Teacher educators’ distinct and dual task of educating future teachers includes using digital tools to support students’ ongoing learning while exemplifying appropriate teaching strategies where the use of digital tools, such as response systems (RSs), are commonly occurring. RSs have been used in higher education for a long time, and many studies discuss how larger student groups answering multiple-choice questions during lectures contribute to student participation and learning. However, there is limited research on RSs, particularly related to teacher education. Therefore, this interview study aims to explore for what purposes teacher educators use RSs in teaching and what advantages and limitations they experience. In the thematic analysis, we found that the teacher educators used RSs to teach simultaneously as they were role models on how to use digital tools for learning. They used anonymous open-text answers more than multiple-choice questions to support student participation, immediately assess, and provide feedback in both larger and smaller groups. The complexity of time management connected to the use of RSs was highlighted. RSs were also used to initiate discussions with the teacher students about the purposes, advantages, and limitations of using digital tools for learning. 

During teacher education programs, teacher students are expected to develop the digital competence necessary for their future roles as teachers. A vital aspect of this competence involves integrating digital tools into educational activities. Some digital tools, such as response systems, are designed and used to encourage student participation during educational activities. This study explores how teacher students use different functions in various response systems during their student teaching, practically applying what they learned in an ICT course during the teacher education program. Semi-structured interviews were thematically analyzed, with activity theory as a framework to discuss the themes. The findings reveal that while most teacher students used response systems during their student teaching, the extent and manner of use varied significantly. Frequent users reported positive experiences, integrating response systems as part of their teaching strategy, while occasional and non-users faced barriers related to theoretical grounding, relevance to the subject of English, community support, and the division of labor. These results highlight the importance of aligning digital tools with educational objectives and providing teacher students with theoretical and practical support during their training. The study contributes to the ongoing discourse on integrating digital tools in teacher education and provides insights into digital competence development within teacher education programs. 

The interest in blended synchronous learning environments has increased dramati-cally since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a key challenge is how to simulta-neously encourage online and onsite student participation. Response systems havebeen found to stimulate student participation in classroom and online education set-tings. This study investigates how online and onsite students participate in blendedsynchronous seminars where a response system is being used. The data comprisesobservations of blended synchronous seminars, students’ written reflections, andstudent interviews, all of which were thematically analyzed. It was found that usinga response system encouraged online and onsite students to participate in variousways. Although online students mostly remained quiet, they perceived to engagethrough listening and thinking, participating in the seminars by absorbing informa-tion, and interacting with the content displayed via the response system. The onsitestudents participated vocally and more spontaneously. All students participated inwritten, anonymous, and game-based modes, suggesting that there were differentand complementary ways for students to participate when using a response system,which extended beyond merely talking or chatting. Notably, most students per-ceived the response system crucial to their participation in the blended synchronousseminars. The findings underscore the importance of encouraging student participa-tion in blended synchronous learning environments, highlighting response systemsas effective tools to encourage onsite and, particularly, online student participation.