A person who knows and is aware that he knows, is wise, follow him; A person who knows but is not aware that he knows, remind him; A person who doesn't know and is aware that he doesn't know, teach him; A person who doesn't know and pretends to know, is fool, leave him


Bless me in my undertakings Dear God, grant me victory and I shall shout your blessings for all to hear of your power!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Integrating TPACK and WST

What exactly does educational technology mean? Does it only end on instructional use of technology?
I guess no!! Its rather both bringing technology into education context (technology integration in education) and assessing the effectiveness of technology on students learning. That is the simple way I can express my opinions about education technology. This view is actually based on the two schools of thoughts: Knezek Christensen, Hancock & Shoho (2002) and  Mishra & Koehler (2005, 2006, 2009).

While Knezek and colleagues considered educational technology in terms of teachers' ability and readiness to integrate technology in teaching, Mishra and Koehler (2005, 2006, 2009) consider educational technology in terms of the effective use of technology in teaching. While knezek and colleagues focuses only on the skills, attitude and tools, ignoring the pedagogy and content, Mishra & Koehler focus only on the integrated knowledge of technology pedagogy and content, ignoring the importance of teachers' attitude towards technology integration, teachers' technological skills necessary to enable them use technology confidently and the importance of technological tools which a teacher can use for a given learning.

Since the purpose of technology in education is to enhance students learning, it is therefore important to consider not only the extent to which teachers integrate technology in the classroom rather the extent to which they integrate technology in teaching, how they integrate it and students' learning outcomes. To do this, we need to integrate the conditions for technology integration (WST) and the knowledge required for effective integration (TPACK) as shown in a simple sketch of the integration summarized in the Figure below.
WST-TPACK integration for effective integration of technology in teaching

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