"It's good because he said so" – the effects of pre-service teachers' passive vs. constructive engagement on technology acceptance
- Pre-service teachers’ rather suboptimal use of technology in teaching may be explained by low levels of technology acceptance. We assumed that encouraging pre-service teachers to constructively engage with information about technology rather than passively reading information about tools should increase their perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU) and intention to use (ITU). N=53 pre-service teachers were either asked to read a blog post about the potential of a mind mapping tool (passive condition) or to work on small tasks that covered the same informational aspects as the blog post (constructive condition). Contrary to our assumptions, reading a blog post significantly contributed to preservice teachers' PEU and PU (in tendency) compared to working constructively on open-ended tasks. The results also suggest that it may be necessary to differentiate between the learning activity that is prompted and the activity that is performed. Possible explanations for thesePre-service teachers’ rather suboptimal use of technology in teaching may be explained by low levels of technology acceptance. We assumed that encouraging pre-service teachers to constructively engage with information about technology rather than passively reading information about tools should increase their perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU) and intention to use (ITU). N=53 pre-service teachers were either asked to read a blog post about the potential of a mind mapping tool (passive condition) or to work on small tasks that covered the same informational aspects as the blog post (constructive condition). Contrary to our assumptions, reading a blog post significantly contributed to preservice teachers' PEU and PU (in tendency) compared to working constructively on open-ended tasks. The results also suggest that it may be necessary to differentiate between the learning activity that is prompted and the activity that is performed. Possible explanations for these effects will be discussed.…
