Abstracts

Design-Based Research
Design-based research (DBR) is an educational research approach that addresses real-world educational problems and seeks to improve practice. DBR is part of the educational design research (EDR) research approaches. In educational psychology, the terms educational design research (EDR) and design-based research (DBR) are often used interchangeably when referring to the overall approach. DBR combines theories and practices from education, psychology, and human-computer interaction. It is use-inspired and practitioner-led. Its dual aim is to promote context-specific practical outcomes and advance theoretical knowledge. DBR methodology employs iterative analysis, design, and evaluation cycles to refine educational interventions and plan for their implementation and spread. Various research methods, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method, are utilized depending on the research questions and the investigation stage. As a situated yet systemic approach with practical impact and theoretical contributions, DBR has the potential to transform people, practices, and systems and bring value to educational research. 
Call for Proposals
EdTechnica is currently accepting proposals for new encyclopedia articles on topics of interest to the educational technology community. This is an open and living volume intended to have wide impact and broad reach to practitioners and scholars throughout the world.
Flipped Classroom
A Flipped Classroom is an instructional strategy in which students acquire knowledge at home and practice it in class. This is the opposite of the common practice of teaching new material in class and assigning homework and projects to be completed at home. Flipped classrooms offer students greater freedom to learn at their own pace and more opportunities to engage in active learning than traditional classrooms. The foundation of a flipped classroom is the "flipped learning" component. Numerous studies have examined the impact of flipped learning in K-12 and higher education, and numerous benefits of the flipped classroom have been reported worldwide.
About the Encyclopedia
This encyclopedia is a living volume that provides an entry point for learning about the educational technology field and that evolves over time with additional contributions and resources. Representing the perspectives of educational technology researchers, instructors, designers, developers, and practitioners throughout the world, it includes short, focused articles on foundational topics ranging from learning and design concepts to emerging technologies to policies shaping the future of educational technology. Each article is peer-reviewed and intended to provide an expert and up-to-date understanding of the topic, while also providing a space for community contributors to share helpful resources related to the topic.
Scope
In this encyclopedia, we use the term “Educational Technology” broadly and inclusively to encompass any professional practices, research projects, areas of inquiry, or professional communities that work at the intersection of teaching/learning and technology.
Organizational Structure
EdTechnica seeks to be a democratic, efficient, egalitarian, and ethical organization that allows educational technology professionals to harmoniously work together for the common good. It also seeks to be an open and transparent organization that welcomes individuals with diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
Author Guide

This encyclopedia utilizes a blend of traditional and new approaches to editing and publishing. Contributing authors should leverage diverse expertise to create a resource that is of the greatest possible value to the field.

As a peer-reviewed volume, the encyclopedia is designed to ensure the publication of articles of the highest quality and practical use to the field. As an open encyclopedia, the educational technology community should continually suggest improvements to existing articles in the form of revisions, updates, and supplements. And as a living resource, editors and authors should seek to continuously improve content, processes, and user experiences.

Graphics and Styling
This encyclopedia seeks to provide a uniform aesthetic and user experience and uses a basic style guide to ensure that visuals follow a common theme between articles. Beyond generic APA 7 formatting required of all submissions, the Editorial Board employs the efforts of graphic designers and other professionals to make all visual content elements follow the EdTechnica Style Guide. This provides a sense of unity and an important level of production quality to all materials published in the encyclopedia.
Submit a Manuscript
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Reviewer Guide
This page provides guided instructions on how reviews should be conducted on new submissions and major revisions that are being considered for the encyclopedia. Submissions are only sent out for review after an initial editorial review has been conducted to ensure general content and stylistic alignment with the encyclopedia.
Policy Information
The information on this page is provided primarily for the benefit of Editorial Board members to assist in the administration and future development of the encyclopedia.
Author List
This page provides a list of all authors who have published entries in the encyclopedia.
Author Demographics
One of EdTechnica’s goals is to ensure that knowledge about educational technology is informed by diverse voices and perspectives. As part of this goal, we seek to ensure that our articles include the perspectives of historically marginalized groups in the field, such as women and professionals outside the US. This dashboard provides a quick, up-to-date view of author demographic information across all of our articles to help ensure transparency and track our progress.
Abbreviations
The educational technology field relies upon many abbreviations (e.g., acronyms, initialisms) in both technical literature and common language that may be difficult for novices to decipher. This page provides a simple key for interpreting many common abbreviations that community members are likely to encounter.
