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Today’s teachers must use pedagogical knowledge, or a variety of approaches, strategies, and techniques, to teach functional and critical thinking skills related to information, media, and technology. Given the importance of mastering core content in many disciplines, these subjects must be interwoven with other 21st-century knowledge and skills (e.g., global awareness, multiple literacies, learning and innovation skills, information, media and technology skills, career skills, etc.). In other words, 21st-century pedagogy should provide students with multiple technological opportunities to learn related to their future academic and work lives. This entry first describes the theoretical and conceptual frameworks behind pedagogical knowledge as applied to technology. The entry then describes exemplar pedagogies that promote skills such as problem solving and critical thinking, collaboration and communication, and creativity and innovation, which are crucial skills for success in the 21st century.

Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks

Technology has been used to support teaching and learning for several decades with mixed results. Several theoretical constructs undergird how individuals learn in technology-supported environments. For example, current learning theories such as constructivism, social constructivism, situated cognition, and communities of practice undergird the pedagogical choices and conceptual notions about teaching and learning with technology reviewed herein.

Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK or TPACK) has been identified as a framework for what is required to teach appropriately when using technology. TPCK, a new interpretation of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), suggests that teachers need to know more than the content they teach; teachers also need to know how resources and activities may change when technology is involved. Thinking about learning and teaching with technology is important because teaching in traditional didactic ways may not be effective or appropriate when integrating technology into the curriculum.

Technology is often used in the classroom to replace, amplify, or transform instruction. This entry focuses on the last two. Teachers should focus on students’ developing critical thinking skills so they will be able to use the power of various technologies to solve real-world problems and do useful work. To learn more than facts and procedural knowledge, new pedagogical models for using technology can be used to help students develop deep conceptual understanding through active engagement with academic content.

Exemplary Pedagogies Integrating Technology

Project-based learning (PBL) is a constructivist approach that promotes in-depth learning by placing students in situations where they must use inquiry-based tactics to solve real-world problems. Similarly, challenge-based and problem-based learning have proven to be successful pedagogical models in technology-rich settings. These pedagogies require teachers to design challenges, problems, or projects that require students to use critical thinking skills and work in teams to locate, analyze, and synthesize information to find answers to problems and share their findings. Throughout the process of challenge-based learning and problem-based learning, technology serves as a tool that supports students in researching and evaluating multiple sources of information, as well as analyzing and presenting data. In the process, students engage in amplified and sometimes transformational learning experiences that develop their critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills.

Problem-based activities—including generating lists, narrowing of topics, outlining options, debating issues, and even voting—can take place in a virtual community. Wikis allow students to meet in virtual spaces to collaborate on projects and solve problems. Similarly, blogs can be used to promote communication skills as students write and share their writing with audiences beyond their teacher. When using PBL, students also can make use of other collaborative and social networking tools such as Skype, Google, Twitter, Instagram, and numerous other Web 2.0 tools that are available for 21st-century teachers and learners.

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