The classroom environments are fast changing, and now more than ever it is essential to evaluate what we are doing, and how we are doing it so that we can make the most of the time we have with our students. A classroom is not just a physical space anymore, but a space where teaching and learning happen and in recent years, we have seen a shift from face-to-face and online to more blended learning and digitalisation.

As we move into more technology-rich teaching, it is important to ensure that we plan lessons with appropriate and efficient use of digital technologies and online tools to help us achieve our pedagogical goals. To enable teachers to reflect on their integration of digital and online tools in the classroom, the PICRAT model (Kimmons et al. 2020) was devised to facilitate the assessment of technology integration in lesson plans by evaluating the role technological tools play in contrast with traditional tools, and how students are interacting with these tools.

This paper aims to showcase a section of a doctoral research study in which technology integration is put to the forefront of teaching practice in English language teacher education. As part of this study, participants get the opportunity to participate in technology integration workshops where a list of recommended tools for a variety of purposes and aims is explored for English language teaching within a communicative approach. After this intervention, participants plan an online lesson as part of their training and submit the lesson plans for analysis, which will inform the main body of the study. The online tools included in the lesson plans are analysed using the PICRAT matrix to evaluate the purpose and function of these within the lessons. A collection of tools will then be put together for further recommendations.

Keywords: Technology integration, teacher education, online tools, PICRAT.