Chapter 1: Developing Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Through Teacher Research And The Pedagogy Of Multiliteracies

Teaching effectively with technology remains a difficult task. What used to be the challenge of staying on top of particular skills or programs has evolved into maintaining a mind-set that Mishra and Koehler describe as “technological pedagogical content knowledge,” or TPACK (2006). They argue that an “emphasis on competencies and checklists of things that teachers need to know is inherently problematic for a range of reasons” (p. 1032), including the design and rate of change inherent in hardware and software, the situated nature of technology use in learning and education’s traditional emphasis on product, not process. Add to that the social, technical and administrative support teachers lack in their own schools which often hinders their ability to do such work (Zhao, Pugh, Sheldon, & Byers, 2002) and it is not surprising that teachers are likely to stop using technology once their university-based experiences are over (Russell, Bebell, O’Dwyer, & O’Connor, 2003). Since one of the goals for integrating technology into teacher education is that teachers will transfer such uses into their own pedagogy (Otero et al., 2005), understanding how teachers come to learn and use technology has become crucial for English educators. TPACK—as enacted through a designed-based approach like Mishra and Koehler’s—can combine with a broader vision of literacy that includes different modes, media, and semiotic systems (Knobel & Lanks-hear, 2006; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2001; New London Group, 2000) to offer teachers a powerful vision for integrating technology into their teaching.¹