Pre-service Teacher ICT Tool-kit: The Role of the Setting

For some time, Teacher Education policy and research has consistently argued that graduates are ill prepared to use ICT in their practice (TEMAG, 2015). In Australia, an increasing regulatory environment means that Teacher Education providers need to meet national accreditation demands as well as design programs that address professional standards for graduates where an effective ICT use is a requirement. In an effort to have greater understanding of how to design Teacher Education programs that meet these challenges, this small scale study investigated where 69 pre-service teachers learned how to use a number of ICT resources commonly used in primary and secondary schools. Findings suggest that they learned how to use many resources (particularly general-type resources) in their everyday life prior to undertaking their teaching qualification and that they learned how to use a lesser number in university coursework or practicum in schools. A number of implications for Teacher Education conclude this paper.