It is mediation, not the medium that matters

At a time when teachers have access to a very broad range of technologies for use in their classrooms, it is the choices that teachers make and the way that these choices are deployed and understood that matter most for the outcomes of learners. Introducing a new technology into a classroom involves a number of actions on the part of the teacher, including an assessment of the needs of the learners; a desire to keep the course up-to-date and reflect current industry practice; a decision about the value of a new tool and its final choice; a curriculum that introduces and develops the key issues and skills for using the tool; an on-going dialogue about the assessment process; a set of informed pedagogical processes; and an engagement with other actors within the institution who set up and administer the tool. This is a very complex activity system and if the introduction of this new tool is to be successful, then the teacher needs to expect that there are going to be regular changes to keep the system working effectively and for the learners to keep buying into the process. This paper will explore this system through the case study of a teacher educator making use of WordPress as a Content Management System in a web design course aimed at language and other teachers on an MA module at the University of Manchester.