For my Cooking with TPACK quickfire, I decided to make the utensil selection a little more interesting by asking my brother to choose them for me. He is a chef, so I figured he might either pick something really useful or take the opportunity to give me something completely ridiculous. Either way, I was giving up control over the tools before I even started the task.
Once I saw what I had to work with, it made the point of the activity pretty clear. I could still complete the cooking task, but the utensils affected how easy, efficient, and frustrating the process was.
Video 1. Cooking with TPACK in action
That experience made me think about what we sometimes ask students to do with technology. If I decide students have to make a video, type an essay, or use a specific website before thinking about what I actually want them to learn, the technology can become another obstacle instead of supporting the learning. A student who struggles with typing, does not have reliable internet, or does not have the right device is starting the assignment with a completely different challenge.
This connects back to TPACK because technology, pedagogy, and content should work together. The technology choice should make sense for the learning goal, not determine it.
Winner (1980) also pushed me to think beyond whether a tool simply “works.” Technologies are not always neutral. Their design can create or limit access and shape how people are able to participate. As a teacher, that makes me want to ask not only, “Can this technology help students learn?” but also, “Who might this choice make learning harder for?”
Reference
Winner, L. (1980). Do artifacts have politics? Daedalus, 109(1), 121–136.
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