Academic Communities of Engagement (ACE) Framework
The Academic Communities of Engagement (ACE) framework was originally created to identify the critical factors that limit or facilitate students’ ability to engage in online and blended learning environments (Borup et al., 2020). Specifically, the ACE framework builds on previous educational psychology research that has three interconnected dimensions of engagement: affective, behavioral, and cognitive (the ABC dimensions of engagement). Within a blended or online learning environment, students can independently engage in learning activities without the support of others. However, much of the existing research has assumed the in-person learning environment and has not considered the affordances and constraints of online and blended environments that can facilitate or inhibit a learner’s ability to engage in learning activities. For instance, the nature of asynchronous online courses can leave learners feeling isolated and require that they exercise more self-regulation abilities compared to their in-person counterparts. These challenges are reflected in online learning’s relatively high attrition rates (Freidhoff, 2021). When online learners’ ability to independently engage affectively, behaviorally, and/or cognitively is insufficient, they require support from others to be successful. The ACE framework defines the ABC dimensions of engagement and explains how environments, communities, and learner characteristics can limit or facilitate academic engagement.
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality (AR) is the integration of digital information, such as images, videos, or 3D models, into the real-world environment, providing an enhanced perception of reality (Yuen, 2011). By overlaying digital information onto the real world, AR enhances the learning experience and provides students with interactive and immersive educational content (Bower et al., 2014). This article explores the concept of AR and its significance in motivating learners, simplifying complex concepts, and creating a dynamic and inclusive learning environment. Additionally, theories that support the integration of AR in educational technology are discussed, followed by myths related to AR and a glimpse into the future of AR in EdTech.
Blended Teaching
Blended teaching is the strategic combination of instruction in two different modalities: online and in-person (Graham, 2021). This article addresses the question of why instructors choose to teach in a blended modality. It also addresses seven common challenges to student engagement that intentional blended strategies can help to overcome. A few practical examples of strategic blends are provided. Finally, two research-based competency frameworks are shared to help blended instructors increase their awareness and self-evaluation of core pedagogical skills for effective blended teaching.
Cognitive Load Theory
Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), formulated by John Sweller, describes how working memory processes information and includes three types: intrinsic, extraneous, and germane. Each type of cognitive load plays a crucial role in educational technology and instructional design, and by minimizing extraneous cognitive load and promoting germane cognitive load, educators can enhance learning effectiveness. CLT has become widely recognized as an influential framework in educational research, guiding instructional practices and fostering continuous improvement in designing effective and engaging learning experiences for students.
Creative Commons Licenses
Creative Commons (CC) licenses are a series of open licenses that provide a simplified method for creators (i.e., copyright holders) to license materials in a way that is more open to the public. The three-layer design simplifies the CC licenses while still providing versions that can be read and used by lawyers and computers. The six CC licenses are: CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-ND, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-SA, and CC BY-NC-ND. Other tools are the CC0 and Public Domain Mark.
Decision-based Learning
Decision-based learning (DBL) is a teaching method that organizes instruction around the conditional knowledge that guides experts’ decision-making processes. An expert unpacks how they make decisions in the given domain to create an expert decision model, which can be represented visually. Students use the model to guide them through real-world problems or scenarios. Instruction is available at each decision point. Soon, students must perform without the model’s help. Appropriate use of DBL helps students function in the domain and lays a necessary foundation for understanding and applying underlying theories of the discipline.
Emergency Remote Teaching
Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) is “a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate delivery mode due to crisis circumstances” (Hodges et al., 2020, para. 13). In contrast to online learning, this term describes instruction that is entirely remote and is not as robust as intentionally planned and well-designed online learning solutions. While ERT relies solely on technology-mediated learning and can include online learning, it is not limited to online learning solutions. For example, it may involve the use of radio, print, television, telephone, mobile devices, and other mediating technologies that can be delivered remotely. ERT is also different from education in emergencies, which often involves longer-term solutions to address emergency or crisis situations such as displaced refugees, although at times the two may be difficult to distinguish. Hodges et al. (2021) emphasize three characteristics of ERT – temporal in nature, immediacy of an emergency, and the remote nature of instruction – all of which are essential in distinguishing ERT from other terms it may be conflated with, such as online learning or education in emergencies. The purpose of this chapter is to position ERT as a unique term requiring a clear definition of the construct in relation to other prior or emergent adjacent constructs such as education in emergencies and pandemic pedagogy.
