Wicked TPACK Challenge

Issue: How to create meaningful displays of comprehensible Spanish without direct translation.

Technology Pedagogy Content

a. What is the TP knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?)

I have chosen to use peer-partner learning to engage my students in a usually dry topic. Students will have to collaborate and negotiate to successfully create meaningful digital media depicting their topic. When creating compelling images/videos as part of a group, students will have to negotiate and problem solve, which will involve holding a dialogue to produce and agreement and results (successful completion of the project). Using tools like iMovie and digital images will be collaborative because I will require students to include more than one person in what they create. Roles will have to be assigned: who will film? who will write the script? who will act? who will edit? All of these activities must be completed in collaboration.


b. What is the TC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible? Be sure to think about representation.)

Basic questions and answers in Spanish can be a dry topic, and since it’s dry many students do not remember long lists of them, aside from “Como estas?” Students will use digital photography, Picnik, and iMovie to create compelling images of themselves and their partners to illustrate everyday questions and answers in Spanish, without displaying the direct translation. This is possible because if an image/video is engaging and specific, an audience will see the meaning clearly. Direct translation will not be needed. This mimics real-life natural language acquisition. This technology will help this specific content become more meaningful because it allows for students to create rather than just look at teacher-created images or visuals from a book. These digital images will then be displayed around the classroom or school to help reinforce the meaning without direct translation.

c. What is the PC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible? Be sure to think about how the student will experience the content given these instructional strategies

In the area of creating comprehensible Spanish without providing direct translation, my focus has been teacher-centered in the past. My goal is to have a more student-centered lesson. Learning languages should involve peer-partner learning and negotiation. This mimics how languages are learned naturally, outside of a classroom. We learn to speak through interaction. So, if my students are collaborating and problem-solving to create compelling images/video, they are not just repeating a teacher’s language, they are creating their own. By encouraging them to show what they mean and not just translate it directly in their project, they are creating a more memorable image which will give the action meaning. By using their peers and chosen media to demonstrate the meaning of Spanish questions and answers, this lesson will be more intellectually accessible and memorable, for themselves and whomever see what they create.