TPACK Quest

The TPACK Quest has been guiding us in our Tech Class journey over the past 10 weeks. The purpose of this was to enhance our pedagogical technological knowledge and skills as Teacher Candidates as we approach the real world of teaching in the 21st century. This is extremely important because every day, students are becoming immersed in technology even more than before. As educators, it is even more important to keep up with this rapid growth of technology, understand it, and integrate it into the classroom. This course helped me realize that it is so much easier than I thought to integrate technology into the classroom, and I definitely feel more prepared as a result.

Throughout this course, we gained many badges for completing certain aspects. For example, after successfully completing each weekly module, you earned a badge. I love this incorporation because it makes you realize that you are working towards a goal rather than a mark. This is a great pedagogy to introduce in the classroom. Completing certain badges could get you combo badges, which was even more exciting! It is a great way to engage students with their learning on a more meaningful level.


There were three badges that really resonated with me. First was the Digizen Badge. I liked this badge because we were able to demonstrate how we work and learn in a digital society. It explored issues such as Copyright, Cyber Safety and Netiquette. These three aspects are not only important for teachers to be aware of, but to teach to our students. Copyright for teachers is very important because we have to ensure that pictures, materials and resources that we use in the classroom and in our lessons are allowed to be used for that purpose. It is also important to demonstrate to students the importance of citing materials that you are allowed to be using. Students see teachers as models, so we must always be cognizant of copyright in the classroom, cyber safety and Netiquette. I also loved this badge because we were just introduced to PowToon, so I decided to explore my Digizen badge using PowToon, and demonstrate what Netiquette is! I made this PowToon below student-friendly so that I would be able to show it in my future classroom. After I submitted this badge, I realized that by submitting a PowToon rather than a written paragraph, I had unlocked a secret badge...the Submission Scene Badge! I will admit that even as a university student, I was excited about this! Overall, this badge directly contributes to the skills of being a proper digital citizen in the 21st century, and is essential to 21st century teaching because as educators, we must model proper digital citizenship for our students.

The second badge that I really enjoyed was the Hour of Code which was part of the Module of Choice. Prior to this badge, I had never Coded before! I was really excited, so I eagerly started. Seeing as I am a beginner, I started on a beginner game. I quickly got the hang of it and thought I was doing so well! About 75% of the way through, I hit a roadblock...I just could not figure out how to get past the level and I was very discouraged. It took me a while but I figured it out and finished my Hour of Code, which quickly became my 'More than One Hour of Code'! Oh well! I learned that coding is definitely not as easy as I thought it was, and that I definitely need more practice. I learned some valuable 21st century skills during the Hour of Code that can help me as a 21st century teacher. First of all, that coding is important for students to start exploring when they are young! When you start getting old like me, these new things just do not sink in as easily. Students who are in grade 3 can definitely code better than I can! I also think that while this seems somewhat sad, it is a great learning opportunity, for both the teacher and students. if a teacher is not great at coding (i.e. me in one year), but some students are, then it can turn into a student-led lesson and have some students help other students (and myself!) troubleshoot with their Hour of Code.

Lastly, I would like to talk about the Cup of Wisdom Badge. This was the badge that was received after completing 9 other badges, including the Digizen Badge and the Hour of Code Badge. These 9 modules together really fostered and built up my Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPCK) throughout the duration of this course. As you can see from the two badges I discussed above, each badge really does offer a unique exploration of an important component of 21st century learning. Overall, the badges helped me identify which skill areas that I understood, and which ones that I might need more work in (for example Coding!). I can now take this foundational knowledge that I gained throughout the Cup of Wisdom, learn more and increase my skill level, and successfully integrate and use this knowledge in my future classroom. Overall the Cup of Wisdom really helped develop specific skills to encompass the very broad and vast category of educational technology. As I said, I still have a lot to learn as technology continues to change and adapt, but I am willing to change and adapt with it!