Technological, pedagogical and content knowledge in one-to-one classroom: teachers developing “digital wisdom”

One-to-one (1X1) laptop initiatives become prevalent in schools aiming to enhance active learning and assist students in developing twenty-first-century skills. This paper reports a qualitative investigation of all 7th graders and their 15 teachers in a junior high-school in Northern Israel gradually implementing 1X1 model. The research was conducted during a second year of 1X1 implementation at the school level, which was a first year of teaching and learning with laptops for all study participants. The study triangulates non-participant lessons’ observations and semi-structured interviews with 15 teachers. The data were collected twice: at the beginning and toward the end of the 2011–2012 academic year – in total, 30 observations and 30 interviews were conducted. The results were examined through phenomenological research techniques and discussed in terms of the technological, pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) and “digital wisdom” approaches. The teachers showed significant increase of technological knowledge. However, only moderate connections between technology and pedagogy as well as between technology and content were found. Some of the teachers functioned as moderators, scaffolding students and supporting their individual or collaborative learning. However, many teachers struggled with effective management of 1X1 classroom. Neither conjunction of teacher TPACK nor facilitation of student digital skills was observed. The paper suggests an overlap of the TPACK framework and the digital wisdom approach and provides implications for curriculum developers and educational policy-makers.