Is the technology in your lessons
helping students think,
or thinking for them?
Six connected tools, built on a peer-reviewed framework, help you answer that honestly, one lesson at a time.
Kimmons, Graham & West (2020) • Built by a global education leader
What is PICRAT?
PICRAT is a peer-reviewed framework that gives schools a simple, shared language for understanding technology use in the classroom.
It asks two questions:
What are students doing? Are they Passive (receiving), Interactive (responding), or Creative (making)?
What is technology doing to learning? Is it helping to Replace existing practice, Amplify it, or Transform it?
Together, these two dimensions form a 3×3 grid with nine possible uses of technology. The goal is to make intentional choices about when and how technology adds value.
One lesson, placed honestly.
A History lesson for 13 and 14 year olds. The class explores a teacher-made Padlet timeline of ancient Egypt and answers questions about what they find. Here is the whole method, exactly as you would walk it through in a staff meeting.
Same Padlet, bigger ask: students source the evidence and build the timeline themselves. The thinking transfers from teacher to student, and the lesson sits in Creative.
Turning PICRAT into
everyday practice.
Technology is used in classrooms every day, but schools rarely have a clear, consistent way to reflect on whether that use is effective. Without a shared framework, teachers, leaders, and professional development teams struggle to work from the same picture.
PICRAT Suite brings six connected tools together around one shared framework, turning reflection into something more practical, visible, and usable across a school.
Read the thinking
before you use the tools.
Everything written down about PICRAT, in one place. Start with the framework, compare it against what your school already uses, then take it into a lesson.
Start here
- What is PICRAT?The framework in plain English, no training session required.
- The nine cellsOne real lesson in every cell, from Year 4 to Year 12.
- The model and its researchDefinition, origins, and the Kimmons 2020 paper behind it.
Compare frameworks
- PICRAT vs SAMRWhat SAMR got right, and which one to reach for when.
- Every model, side by sideSAMR, TPACK, TIM, RAT, LoTi and PICRAT, compared honestly.
- PICRAT vs Bloom'sTwo independent measures. Use both on the same lesson.
In the classroom
- Planning with PICRATHow the two questions change a lesson before you teach it.
- AI without Passive ReplaceThe trap most AI lessons fall into, and the way out.
- Real lesson examplesBrowse by cell, subject and key stage.
For leaders and mentors
- The observation rubricA two-sided A4 walkthrough scaffold you can print today.
- Run a department auditAn INSET session that maps where your lessons land.
- For ITT mentorsPlacement conversations that go past good and bad.
For schools and groups
- For IT teams and filtersWhat the site is, what data it handles, and why to allowlist it.
- Ofsted and the deep diveThe language a Head can use when inspectors ask about technology.
- Higher and further educationThe same nine cells, with the examples moved to lecture halls and labs.
Teacher training
- Why PICRAT beats TPACK for ITTTPACK names what is in the teacher's head. PICRAT names what is in the room.
- PICRAT and Cognita's TILPWhere TILP leaves technology out, and how PICRAT fills the gap.
- The termly tech conversationOne-off rules fail. A short check-in revisited each term sticks.
Phones, screens and attention
- The case for phone bansPhones occupy the worst cell PICRAT can describe, when they fit at all.
- Screen time is not the questionWhat students do with the screens matters more than how long.
- Why children reach for screensFive reasons, and what each tells a teacher helping a parent respond.
Talking to parents
- What to say about AI companionsThe brief leaders need before a worried parent asks.
- Three questions for parent eveningA ready-made slide that puts curiosity, not expertise, in the room.
- One vocabulary, home and schoolGive parents the same three words your staffroom already uses.
Learn
New to PICRAT? Learn is a short guided conversation with Andy, the educator who built the Suite. It introduces the framework in plain language, one idea at a time, adapting its examples to the subject you teach.
About five minutes, and you can return to any part of it whenever you like.
Try Learn →Analyse
A guided decision tree helps teachers classify a lesson quickly and confidently within the PICRAT framework. It identifies where technology use sits on the grid, then provides tailored suggestions for improvement, including relevant edtech tools and practical next steps.
The clarity of a strong coaching conversation, available in under two minutes.
Try Analyse →Generate
Select a subject and age range, and Generate builds a full 3×3 PICRAT matrix of classroom activities. Each cell includes a practical example, relevant edtech tools, and a clear rationale to help teachers see how technology use can vary across the framework.
A richer set of lesson ideas, built in seconds.
Try Generate →Quiz
A scenario-based quiz helps teachers build fluency in the PICRAT framework. Teachers classify classroom examples, receive instant feedback, and improve over time as the quiz adapts to their level.
A faster route to confidence and consistency.
Try Quiz →Coach
A conversational coaching tool helps teachers reflect on lessons, explore alternatives, and think more deeply about how technology is being used. Through ongoing dialogue, Coach asks focused questions, offers practical suggestions, and helps teachers move from instinctive choices to more intentional ones.
Thoughtful professional reflection, available whenever it is needed.
Try Coach →Review
Review analyses a full lesson plan against the PICRAT framework and returns structured, actionable feedback. It identifies patterns in technology use, highlights strengths, surfaces areas for development, and suggests practical next steps for improvement.
A more consistent standard of feedback, available on demand.
Try Review →Your growth,
made visible.
Every interaction with the suite contributes to a personal dashboard that helps teachers understand how their use of technology is evolving over time. It reveals patterns in practice, highlights strengths, identifies gaps, and suggests the next step for development.
Professional growth, made easier to see and act on.
It gets to know you.
The Suite pays attention to how you teach. The more you use it, the more its suggestions sound like your classroom.
A toolkit that builds itself.
Every suggested activity names real edtech tools. One tap saves a tool as yours, swaps it for the one you actually use, or writes in one we have never heard of. From then on, ideas arrive built around your toolkit. There is no settings form to fill in first.
Personalisation you build by teaching, one tap at a time.
A school view is taking shape.
The Suite is built for teachers first. As a staff reflects lesson by lesson, a picture of practice forms, and an early leadership view is growing alongside it: engagement, patterns, and a clearer sense of where support would help. A clearer view of practice, with less reliance on surveys and guesswork.
Leading a school? Start a conversation →For the people who
teach the teachers.
PICRAT began as a research paper for teacher educators. The Suite came later. If you lecture on initial teacher training, a Masters in educational technology or a doctoral module, your students can use both.
Nothing to set up
Trainees sign up themselves and use the Suite free. There is no licence to buy, no seat count to manage and nothing for your department to sign. Ask them to use a personal address rather than a university one, so the account still reaches them after they graduate.
Material to teach from
A plain explanation of the framework, side by side reads against SAMR, TPACK and LOTI, and a printable observation rubric your students can take into placement.
Honest about the source
The Suite applies a published framework rather than replacing it. Kimmons, Graham and West are named throughout, and the paper is linked from every page here that explains the model.
Two questions and nine cells. It fits inside a single seminar, and it gives your students something more precise than good and bad to say about a lesson.
From the classroom to a global schools group.
PICRAT Suite is built and run by Andy Perryer, a global education leader for an international schools group. He discovered the PICRAT model two years ago and has been on a mission ever since: to spread the best technology integration model in existence, and to build the tools that help teachers use it well.
There is no venture funding and no growth team. The Suite improves for one reason: teachers use it, and say what would make it better.
More about Andy →
Your next lesson is a
good place to start.
Bring a lesson you taught this week, see where it sits on the matrix, and find one deliberate move to lift it.
Get startedSigning up takes under a minute.