one approach to do so.
My school has several web-based tools and information resources that our students access at school and at home. These subscription tools and resources are expensive! This connects to the point that if we spend funds on new technology, it must make a difference for our learners. We should do everything we can to ensure the resource is used effectively.
As program designers, we must design and create a system that supports teachers at each grade level, MS team, or HS department to become the leaders for new technologies. And I am talking about much more than knowing how to make the technology work.
We know that for an idea, technique, or program to have traction, several components must be included in the implementation process. Focusing on leadership and knowledge, we really should find and support the teachers who will provide the leadership, and TPACK know how to leverage the heck out of the new technologies that come into our schools.
The grade level team will be TPACKing if they look to the subject area lead to also have the tool lead, as with math and Dreambox, for example. An example might be in elementary school where one teacher from each grade level would be the Wixie lead, another the DreamBox lead, joining those already identified who lead out on the content of math, reading, social studies, etc. This would combine technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge with leadership to get folks using the tools in the best instructional manner.
The technology leads engage in PD opportunities to help them become the PD providers for their teaching partners. This moves the PD program from whole staff sit and git training sessions to individual and small group sessions offered when needed. This distributive knowledge and leadership model supports the growth of the school learning community while energizing teachers and providing a more differentiated approach to professional learning.
Many schools, of course, already have these tech leaders in place. I used the term “Tech Cadre” at my previous schools. They were, in most cases, the early adopters. Using the TPACK construct formalizes building a tech cadre by bringing in pedagogy and content knowledge to leverage the tools. In time, the “tech” can be dropped from the cadre/team title in describing the TPACKing leadership approach as a shift focusing less on technology and more on instruction and learning. Maybe a more appropriate title would be “TPACK Team.”
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