Planning lessons has become an exercise of reflecting on what we are teaching, how we are engaging students in the learning process, and where the learning happens. Including technology in the mix can help making the what, how and where more effective and focused. For this, Kimmons et al. (2020) created the PICRAT (Passive/Interactive/Creative use by students; Replacing/Amplifying/Transforming traditional practice) model to aid teachers plan technologically rich lessons that will engage students in the learning process and facilitate the teaching and delivery of content through digital and online tools. This model can be used as a guide to evaluate the role of tools in the classroom and students’ engagement and interactions with them.

As part of my doctoral research, I am looking at how student teachers enrolled in a MA programme in language teacher education are using technology in their teaching practice. Following two workshops as an intervention where participants are presented with some online tools for language teaching, they plan and teach an online session as part of their teaching practice and submit the lesson plans for analysis, which will add some insights to the study. These lesson plans are then evaluated using the PICRAT matrix for technology integration.