Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) attempts to identify the nature of knowledge required by teachers for using new technology in their teaching. It is saying that use of new technology to support teaching and learning requires:

• Knowledge of your subject (content knowledge), for example the function of greetings in French, the laws of motions in physics, the difference between metaphor and simile in English, the way a subject has been packaged in the curriculum and so on.
• Pedagogical knowledge, for example to know a range of approaches to teaching a subject, what works for a particular topic, an awareness of likely pupil misconceptions and so on.
• Technological knowledge: what the technology can do, how it works and the confidence to play around with it, for example to know that an online quiz can be set up within a learning platform, and to have a go at creating one.

Why TPaCK is a good idea

• Like all good ideas it is commonsensical and puts down in a model what many of us have thought but not articulated
• It is not a technology led view of 'ICT integration'
  
• It helps diagnose what might be going wrong. For example teacher A gives a ten minute lecture on enlargement in mathematics supported by the IWB as a static whiteboard. [An example perhaps of good content knowledge; poor pedagogical knowledge; basic technological knowledge]. Teacher B delivers an interactive discussion on enlargement in mathematics supported by the IWB as a static whiteboard. [An example perhaps of good content knowledge; good pedagogical knowledge, basic technological knowledge].

• It helps us envision what good teaching with technology looks like. For example Teacher C delivers an interactive discussion on enlargement supported by demonstrating the stretching and enlarging of shapes at the IWB [good content knowledge; good pedagogical knowledge, good technological knowledge?]

The problem with TPaCk

• It is taking literally something which is contentious and highly abstract - it is a way of looking at the use of ICT not a measuring of where teachers are at in their use of technology
• It is assuming or at least not engaging with the myriad meanings associated with good teaching, the nature of the subject or what technological knowledge looks like

Go to TPaCK group at http://tpack.org/ from which the diagram below has been taken (with permission).