Learning to teach: Aligning pedagogy and technology in a learning design tool

This article asks how pedagogy and technology should be aligned when developing a digital learning design tool. We find that to support student teachers' active learning, the tool must foreground pedagogy. We analysed how researchers, practitioners and software developers jointly developed a tool (ILUKS) that supports student teachers' lesson planning. The tool allows student teachers to collaboratively inquire into planning and improving lessons during practicums. We document the interdisciplinary team's work of co-creation, documentation, feedback and improvement in the development process and conclude that digital tools intended to support students' inquiry-based and active learning must align pedagogical and technical knowledge. • Digital tools supporting student active learning must allow interactive possibilities for co-creating knowledge. • Pedagogy must guide the development process to ensure alignment between educational practice and digital tools. • Aligning pedagogy and technology is a challenging process of productive interdisciplinary collaboration. • Alignment between pedagogy and digital tools motivates students' active use of digital technology in teaching.