När möjlighet blir svårighet : Historielärares erfarenheter av digitala läroböcker

Sammanfattning: The aim of this paper is to examine the role of digital textbooks in education of history and how teachers’ reason regarding their usability compared to printed textbooks. Prior studies have shown that teachers’ technical know-how and the amount of support they are given in the initial stages of using digital textbooks affect how well the implementation work. Furthermore, the digital format seems to offer a richer learning material as the digital books contain pedagogical functions beside the text. However, they are also more difficult to use than printed textbooks. Six history teachers were interviewed in this study, using a semi-structured interview method. The theoretical framework TPCK was used to manage the empirical data. This framework identifies three different aspects of the digital textbook that need to work properly and cooperate for the digital textbook to be considered an adequate tool for teaching. According to the informants, the way digital books are designed and the way they are navigated makes them difficult to use compared to the printed textbooks. One nameworthy advantage is that the content of digital textbooks can be updated almost instantly, therefore, the publishers can add information concerning contemporary events that are relevant for history education. Both low quality and a need for educational variation explained the low usage of digital textbooks. Only two of the six informants stated that they use the digital textbook as a point of departure in their teaching. Furthermore, many functions of the digital textbook are redundant. They seem designed to constitute the only teaching material a teacher would need; however few teachers are willing to limit themselves to this. The study shows the need for publishers to improve the navigation and overall design of digital textbooks to make them more user friendly. Furthermore, it is important that the publishers provide educational and customer support for the teachers using the digital textbooks to help them get started as it is crucial that the schools’ routines for implementing digital textbooks work properly.