Why this exists
The PICRAT framework was published by Royce Kimmons, Charles R. Graham and Richard E. West in 2020. It is one of the clearest, most pedagogically honest models for evaluating classroom technology use, and yet almost no one in UK or international schools had heard of it. SAMR was everywhere. ISTE rubrics were everywhere. PICRAT, the model that asks the two questions every teacher and leader should ask, was largely absent.
PICRAT Suite started as an attempt to fix that. The framework didn't need replacing or rewriting. It needed a workflow around it, and a set of tools that made it usable in a real school week.
Who built it
Andy Perryer is Head of Digital Learning at Cognita, one of the world's leading global schools groups, with 90 schools across 21 countries. He has been a teacher since 2008, working across primary and secondary, in the UK and internationally, and is currently based in the UAE. He has been at Cognita for eight years.
He sits on the same side of the desk as the people PICRAT Suite is built for. The same questions come up every week: which tools to bring in, how to coach a teacher whose lesson sat in passive-replace, how to talk to a CEO about classroom evidence. He is not a vendor, and PICRAT Suite is not a startup.
What it is, and what it isn't
PICRAT Suite is a reflective practitioner tool. It is for colleagues who want a shared language for talking about technology in their lessons, and a way to improve once they have that language. The point is conversation between adults about teaching, not measurement.
PICRAT Suite is not a surveillance tool. It does not rank teachers, score schools, or feed appraisal systems. Nothing inside it is designed to be used as evidence in a performance management cycle, and any leader who points it that way will undo what it's for.
How AI is used
Several of the tools (Coach, Analyse, Review, Generate) are powered by AI. The site uses Google's Gemini family of models. Lesson descriptions and reflections are sent to Gemini, and a structured response is returned to the page.
Outputs are constrained to a fixed schema. The AI can only return a defined set of fields (a classification on the nine-cell grid, a strength, a reflection, a small number of next-step ideas, and so on). It cannot wander off into unrelated advice. When it does get something wrong, treat its suggestion as a prompt for thinking, not a verdict.
The AI is there to suggest, not to judge. The framework comes first; the model is helping you apply it.
Data and privacy
PICRAT Suite is hosted in the EU. Sessions are encrypted. The site does not store student data and does not require any. It does not sell data. Lesson descriptions are sent to Google's Gemini API in order to generate a response, and are not used to train models. Full detail is on the privacy and terms pages.
What it costs
Nothing, at the moment. Hosting and AI usage are paid for personally rather than through a subscription, sponsorship or advertising deal. There is no premium tier and no upsell.
The plan is to keep it free, watch how teachers and leaders actually use it, and improve where it falls short. If you've found the site this early, you're shaping what it becomes.
The framework, and the people behind it
Credit for the framework belongs to its authors, not to this site. The PICRAT model was published in 2020 in the peer-reviewed journal Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education. PICRAT Suite is one application of their work; it is not a replacement for it, and it is not affiliated with the original authors.
Kimmons, R., Graham, C. R., & West, R. E. (2020). The PICRAT Model for Technology Integration in Teacher Preparation. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 20(1).
Get in touch
If you'd like to talk about how PICRAT is being used in your school, share something that didn't work, or just disagree, the easiest way is via LinkedIn or email. Both are read.
If your school or group is wrestling with how to make technology integration a real conversation rather than a slogan, that's the conversation I have most weeks. I work with leadership teams to shape strategy, design and run staff sessions, and review how technology is actually landing in classrooms. Mostly remotely; occasionally in person. Always happy to be asked.