Help-seeking
Help-seeking occurs when learners realize a gap in their learning, and they seek assistance to bridge the existing gap. Traditionally, they engage in conversations with instructors or peers for constructive advice in both face-to-face settings and online learning environments. The advent of technologies has greatly diversified learners’ help-seeking options. Studies on help-seeking focus predominantly on the correlational relationship between learners’ demographics like gender, major, characteristics, motivational beliefs, mastery or performance goals, and their help-seeking behavior without enough attention to learners’ online help-seeking pattern (Cheng et al., 2013, Tanaka, 2002). Research on help-seeking strategies can support students in a variety of formal and informal learning environments and their psychological decision-making.
Information Literacy
Recent information studies literature defines information literacy as the set of integrated abilities and dispositions encompassing the understanding of how information systems function, the reflective discovery of information, and the use of information in sharing and creating new knowledge so as to participate wisely in a variety of settings. An information literate person will display a critical understanding of how information systems function and will wisely and intentionally participate in those systems as they consume, create, and share information to strengthen and serve professional, religious, family, and civic communities. Various library organizations have developed theories on information literacy, but everyone has a responsibility to learn and teach information literacy skills.
Makerspaces
Makerspaces are experiential learning environments that facilitate creative activities, problem solving, collaborative learning, and in-depth exploration of disciplinary concepts. These spaces generally support active, hands-on, highly engaging learning experiences that promote learner agency, self-regulation, and product-oriented learning. Makerspaces commonly include technology such as 3D printers, cutting machines, laser printers, heat presses, dyers, and computers with various design software. Makerspaces also include less technological resources such as general arts and crafts supplies. In educational settings, makerspaces are commonly housed in library or lab settings, mobile carts, or within individual classrooms; however, makerspaces can also be found in communities’ informal learning spaces like libraries and workshops.
Microcredentials
Microcredentials (or micro-credentials) are the records of the learning outcomes that a learner has acquired following a small volume of learning, which is assessed against transparent and clearly defined criteria (European Commission, 2022). While there is no global consensus on the definition of a microcredential, the above definition adopted by all EU Member States goes beyond the bottom-up movement of issuing open badges. It distinguishes microcredentials as (digital) proofs of meeting defined learning outcomes that are assessed, quality-assured, and verified by a trusted body. Moreover, microcredentials are expected to provide metadata transparently showing the learner’s identity, awarding body, date of issue, study hours needed to achieve the learning outcomes (including credit value and level if applicable), type of assessment, and form of participation. While other terms are often used interchangeably to refer to microcredentials (e.g., digital badges, digital credentials, online certificates, alternative credentials, nano-degrees, micromasters, master tracks, and specializations), they do not always meet the above requirements. Importantly, the definition in this paper, which draws on contemporary international developments in the area, positions microcredentials as a core feature of the 21st-century credentialing ecosystem where they can be stackable or combinable with other verified qualifications or used on their own as evidence of learning.
Microlearning
Microlearning is a strategy of delivering short, stand-alone instruction with one or two knowledge or skill-based objectives as part of or within formal, non-formal and informal learning environments through any modality. There are varying definitions of the term microlearning in the literature. Paul (2016), for example, refers to microlearning as a form of e-learning delivered in small chunks, focused on delivering skill-based and just-in-time learning, which is competency-based and immediacy-focused (see Figure 1). Others define the term from a problem-centred, and connectivist view that engages students to “solve a problem, direct their own learning, apply their knowledge or connect with others” (Major & Calandrino, 2018, p. 2). From a connectivist view (De Gagne et al., 2019), microlearning prioritizes the development of learners’ capacity to connect and associate multiple ideas and resources from different microlearning objects. As a result, learners can connect with diverse sources of information and their peers, leading to a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
Online Mentoring
Online mentoring is “a computer mediated, mutually beneficial relationship between a mentor and a protege which provides learning, advising, encouraging, promoting, and modeling that is often boundaryless, egalitarian, and qualitatively different than traditional face-to-face mentoring” (Bierema & Merriam, 2002, p. 219). While online mentoring has been available since the advent of internet access, it is evolving to become a transformative educational and professional development strategy. By creating collaborative learning experiences between mentees and mentors, online mentoring advances a learning vision where mentorship transcends cultural, geographical, and physical barriers, enhances inclusivity, and fosters holistic development within an increasingly interconnected global community. The democratization of mentorship also encourages belonging and engagement and provides new opportunities for self-directed learning (DeWaard & Chavhan, 2020; Olivier & Trivedi, 2021).
