As the participants pointed out, vocabulary apps such as Quizlet and Educandy, used by Bea, Kamilla, Rebeka and Tímea, facilitate the quick creation of vocabulary banks which can be then learned and revised by students in multiple ways. When using Quizlet, students may memorise the words by matching them to pictures, by listening to the words and then typing them, or by typing the words based on their definitions or Hungarian equivalents. As the different modes of practice offered by these apps differ in terms of the learning styles they tap into as well as the challenge and difficulty they pose for students, they may be considered as examples of how technology can cater for students’ readiness levels and learning profiles, a proposition put forward by several authors in the field (Benjamin, 2014; Stanford et al., 2010; Zeng, 2020).

Interactive activity sets presented in the form of a bingo or menu (Emma), an online quest (Rebeka) or QR code collection (Tímea) that students can complete individually on a PC, tablet or mobile phone were another practice identified in the responses. This practice involves compiling a collection of links that direct students to online activities of varying levels of difficulty and complexity, often created or re-assigned on websites such as LearningApps or Wordwall. The teachers share these collections with the students either on learning management platforms such as Google Classroom (Tímea), gamification platforms such as Classcraft (Rebeka), by using interactive content creation tools such as Genially (Rebeka) and Canva (Emma), through web-based organisation tools like Symbaloo (Emma) or with QR codes projected on the smartboard or printed on paper and placed at various points in the classroom (Tímea). While in some cases the activities are sequenced in an order of gradual difficulty and students need to proceed with the activities in a linear fashion, in other cases students are given freedom to decide which tasks they would like to complete based on their readiness levels, interests, and learning styles. As Emma put it, these gamified collections provide a great opportunity to “support individual learning paths” (Emma). Rebeka shared a similar view by explaining that when students work on these quests:

Emma also dedicates time in her lessons for students to hold “genius hours”, where, using the abovementioned content creation tools such as Canva and PowerPoint, they present on a topic that they are genuinely interested in and good at. In Kamilla’s classes, a similar practice is followed as every trimester each student designs an individual project which they then present to their peers. As she put it, the focus is on strengthening their self-efficacy:

Kamilla and Rebeka revealed another practice of theirs is to ask students to create stories in the form of a comic strip using the online tool Pixton. As Rebeka explained, these tasks require “a great extent of creativity” as students can change the appearance and the position of the characters as well as the background while they are creating stories about a given topic or grammar structure. The app can be used in collaborative mode too, which means that students work on the same comic strip but focus on different aspects: the visuals, the texts, or the storyline. The final products can be then shared with the other students too.

In all the examples above, giving students the chance to create something new by applying what they have learnt and to share their creation with their peers, which are two principles of product differentiation cited in the literature (Blaz, 2016; Tomlinson, 1999), seem to be of crucial importance. Digital content creation tools such as Canva and Pixton appear to facilitate this through built-in features that support creativity and collaboration.

 

Firstly, participants mentioned the use of quiz games such as Kahoot (Bea), Quizizz (Tímea), Gimkit (Emma) and the quiz game function of Quizlet called Quizlet Live (Bea, Kamilla, Rebeka), where students can work individually or in teams to answer questions. In fact, when asked about their students’ favourite ICT tools, both Bea and Rebeka picked these quiz games as the absolute favourites. As Bea pointed out, these games “engage students in a gamified way”, which is “very important for young children” (Bea). Engagement was a keyword used by Rebeka, as well:

It is important to note that, as Kamilla pointed out, in several of these quizzes and platforms, there are built-in features that promote collaboration among the students, which mitigates the competitive aspect of the point-collection system and transforms it into a collective effort. In Classcraft, for example, not only can the teacher award points to the students, but students also have the opportunity to give points to each other. There is a “Kudos” function, as well, where students can write encouraging messages to each other. As Kamilla explained, they now “have a lovely Kudos wall, full of messages like ‘Thank you for working with me in class’, or ‘You’re a good friend’, and all of these in English”.

Another example mentioned by Kamilla is the Quizlet Live quiz game, which can be generated on Quizlet using previously assembled study sets. She usually plays this game with her students in team mode to revise the vocabulary learned in a unit, with each student joining the game on a tablet distributed from the set that the parents bought for the school. In team mode, students are assigned to teams randomly and they need to work together to collect points. As each team member has a different set of possible answers, and the correct answer can be found with only one member of the team, they have to decide on the answer together. Thus, although these games have a competitive edge, the team mode mitigates this feature by making collaboration an equally important part of the game. Kamilla pointed out that this collaborative aspect is apparent not only to the teacher but also to the children. She recalled a recent memory of asking her students to rate the activity at the end of the lesson by showing a number from 1 to 5, with 5 meaning the best. As she explained:

