It can be argued that there has been little empirical research undertaken to explore the ‘digital readiness’ of academic staff in Universities and particularly those in Teacher Education. Indeed, surveys of teachers in schools have revealed serious shortcomings in their ability to use ICT and digital technologies as tools for learning with students (OECD, 2007-2008).
Despite this, mobile technologies such as tablets are proliferating in schools and there is a growing concern that these technologies are being used to replicate rather than challenge existing pedagogical practices, despite some pockets of excellence which have been identified in recent studies (see Burden, Hopkins et al., 2012; Heinrich, 2012). Therefore in 2013 Burden and Kearney (two of the project partners in the MTTEP project) conducted an exploratory world-wide online survey to identify how educators use mobile technologies in their teaching and learning. Over two hundred participants completed the survey of whom 45 were teacher educators and 50 were lecturers in universities. Analysis revealed that staff in Higher Education are aware of the potential value of using mobile technologies with students but do not yet recognise how some of the specific affordances of these devices such as their portability, spontaneity and personal ownership can be used to give students more control over their own learning or in ways outside of formal learning contexts, thus equipping them with essential 21st century learning and employability skills and attitudes (Kearney, et al., 2015). These findings suggest there is a pressing need to provide much greater guidance for teacher educators on how they might use mobile technologies to leverage pedagogical change and also the need to underpin this with a sound framework for practice.
This view has led to a series of objectives which underpin the MTTEP project. The objectives are :