Open Educational Practices
Open educational practices (OEP) is an umbrella term that includes the creation, use, and reuse of open educational resources (OER); pedagogical practices encouraging peer learning, collaborative knowledge creation, sharing, and empowerment of learners; and systemic and structural initiatives to support and embed openness. The underlying values of OEP match those of open education more broadly, i.e. enabling educational access, ensuring inclusivity, and furthering equity. Examples of OEP include using OER, renewable/non-disposable assignments (where students publish work openly), collaborative annotation, Wikipedia editing, open courses, and engaging in open learning/teaching communities, among many others. Some people use the terms 'OEP' and 'open pedagogy' interchangeably, while others consider OEP to be a broader concept, inclusive of open pedagogy, as the latter focuses primarily on teaching practices (see Open Pedagogy). OEP can be enacted at the level of individual artifacts, modules or programs (via OER, open pedagogy, open textbooks, open learning design) as well as systemically across institutional structures (via open education policies, open publishing practices, reward/recognition structures). Recent OEP research focuses on the importance of critical and social justice approaches, reflecting wider trends in digital and higher education. Such approaches acknowledge the importance of context and power relations and encourage diverse, inclusive, and equitable approaches to openness.
Open Educational Resources
Open educational resources (OER) are copyrightable works useful for educational purposes that exist in the public domain or under a copyright license that provides free and perpetual permission to retain, revise, remix, reuse, and redistribute (collectively known as the “5R Activities''). The term “Open Educational Resources” was originally coined at a 2002 Forum on Open Courseware organized by the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO; UNESCO, 2002). OER comprise the foundational component of the broader concept of Open Education and may include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, videos, tests, and any other copyrightable physical or digital tools or materials used to support access to knowledge (Hewlett Foundation, 2022). Creative Commons provides the most commonly used legal schema for granting an open license to a copyrightable educational resource (Creative Commons, 2020a, 2020b; Kimmons, 2018). Instructional techniques that utilize or rely on OER are generally classified as Open Educational Pedagogy, Open Educational Practices, or OER-Enabled Pedagogy (Wiley, 2013, 2015, 2017).
Open Pedagogy
Open pedagogy is a set of teaching practices built on the foundation of the open education community’s shared values, including but not limited to student agency, sharing, diversity and inclusion, peer learning, renewable assignments, co-creation/collaboration, and active/experiential learning. Though there is a lack of consensus around the definition of open pedagogy, it most often refers to student involvement in the development of course content in the form of renewable assignments or the creation or adaptation of open educational resources (OER). The practice of open pedagogy may result in or overlap with OER-enabled pedagogy and open educational practices.
Open Recognition
Open recognition is the use of open technologies and practices to recognize all learning, including learning not formally recognized by traditional degrees and certificates. It encompasses similar concepts such as microcredentials, open/digital badges, blockcerts, verifiable credentials, and comprehensive learner records. The goal of open recognition is to recognize all learning, whether in formal educational settings or in non-formal or informal learning practices, and to create technologies for collecting, sharing, and displaying these learning recognitions. In this article I discuss the important role that credentials and learning recognition plays in society, and then contrast an open recognition approach with more traditional approaches to recognizing and credentialing learning. I discuss various new technologies to emerge to promote microlearning and credentialing, but argue for open recognition as a more expansive view, enabling us to recognize all learning from formal, non-formal, and informal settings.
Personalized Learning
Personalized learning is an instructional strategy that tailors instruction to learners’ unique backgrounds, interests, abilities, or needs, and commonly includes the prescription that learners have some voice and choice (i.e., agency) in such tailoring. Personalized learning is not a new strategy, though it has seen a rise in popularity in research and practice since the turn of the 21st century. Personalized learning has also seen a variety of descriptions and implementations since the turn of the 21st century. Various definitions of personalized learning have required the pedagogy to include some semblance of mastery-based learning, strong connections between learners or others included in the instruction, engaging instruction, and/or individual learning plans for each learner. There has also been a demand to describe personalized learning by including a more detailed awareness of what learning is being personalized, how it is being personalized, who controls the personalization, and what data informs the personalization.
