The Intersection of Preservice Teachers’ Confidence, Perceptions, and Ideas for Using Instructional Technology for Teaching and Learning

Abstract

The evolving landscape of instructional technology is influenced by access to a wide range of technology tools that can be accessed to enhance teaching and learning. Technological tools such as smart phones, apps, tablets, social media, and YouTube exemplify the kinds of resources that are readily available for teaching and learning. Further, the development of different course delivery systems and the exposure to concepts such as flipped classrooms and electronic portfolios have extended the use of mainstream technology into new instructional applications. The ongoing evolution of technology hardware, software, and instructional applications has numerous educational implications. In an effort to understand the implications of the evolving landscape of technology in education we examined the responses of 52 preservice teachers to determine their confidence with, perceptions of, and intentions for using instructional technology to teach and learn. Our research revealed a potential misalignment between the participants’ comfort, perceptions, and intentions for using technology for teaching and learning. Implications and ideas for further research are discussed.