Employing the TPACK Framework for Researcher-Teacher Co-Design of a Mobile-Assisted Seamless Language Learning Environment

Integrating technologies into teaching and learning poses a significant challenge for many teachers who lack socio-techno-pedagogical know-how and time to design interventions. A possible solution is to design sound technology-enhanced learning (TEL) environments with relevant content and pedagogical tools to reduce teachers’ design efforts. Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is a promising framework for understanding how teachers could integrate technologies into classrooms. Scholars have highlighted the “repurposing” of the framework to inform the design of TEL environments. This study employed the TPACK framework to design the learning environment called ‘MyCLOUD’. MyCLOUD advances the integration of mobile and cloud technologies for self-directed, collaborative and seamless Chinese Language learning among primary students. In this paper, we unpack how the distributed TPACK resources among the teachers and the researchers have contributed to the design of the learning environment. The analysis is accomplished through researchers’ coding and consolidation of 42 meeting minutes throughout the developmental period, thereby outlining the trajectory of the researcher-teacher co-design of the learning environment as a manifestation of newly created TPACK. This is followed by a study of students’ perceived usability of the platform, with all three subscales of the user acceptance survey scoring above the mid-point of 3 in their respective mean values. This research contributes to current development of TEL by using the TPACK framework to widen the design considerations that go beyond what is technologically possible to include what is pedagogically desirable for a specific content learning.