Kamilla also appreciated student choice when commending the wide range of “high-quality” books that students can choose from in BOOKR. She explained that she frequently assigns homework in this application and encourages children to choose a book based on their individual interests. As she argued:

A further advantage that all participants mentioned was the motivational effect of ICT tools. As Tímea argued, “if we can motivate students with these then we should use them in class” since “we have to use the advantages offered by digital tools”. Kamilla’s views resonated with this idea as she said that these tools have an “amazing” motivational power that “puts children on track”. When discussing the ClassDojo gamification platform she uses for younger children, where students receive eggs upon earning points that then hatch into avatars, she said that it motivates them so much to collect points that she “can’t even describe it.” Motivation was emphasised by Bea, as well. As she explained, “by default, students are more enthusiastic about the activity” if it involves the use of ICT tools and “they are enjoying the whole thing more, they keep asking me when we are going to use these tools again, so you can really tell that they are more enthusiastic and excited”.

Besides, students’ self-efficacy was also found to increase with the use of these tools. As Rebeka put it, students “work quite confidently” when using digital tools. Emma, who teaches students specialised in IT, said that when she assigns technology-enhanced activities, students look upon it as a vocational challenge and do not even think about the challenges related to learning the language. Kamilla was also appreciative of the role of ICT in fostering students’ self-efficacy. With regard to playing Quizlet Live, she said that “for children with autism, who otherwise scarcely talk in the lesson because they don’t like to speak in public, it is a really big achievement if they get to the third place in the game” and that she has “never experienced that ICT tools influence motivation or self-efficacy in a negative way”.

Another affordance that Bea pointed out pertained to the protection of students’ privacy. According to her, students engage with these apps in different ways without necessarily being aware of the differences:

Firstly, Bea, Kamilla, Tímea and Rebeka pointed out that using these ICT tools significantly alleviates their workload, from planning through classroom management to assessment. As for planning, a common feature of many of the apps mentioned (e.g., BOOKR, Quizlet) is that they provide a variety of readily available resources or activities to be used, without requiring the teacher to prepare these differentiated tasks for their students. For example, as Bea and Tímea mentioned, in Quizlet, they can upload the vocabulary to be practiced, and then the app will generate the tasks itself and will also provide customised feedback and further practice for students, which can save a great amount of planning time. As for classroom management, Bea mentioned that through the opportunity for self-paced learning and immediate feedback, many of these tools provide solution to a common fear of teachers experimenting with DI, namely, how to make sure that all students are on task, following instructions and finish on time (Blaz, 2016). Besides, Bea and Kamilla appreciated how certain apps assist them in conducting assessments. As they pointed out, through these apps, they can retrieve detailed reports of their students’ performance, which makes assessment easier. For example, Kamilla explained that when she uses BOOKR she can see a statistic of who read what, as well as which tasks were completed and to what effect. This can help her to give “extremely precise” feedback to the students and to their parents. This seems to be an aspect that is especially important from the point of view of DI, since having a constant understanding of where students are at a particular time and giving ongoing, formative feedback is a cornerstone of differentiation (Blaz, 2016).

Furthermore, all participants agreed that seeing their students motivated by these tools makes their work more enjoyable. The participants said that they “really enjoy” (Tímea) and are “motivated to teach” (Emma) technology-enhanced lessons because they see that their students are engaged. As Bea put it, it makes the job “much easier” because she can see that “it is good for the kids” and that “they are not bored in the lessons”. Rebeka’s response resonated with this, as she said that “I am happy if they are happy, and I love to see that they enjoy what they do in the lessons, that learning brings them joy and they are not bored in the lessons”.

 

Finally, learning how to use the various ICT tools may sometimes also be challenging, both for teachers and students. Participants mentioned that mastering the use of certain apps require “a great deal of time” (Kamilla) and they should be prepared that students will have difficulties too (Rebeka) and will need time to get used to using these tools (Tímea). Nevertheless, the participants acknowledged that these issues arise only at the early stages of adopting new tools and they do not constitute a considerable hindrance in day-to-day teaching. As Emma, Kamilla, and Tímea pointed out, one possible way of addressing this issue is to transform the learning process into a shared experience by considering students as partners and appointing, as Tímea phrased it, “IT experts” in the group. These students can test the app from a user’s perspective, report issues to the teacher, and assist the teacher and their peers if any difficulties arise during the class.

Besides, in the case of four participants (Bea, Kamilla, Rebeka, Tímea), knowledge sharing among colleagues also proved to be important. For example, in Tímea’s school, there is a “collaborative corner” where colleagues share materials, tasks, URLs, QR codes, and other resources. Bea and Rebeka, who work at the same school, also said that they exchange ideas regularly. At Kamilla’s school, a mentor system helps teachers with less experience in certain aspects of teaching to gain more confidence. In her case, this support was transformative in building her technological skills. As she explained: