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Abstract Adopting a differentiated and domain‐specific view of educational technology, the present study focuses on the case of school history. It argues that, in this particular context, one of technology's main assets is its ability to support inquiry‐based learning activities, during which students interpret the past through historical reasoning. As little is known about how history teachers use technology in the classroom, an exploratory study was carried out with 22 teachers in fourth grade of secondary education in Flanders (Belgium). Semi‐structured interviews were used to investigate beliefs about technology, ways in which technology was implemented, and factors influencing the adoption process. The results suggest that most teachers held positive beliefs about technology, and that use of technology was driven by several rationales. Although a significant group of teachers was thoughtful of how their own use of technology could support students’ learning, student use remained limited to instances where technology served as a resource for the task, rather than a tool for supporting cognitive or social activity. It appears that teachers were not yet aware of technology's ability to scaffold inquiry activities. Furthermore, limitations in school infrastructure often prevented them from experimenting with more pervasive student uses of technology.
Voet et al. (Mon,) studied this question.