Every single decision in a classroom, school, or educational organisation is ultimately a pedagogical decision – because it opens up, or closes down, choices that learners and teachers are able to make as part of the process of learning.

PedTech is quite simply about putting pedagogy (rather than practice) in the driving seat of digital technology in education. We might think of it like this;  

• Conversation about Tech keeps our focus on what we use.

• Conversation about EdTech encourages us to think about how we use that tech to support teaching and learning and the immediate impact we expect that to have (i.e., pedagogical approaches or teaching methods).

• Conversation about PedTech encourages us to think about why we use particular approaches to teaching and learning and the impact we expect that to have on our learners longer term (i.e., our pedagogical beliefs).

For example, why do we want learners to collaborate through cloud-based workspaces – how will it affect individual learning trajectories and confidence levels? Why do we use audio-note feedback,online marking, or digital inking – how does this affect when learners engage with feedback and the quality of future work? Why do we want our learners to use adaptive learning websites – how will it affect the depth of learner knowledge and application in other contexts?

These deeper questions invite us to consider the subtle messages that we are communicating to our learners and the impact of the decisions we make about using digital technology in our classrooms. In other words - what are we subconsciously telling our learners about what it means to be a learner and what we value about their learning? What are we inferring about who defines new knowledge? What are we suggesting to learners about the role of other students or adults in their learning? Views about these questions begin to surface embedded pedagogical beliefs.

Dr Fiona Aubrey Smith (2023)