From Digital Doubt to Digital Confidence: Tracking Capability in Teacher Education with Katie Wilson

In between PhD data sets, teacher educator Katie Wilson took on a small reflective project with her first-year students — and what she found was bigger than expected.

In this episode, Katie (a lecturer at ACU in Brisbane) shares how tracking pre-service teachers’ digital confidence across a semester opened up unexpected insights about capability, curriculum, and identity. Grounded in ACARA’s digital requirements, framed through TPACK and the Digital Capability Continuum, this isn’t just a tech talk — it’s a powerful reflection on what it means to teach with intention in a digitally complex world.

With honesty, humour, and deep practical insight, Katie unpacks how small changes in delivery can lead to big shifts in confidence — and why teacher educators should never assume their students “just know how to use the tech.”

Further Reading: For Listeners Who Want to Dive Deeper

 Digital Capability & Continuums

• Cain, M., & Coldwell-Neilson, J. (2020). Reviewing digital capability in higher education: A framework for benchmarking.
  • The foundation of the Digital Capability Continuum used in this project.
• Jisc (2022). Building digital capability: The six elements framework.
  • A practical model used widely in HE to map digital development for staff and students.

Pedagogical Frameworks (TPACK & PedTech)

• Koehler, M.J., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK)?
  • The core article introducing the TPACK framework, which underpins the pedagogical lens in the project.
• Aubrey-Smith, F. (2022). From EdTech to PedTech: Changing the way we think about digital technology in education.
  • Katie’s favourite! A brilliant, accessible reflection on using tech with purpose, not just presence.

Digital Identity, Literacy & Confidence

• Ng, W. (2012). Can we teach digital natives digital literacy?
  • Unpacks the myth of the “digital native” and what real digital literacy requires.
• Couch, J. (2019). Rewiring Education: How Technology Can Unlock Every Student’s Potential.
  • Accessible and practical, this text provokes deep thinking about designing learning in the digital age.

Let us know your thoughts on this episode