Challenges to implementing a new technology in Teacher Education. Phase One: ‘meaningful’ digital reflections.

This paper describes the challenges of introducing a digital tool to trainee teachers. A group of nineteen undergraduate students studying primary education and in their third year of a four year course was introduced to PebblePad5. PebblePad is an online tool which is not new in the world of ITE. However, the latest version has more useful features and is less ‘clunky’ than older versions. The students each had their own private account where eventually they would be expected to store all of their placement files, add multi-modal content and then choose to share some or all of this content publically or by personal invitation via email. One of the benefits for us as an ITE provider is that we can view our students’ files electronically and comment on them without necessarily making the one/two hour round trip to the placement school. Although students used some technology, this research shows that students need more training in using technology competently in the workplace setting. Phase One of the project was to encourage the students to write their reflections on placement digitally. It was hoped that the students would be enthusiastic about using PebblePad and I would see an improvement in the levels of engagement with the reflective process and thus, the quality of teaching and learning as a result of this. Data obtained from questionnaires and a focus group indicate that PebblePad was viewed as a useful tool, but training issues and time constraints of the project meant it was not as successful for this cohort as was hoped. This paper discusses the issues that arose and the plan to overcome these barriers in the next phase of the implementation of PebblePad.

This paper describes the challenges of introducing a digital tool to trainee teachers. A group of
nineteen undergraduate students studying primary education and in their third year of a four year
course was introduced to PebblePad5. PebblePad is an online tool which is not new in the world of
ITE. However, the latest version has more useful features and is less ‘clunky’ than older versions. The
students each had their own private account where eventually they would be expected to store all of
their placement files, add multi-modal content and then choose to share some or all of this content
publically or by personal invitation via email. One of the benefits for us as an ITE provider is that we
can view our students’ files electronically and comment on them without necessarily making the
one/two hour round trip to the placement school. Although students used some technology, this
research shows that students need more training in using technology competently in the workplace
setting. Phase One of the project was to encourage the students to write their reflections on
placement digitally. It was hoped that the students would be enthusiastic about using PebblePad and
I would see an improvement in the levels of engagement with the reflective process and thus, the
quality of teaching and learning as a result of this. Data obtained from questionnaires and a focus
group indicate that PebblePad was viewed as a useful tool, but training issues and time constraints of
the project meant it was not as successful for this cohort as was hoped. This paper discusses the issues
that arose and the plan to overcome these barriers in the next phase of the implementation of
PebblePad.