Frameworks for Ed Tech Integration: SAMR and TPACK

Lynn ZimmermannBy Lynn Zimmerman
Associate Editor
Editor, Teacher Education

All across the U.S., school districts invest in a variety of types of technology, and they want to see results from their investment. To integrate technology effectively, educators need a framework to determine if and how technology meets their students’ learning needs and what they may need in the future. Several frameworks for technology use and integration have been developed and are used to promote technology in the classroom. Two common frameworks are SAMR and TPACK.

SAMR

In the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition) framework, substitution and augmentation are defined as ways to replace and enhance existing tools that the teacher might use in a learning task. Modification and redefinition transform a task in a way that would not be possible without technology.  

The TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) framework treats technology knowledge (TK), pedagogical knowledge (PK), and content knowledge (CK) as functioning “individually as well as together” (Hilton, 2015, p. 70) when creating learning tasks and activities.

Kimmons & Hall (2017) suggest that while TPACK is popular with researchers, SAMR is favored by practitioners. Hilton (2015) supports this notion. He says that “SAMR seems to place the students as the primary subjects, whereas TPACK focuses on the teacher (p. 72).

What is your experience with either of these or other frameworks?

__________
References

Hilton, J.T. (2015). A case study of the application of SAMR and TPACK for reflection on technology integration into two social studies classrooms. The Social Studies, 107 (2), 68-73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2015.1124376

Kimmons, R. and Hall, C. (2017). How useful are our models? Pre-service and practicing teacher evaluations of technology integration models. TechTrends, 62, 29–36. DOI 10.1007/s11528-017-0227-8.

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