The use of a tablet PC for instruction : a theoretical framework

Abstract

This article is about my own journey and my reflections during my first month of using technology for instruction. The context was the use of a tablet PC and the possibilities that it creates for teaching mathematics to pre-calculus and calculus pre-service teaching students. This study attempts to understand, from the inside, the use computers for instruction, which is why the lecturer himself was also the principal researcher in this study. The advantage of using my own practice as a site for studying the processes of integrating technology into teaching is that it offers special possibilities for insight into and understanding of the thinking and emotions involved. This research may be seen as a special case of a qualitative case study. After three months of using technology for instructional purposes, I tried to make sense of my own journey by analysing my reflections using the Theory of Planned Behaviour as a theoretical framework. It was found that this theory, after some adaptations, might be used to clarify and understand my own use of technology for instruction.