A Conceptual Understanding of how Educational Technology Coaches help Teachers Integrate iPad Affordances into their Teaching

Abstract

Educational technology (ed tech) coaches can help teachers and students integrate iPad affordances into their teaching and learning. A brief overview of affordance theory is provided. While investigating the under‑researched practices of ed tech coaches, the authors identified iPad affordances and tabulated these, revealing links between the iPad’s technological capabilities, technological affordances and pedagogical affordances. Nine iPad technological capabilities, such as the camera, were aligned with some of their technological affordances, such as taking a photo. These were matched to some pedagogical affordances, such as taking a photo for educational purposes. Finally, different categories in the table were combined into six broad strands unveiling how ed tech coaches use them to change teacher pedagogy with benefits for teachers, students and parents. Ed tech coaches often naturally build teachers’ TPACK, mostly through the SAMR model. Specifically, they change teachers’ pedagogy by focusing on polysynchronous teaching and learning; digital, transformed learning; student ownership of learning with teachers as facilitators; students as teachers of content and technology; teachers’ triple agendas of content elaboration, academic argument, and digital citizenship; and student creativity.