Cooking with TPACK

     As part of a class I am taking, I was assigned to create a video of myself making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich using tools that were selected by someone else beforehand and without knowledge of the assignment. The task is designed to be a metaphor for the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) approach to educational technology which advocates using applications to construct teaching and learning in creative ways. The tools I used were a whisk, a steak knife, and a can opener.

     I filmed this epic at a time when my wife was out of the house (she was at church praying for my soul). Normally I am not allowed to cook in our kitchen, the reason probably having something to do with the time I put a pizza into the oven without taking the cardboard off the bottom and darn near burned the house down. As the film will prove, I was able to complete this task with a minimal amount of mess and without any charred evidence to give me away - though I did quickly wash the tools after the filming "wrapped" because I did not want to explain to my wife how they became caked in peanut butter and jelly.

     I have to admit that I do not like these kinds of assignments, and I spared my faculty and staff from them during the years I was a principal. They are too much like the "icebreakers" I dread at staff development sessions and conferences. I "get" the metaphor that was intended and do not need to play in peanut butter for it to "stick". Still, I understand that there are those for whom this kind of "play" is helpful. It is probably what my professor and friend, Glen Hudak, had in mind when he assigned D.W. Winnecott's Playing and Reality during my graduate studies - an arduous reading that I have only recently forgiven him for.

     Integrating technology in a way that supports rather than drives teaching is at the heart of TPACK, and in this activity, as with TPACK, I had an objective and used my crude technology in a flexible way to achieve my ends. In this case, however, the tools were to be chosen in advance by someone else who did not know what they would be used for. As a metaphor for TPACK the task breaks down somewhat because teachers normally choose the technology they will use (albeit from what is available) themselves with the objective in mind. However, it is true that we must think about the appropriateness and usefulness of software and hardware more creatively, and a variety of tools will be necessary in our "toolkit" to me the challenges of constructivism in the classroom.

     As of this writing, the video is loading on YouTube and the world waits anxiously for its premiere. Why it says that another 3872 minutes will be needed to complete the job is a bit baffling, but I guess the censors at YouTube are pouring over the film frame-by-frame to make sure that it contains nothing that violates any laws. There are surely some crimes against taste, and once it goes viral and my wife sees it, I may well be writing my next blog from beneath a bridge overpass. Still, when it is ready for the screen, I will update this blog and provide the link. Until then, I would suggest some Julia Child reruns.