App-lying TPACK: Integrating iPads into Instruction for Students with Mild Disabilities
Abstract: This study provides insight into preservice teachers’ experiences with integrating iPad apps into lessons with children who had mild disabilities. Participants were 10 junior early childhood education majors enrolled in a special education course with a fieldwork component. The researchers collected and analyzed lesson plans, journal entries, focus group interviews, and field notes. The findings illustrate how preservice teachers integrated iPad apps into instruction, describe participants’ reactions to using the iPad, analyze technology-related instructional decisions, and identify how those decisions exhibited emerging technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK). The preservice teachers combined their knowledge of pedagogy, student understanding of content, and emerging knowledge of iPad apps to effectively develop and conduct lessons in various content areas. Overall, the experience was beneficial to both preservice teachers and the students with mild disabilities.