Week 11 PLE Post

Pedagogical knowledge (PK) can be defined as general knowledge and skills related to teaching. Examples: knowledge of teaching methods, classroom management, or understanding how to motivate students. It's amazing that teaching or the ability to teach requires its own standard of knowledge. This is also a knowledge unique to teachers. PK is the knowledge of how to teach.

Content knowledge (CK) is independent of Pedagogical knowledge in that it is knowledge of facts, concepts, and skills in a particular domain (like science, history, or nutrition). Someone could have a very good content knowledge about a certain subject, but not know how to teach it (pedagogical knowledge). CK is the knowledge needed for what to teach.

Technological knowledge (TK) is the knowledge needed to understand and implement/use different technologies. TK is needed in order to appropriately integrate technology in education. An example of TK could be the knowledge needed to understand and use digital hardware/software, or the knowledge need to download certain programs.

TPACK is the knowledge of how to use the technology to support content -specific pedagogical methods and strategies. It is the integration of technology in teaching certain content standards.Technology included in the TPACK framework includes an array of representations (or ways the concept being taught can be represented). Types of representations include: textual (article), visual (picture), auditory (recording), dynamic (use of website like Goggle Earth), and multimodal (video--combo of representations)) representations. Sometimes a particular representation of a concept (supported by a certain technology) can enable students to better understand that concept. When choosing to use a certain technology, consider how the representation of the concept you're trying to teach will be impacted and what will be of most benefit to your students. You want to use a technology that supports the concepts and particular representation of those concepts you hope to achieve in your teaching.