Evaluation of pre-service teachers’ technology acceptance of a mobile social networking App for teachers’ professional development

Abstract

Our research group has implemented a professional development platform for teachers, WIDEKM (Web-based Instructional Design Environment with Knowledge Management modules) since 2006. WIDEKM was mainly a blog-based professional development environment that, in a recent count, had approximately twenty thousand members, but the social interaction between teachers was still limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the technology acceptance and usage motivation of the pre-service teachers after they operated a mobile social networking application (WIDEKM App) that was developed by our research group in 2012 to promote interaction between the teachers. There were 10 participants in this pilot study. The results of technology acceptance showed that most participants expressed positive attitudes toward most WIDEKM App functions.