Exploring teachers’ needs for guidance while designing for technology-enhanced learning with digital tools

Abstract

Supporting teachers to represent their teaching ideas has attracted researchers’ interest in developing digital learning design tools that provide some form of guidance around the design practice in a Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) environment. This paper reports on a study in a teacher education context utilising WebCollage as the learning design tool. The research focuses on teachers’ needs on determining resources and technologies while designing for TEL. Our findings convey that teachers’ needs converge towards a learning design tool providing flexibility to the designer to either (i) utilise a sound scaffolding mechanism incorporating a taxonomy that follows technology advancements or (ii) determine applying resources and technologies without providing any guidance. These findings may stimulate momentum for further attention to researchers involved with learning design tools’ development.