In practice, in many institutions, technology innovation has often been led by individuals piloting new tools with their classes, or enthusing to their colleagues, a characteristic that is common to teachers at all levels of education. This passion, enthusiasm, and desire to experiment and be creative is laudable and should be both recognised and celebrated.

For those who want to take a more systematic approach to considering, evaluating, and planning the use of any technology to support teaching, learning, or assessment, there are well-established frameworks that can help. These are often used by 'instructional designers' and educational technologists, as well as teaching specialists, but it can be useful for all of us to be familiar with the basic principles. We'll look at three of these here: SAMR, TPACK, and ADDIE, before considering more recent, alternative, perspectives on the general issue of the relationship of technology to pedagogy.

SAMR

The four levels of this model consider different ways in which technology can be integrated into teaching and learning. It was developed by a technology consultant (Ruben Puentedura (2014)) and has been used by many multimedia developers and teachers, as a practical tool rather than a research-validated framework. The idea is simple, and that probably explains its appeal.

“Explanation of the SAMR Model” by Lefflerd, licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0

Substitution - this is where a form of technology is used to substitute for another teaching approach. An example (from Bates (2019) being a video recording replacing a lecture.
Augmentation - this is where the introduction of the tool or technology leads to a functional improvement. In the case of the example, the video recording is now placed in an LMS/VLE, split into sections and with questions in each.
Modification - in this level, embedding the technology leads to a significant change in the task. The example now would be the students being asked to analyse video recordings of a process or technique using the principles being taught in the course.
Redefinition - this is where the technology is used to create a new task or educational experience which would not have been possible without the technology. An example is getting students to use their phones to record videos of how they carry out a task and compile these along with other reflections and work in an assignment, or perhaps even as part of a multimedia or e-portfolio,

At a general level, SAMR, can be helpful in thinking about the possible roles of technologies and considering how they might be deployed in a course, but it doesn't perhaps reach deeply enough into the exploration of any potentially transformative integration or at a systemic level. The substitution and augmentation are probably the commonest ways in which some technologies have been used (eg. using PowerPoint presentations to substitute for OHPs (overhead projectors), uploading content to an LMS/VLE) and they are worth considering even in terms of ensuring that you have materials available in a variety of formats to meet the accessibility needs of the range of students in your classes. Some examples of SAMR in school-level education can be found here.

If we look at the ABC learning types cards, we can see examples (printed on the reverse side of each) of substitution, augmentation, modification, and perhaps also, redefinition.

TPACK

Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) considers the interplay of these three types of knowledge (T, P, C) to think about how changes in content, teaching methods, or technology choice might impact on each other.

TPACK illuminates the overlaps and links between these types of knowledge in light of the contexts in which you are teaching.

How does what you know about your content affect how you choose to teach it and vice-versa (PCK)?
How does what you know about your content affect the tools you use when teaching and vice-versa (TCK)?
How does what you know about teaching affect the tools you use when teaching and vice-versa (TPK)?
Finally, how do all three of these types of knowledge mesh together when you teach (TPACK)?

Adapted from https://taylor-institute.ucalgary.ca/resources/SAMR-TPACK Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 License

ADDIE

ADDIE is a fairly standard method (some would argue that it is a little outdated, but it is still very much used) in 'instructional design' and used by major companies and organisations for the development of learning materials. It emphasises a step-by-step approach and the importance of effective design and detailed evaluation.

ADDIE

Wider Perspectives

Whilst these models are quite specific in terms of their description, in practice there is considerable room for flexibility and variation. Indeed, some of the limitations are around the the interpretation of each stage or term, and also the tendency to over-simplify, perhaps, complex learning situations.

To fully grasp the potential and the limitations of technologies, a long standing idea (promoted by Don Norman in his book, 'The Design of Everyday Things') which can prove useful is to consider the 'affordances' that a technology might bring (i.e. what sorts of things we might be able to do with it) as well as the 'constraints' (the limitations that it's use might impose as well as its intrinsic limitations).

Remember the ideas we mentioned earlier from Jon Dron, for example, who suggested we consider the teaching methods as, in a sense, 'technologies', with the role of the teacher is to be able to combine the range of available technologies and resources to help the learners achieve the educational goals. He speaks of 'orchestrating' using technique and technologies, as being a potentially useful way of describing teaching in the digital era.

We also introduced Tim Fawns' argument about technology and pedagogy being 'entangled' and that there is an interplay between the two, with our use of technologies perhaps inspiring us to change how we teach and vice versa, rather than simply SAMR's 'substitution'. His ideas have developed with time and you can learn more here, with the latest version of his diagram on entangled pedagogy shown below.

Fawns' Entangled Pedagogy model

References & Further Information

Dron, Jon. (2023) 'How Education Works: Teaching, Technology, and Technique.' Athabasca University Press. https://www.aupress.ca/books/120320-how-education-works

Fawns, T. (2022). 'An entangled pedagogy: Looking beyond the pedagogy – technology dichotomy.' Postdigital Science and Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-022-00302-7.

Mishra, P. & Koehler, M. J. (2006). 'Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge', Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017-1054. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2006.00684.x

Norman, D. A. (2013). 'The design of everyday things.' MIT Press.