Over the past few years, I’ve had the pleasure to co-facilitate a series of full-day Microsoft Technology Enriched Instruction workshops in colleges and universities around the world. TEI Workshops are designed to help college and university faculty find ways to integrate technology in their teaching in a way that both helps them to teach their content more effectively and to simultaneously find ways to engage their students in 21st century learning skills (21CLS). I also teach courses for novice and experienced K-12 teachers to develop these same skills.
 
The TPACK Game
These workshops and the classes I teach are very participatory, discussion-based, and action-oriented. By the end of the experience, each participant develops designs for their courses that integrate technology in some way to support teaching and learning. Despite the technology focus for the workshops and courses, one highlight is a simple sorting/matching game that can probably be easily adapted to a range of different learning activities and content foci.
 
In the context of the TEI workshop, this game is designed to help the participants match a content topic that they teach with learning activities and technologies that “fit” to create a powerful learning experience. In the game, participants are provided with blank white index cards, on which they write content topics for the courses they teach. We then provide them with a set of yellow pedagogy cards – each with a different type of learning activity (e.g., group discussion, simulation, demonstration, etc.). Finally, a set of green cards include different technologies that may be used in the classroom or online (e.g., presentation software, video recording, wikis, etc.).
 
Through a series of rounds, participants are directed to either randomly draw or strategically combine sets of cards (content, pedagogy, and technology) to learn to identify and generate good “fit” among the three. This is called the TPACK Game and was originated by Judi Harris, Punya Mishra, and Matt Koehler back in 2007 at the National Technology Leadership Summit. Punya provides a good history of the game along with other variations. This is always a favorite activity from the workshop. It generates great discussion, which often extends beyond the 1:15 minute time block that we allocate for it.
 
Considering new options
While this experience is focused on a particular learning goal with specific reasoning processes in mind, this kind of simple sorting game can be extremely helpful in two respects. First, as one Australian history professor noted, considering a range of different teaching approaches and learning activities helped him to consider new possibilities. It’s only human nature to fall into routines, but this game can help you to break out of your normal practice and consider new ideas. Another way it can be helpful is to consider new ways to use familiar tools. OneNote is one of the applications we work with in the workshop. Many of the Australian participants were already using OneNote for their own notetaking and organization. When they encountered this technology in the context of the TPACK game however, they began to see applications for group work – particularly research projects. There were similar insights related to the use of Skype and Padlet as well.

In my mind, however, these aren’t the primary benefits to the TPACK game. I think the most powerful aspect of the game is the conversations that are catalyzed as participants discuss their choices and alternatives. Groups often become quite animated as they discuss different possible combinations of content, pedagogy and technology. They share their unique experiences and insights as they discuss the cards they are dealt. It is in these collaborations that some of the most transformative new approaches are developed. In the academy, we often don’t have the forum to discuss our teaching practice. The TPACK game is one way to drive this discussion.

How else might we encourage these conversations on teaching practice in higher education?
Please post your comments below.  

Last weekend, I was catching up on my blog reading (as part of my personal learning network) when I came across a great post from Barbi Honeycutt on 5 Ways Students Say Their Role Changes in the Flipped Classroom. The post reports on her work with faculty and students at the Chapman University School of Pharmacy to design and implement a new curriculum using the FLIP model that Barbi has developed.
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One sentence in the article really jumped out at me: "The faculty and campus leaders have made it their mission to prepare Pharmacists, not just graduates." This idea implies a more active, applied approach to both coursework and learning in preparation for students to bring the skills and concepts to bear in their future careers. This is a core element of professional education programs like pharmacy, education or nursing. It strikes me, though, that this same kind of vision could (should?) be applied to any field. The flipped classroom offers students more opportunities to engage in this kind of work.

What does it mean to prepare students for their futures?
Author Daniel Pink wrote, "We need to prepare kids for their future, not our past." This was brought home to me in a really visceral way at a screening of the film, Most Likely to Succeed, as part of the William & Mary Homecoming celebration. One of the authors of the companion book and the producer of the film, Ted Dintersmith made a compelling case that we need to rethink school at all levels to help students find their passion, engage in deep work, and develop the kinds of collaboration and innovation skills that will serve them well in their future.

Co-author Tony Wagner and William & Mary alum (a double English and Physics double major no less), Dintersmith argues that “the core purpose of education [is to] teach the next generation the lessons needed to survive and thrive” (p. 21). What does this mean to you? What will students need to survive and thrive whether they go on to graduate school, enter the workforce or participate in community service? I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but what follows are a few ideas you might want to consider in your teaching.

How can we prepare students for an unknown future?

• Give them real problems, situations and cases to grapple with.
• Encourage them to “try on” different ideas, discuss their merits and limitations and above all, make mistakes.
• Provide them with an authentic audience (beyond their professor and classmates) for their work.
• Encourage them to communicate their ideas in flexible, engaging and substantive ways.
• Provide students with independent study opportunities (within courses as well as through dedicated independent study courses) to explore their own interests related to course content.
  
  

This shift in thinking needs to happen at both the K-12 and higher education level. It isn’t an easy shift to make, but nothing important ever is. And it’s hard to imagine anything more important than helping to increase our capacity as a nation and world to solve the complex problems and unique opportunities in the modern world.

Need some inspiration? Watch the film trailer, buy the book, or host a screening for your school.

How do you help your students prepare for their futures?
Please post your comments below.