Using digital technology in the classroom adds new professional tasks for (student) teachers.

Abstract

This article reports on a study carried out among undergraduate students in their final year, pre-service baccalaureate primary school teachers, enrolled in an optional module on digital technology. For 8 weeks, the 24 participants were paired to develop, try out in primary school classes and analyze pedagogical scenarios aimed at mastering the same content with and without digital tablets. Two research questions are at the heart of this contribution: (1) How do the views of pre-service teachers change as a result of a technology instruction program? and (2) What new professional tasks emerge when they use digital technologies in their internship teaching practices? Several types of data were collected. Content analysis was applied to this material. The results showed in particular that none of the pre-service teachers was totally negative towards digital technologies at the end of the module. They no longer felt uneasy about using them in their classrooms. Those who taught oral language found digital technologies very useful for developing students' skills. This was not the case for those who taught math. Furthermore, the results showed that seven new professional tasks appeared when teaching with digital technologies