Phenomenology
Phenomenology is the contemplative study of human experience. It refers to a philosophical framework as well as a methodology that can inform educational practice and research. It seeks to reveal and understand how phenomena may be experienced as they are actually lived in the everyday world, or what some phenomenologists refer to as the lifeworld. Phenomenological philosophy suggests that everything in the lifeworld is inextricably connected in a social context, and so phenomenology aims to be more attentive to such meaningful connections—or intentional relations—within lived experiences and to illuminate them as a means to deeply understand the experience of the phenomenon under focus. Phenomenology can support all aspects of education by increasing sensitivity toward the many processes and practices it involves. When used as a naturalistic research methodology with qualitative methods of data collection and analysis, it can provide authentic insight for educators to use educational technologies in ethical and socially responsible ways.
Prompt Literacy

Prompt literacy enables anyone to communicate with and direct generative AI systems without needing expertise in computer programming. Prompts are commands formulated in natural human language that unlock the capabilities of AI and guide its outputs. With prompt literacy, people can successfully interact with generative AI to achieve defined objectives, while exercising judgment and responsibility. Prompts serve as an accessible interface between users and automated systems, translating human intents into AI-compatible directives. Effectively crafted prompts are key to enabling generative AI to produce meaningful, targeted results. Just as traditional literacy involves mastering the written word, developing prompt literacy requires learning how to clearly formulate instructions for AI in its processing language. Command of this skill allows humans to reap benefits from AI, directing its open-ended potential to useful and ethical ends through targeted prompts.

Professional Learning Networks
Professional learning networks (PLNs) are uniquely crafted and dynamic learning ecosystems, consisting of people, spaces, and tools that meet an educator’s professional needs, interests, and goals (Trust et al., 2016). They serve as a means through which people grow in aspects of their professions. The people within a PLN are individuals who provide career-based feedback, advice, ideas, emotional support, and/or mentoring (Krutka et al., 2017; Trust et al., 2016). The spaces within a PLN are physical, digital, and hybrid places that support or enable professional knowledge building with and from others, such as conferences, workshops, webinars, Twitter chats, unconferences, Reddit forums, and massive open online courses (Trust & Prestridge, 2021). The tools within a PLN are physical resources (e.g., books, curriculum materials) and digital technologies (e.g., Internet search databases, social bookmarking tools, blogs) that are used to access, curate, construct, and disseminate professional knowledge (Trust et al., 2018). Taken together, the people, spaces, and tools within a PLN can support ongoing professional learning and growth for individuals in any academic or organizational context.
PICRAT
PICRAT is a technology integration model for teacher education intended to assist teachers in improving their classroom practices. PICRAT (Kimmons et al., 2020; see Figure 1) has two parts representing two guiding questions: PIC and RAT. The PIC part responds to the question “What is the student’s relationship to the technology” with one of three responses: Passive, Interactive, or Creative. The RAT (Hughes et al., 2006) part responds to the question “How is the use of technology influencing the teacher’s existing practice” with one of three responses: Replacement, Amplification, or Transformation. Answers to these two questions are organized into a 3x3 visual matrix (with PR on the bottom left and CT on the top-right; see Figure 1). Practices are interpreted hierarchically with more active, more effective, and better-justified classroom technology practices generally occurring at the top-right of the matrix.
Q Methodology
Q Methodology is a unique approach to research tailored for discerning and quantifying subjective perspectives. Developed by Stephenson (1935) in response to perceived reductionism in the psychological and social sciences, it prioritizes the individual's unique perspective rather than generalized characteristics seen across large populations. Q methodology merges both quantitative and qualitative measures in data collection, with the Q sort, a forced-sort process, standing out prominently. Analyzing Q data requires a blend of statistical methods and qualitative exploration, enabling a nuanced understanding of the subject's viewpoint. Brown (1993) emphasizes this interplay, positioning the mathematical component as auxiliary. Finding its application spread across diverse fields like health sciences, psychology, journalism, education, and environmental policy, Q methodology features two main design paradigms: single-participant design and multiple-participant design. While single-participant design delves deeply into individual self-perspectives, multiple-participant design explores shared viewpoints among different groups. Q methodology’s unique lexicon features terms such as Concourse, Q set, and P set, which underscores its comprehensive approach to studying subjectivity.
RAT
The Replacement, Amplification, Transformation (RAT) framework is a technology integration model and assessment tool that instructors can use to critically consider how their integration of technology in their classrooms serves their students and themselves. Originally developed by Dr. Joan Hughes in 1998, the RAT model aimed to study how teachers developed and integrated technology for teaching, learning, and curriculum development (Hughes, 2022). Hughes, Thomas, & Scharber (2006) further positioned the model as a framework for self-assessing technology integration "as a means to some pedagogical and curricular end." In her RAT Question Guide (2022), Hughes provides suggestions for extending this self-assessment to the school/district level. There are three primary purposes for technology integration outlined within the framework: to Replace existing, often non-digital, practices; to Amplify existing practices; and to Transform teaching, learning, and curricular goal development through digital practices.
Self-Efficacy
Self-Efficacy is grounded in Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (1977, 1986) and is the belief that motivation to learn as a student, or acquire new teaching strategies as a teacher, is based on two variables: (1) the belief that one can successfully learn and apply the subject and (2) the belief that there is a positive outcome from the learning. Self-efficacy theory is robust in that it applies to all disciplines and behaviors. To achieve maximum student learning, educators must be attuned to the self-efficacy levels of their students as well as their own levels. Research by Hickman (1993, 2019), DeMoulin (1993), and Ashton (1985) have drawn clear correlations between levels of self-efficacy and student achievement. For faculty, self-efficacy is related to openness in acquiring new strategies, adopting technological innovations, avoiding burnout, and remaining current in their fields (Hickman & Sherman, 2019).
Technocentrism
Technocentrism is the tendency to view technology as a central component for addressing complex social issues and driving transformative changes. In the context of education, technocentrism manifests as an excessive focus on the use of technology in teaching, learning, and assessment processes through prioritising the adoption of technological tools, platforms, and digital resources to enhance educational outcomes without adequately considering the broader educational context. According to Papert (1987), technocentric thinking leads to questions that investigate the impact of technology on human interaction and development, such as learning, without considering the complexity of the context in which the technology is situated. Technocentric thinking separates digital technologies from their social and cultural context and suggests a one-way influence of technology on educational policies and practices, including pedagogy, teacher roles, and education objectives. Researchers in the digital education field have proposed several approaches to address technocentrism in education by acknowledging the role of technology and the complexity of the relationships between different social and material components in the educational setting (cf., Brennan, 2015; O’Donoghue et.al, 2001; Papert, 1988).
Technology Infusion in Teacher Preparation
A technology-infused preparation program teaches candidates how to use technology as a program-deep and program-wide curricular area. The goal of an infused program is to graduate PK-12 educators who are technology-capable from day one as certified teachers. In contrast to the common practice of addressing technology integration through a single course, technology-infused programs require a continual approach to supporting teacher candidates by addressing their ever-changing, developmental needs. Some PK-12 preparation programs adopt a technology-infused approach because they want to systematically address technology integration in a concerted effort. An infused approach is founded on Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK; Koehler & Mishra, 2009; Mishra & Koehler, 2006). Given that an infused approach represents a system-wide effort, Foulger suggested preparation programs address the pillars in their design. preparation programs can leverage the four pillars when they conceptualize their approach. The four pillars include (a) technology integration curriculum, (b) modeled experiences, (c) practice with reflection, and (d) technology self-efficacy (Foulger, 2020; Borthwick et al., 2020). Scholars recommend preparation programs should strive to recognize the interrelatedness of the pillars (for example, Warr et al., 2023; Jin et al., 2023; Sprague et al., 2023; Williams et al., 2023). As the ultimate measure of success, a program-wide design establishes technology self-efficacy, defined in part by candidates’ confidence in their preparedness to teach with technology in future contexts (Buss, 2020).
TPACK
The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) Framework describes the types of knowledge required by teachers for the successful and effective integration of technology in teaching. The most current representation of the framework is in the form of a three-circle Venn diagram within a larger circle. At the center are three partially overlapping circles representing three key knowledge domains: Content Knowledge (CK), Pedagogical Knowledge (PK) and Technological Knowledge (TK). The fourth circle (typically shown as a dotted line) encompasses the three overlapping circles and represents Contextual Knowledge (XK). Most importantly, the TPACK framework proposes that effective integration of technology in teaching requires the integration of the four TPACK knowledge domains—a form of knowledge greater than the knowledge of each of these domains in isolation. It is, instead, a recognition and deep understanding that these knowledge domains exist in tension with each other and that effective technology integration requires finding the right balance that connects the affordances of the technology with the requirements of the content and the pedagogical approaches given a particular educational context.