PICRAT is a way of describing how technology is being used in a lesson. It asks two questions. What are the students doing with the technology: are they Passive, Interactive or Creative? And what is the technology doing to the task: does it Replace, Amplify or Transform it? The two answers place any lesson in one of nine cells on a three-by-three grid.

The name is the two sets of initials put together: PIC and RAT. The model was published in 2020 by Royce Kimmons, Charles Graham and Richard West.

The two questions

PIC: what are students doing with the technology?

  • Passive. They are consuming. Watching a video, reading an e-book, listening to audio. Nothing wrong with that in the right context.
  • Interactive. They are responding. Answering questions in a quiz, annotating a text, collaborating on a document.
  • Creative. They are making. Building a presentation, composing music, producing a film, writing a programme.

RAT: what is the technology doing to the task?

Ask whether you could swap the technology for something else and ask the same of your students.

  • Replace. The tech only carries the task. Swap it for something else that carries it, paper or another app, and you would ask the same of students.
  • Amplify. Same task, and the lesson uses something the tech adds: feedback someone acts on, a view of everyone's answers, collaboration. Swap it out and the lesson would lose that.
  • Transform. The activity itself could not happen without the technology. Swap it out and there is no such activity.

The PICRAT grid

Put the two questions together and you get nine cells. Any lesson you've ever taught with technology in it sits in one of them.

Students' use of technology
Creative
Interactive
Passive
CR
CA
CT
IR
IA
IT
PR
PA
PT
Replace
Amplify
Transform
Teacher's use of technology
PICRAT model, Kimmons, Graham and West (2020).
The PICRAT matrix as a printable sheet. Rows: Creative, Interactive, Passive. Columns: Replace, Amplify, Transform. Each of the nine cells has its name and one classroom example.
The PICRAT matrix, to print or drop into a slide

One page with all nine cells and a classroom example in each. Free to use, share and print with a link to picrat.com (CC BY 4.0).

Download the PDF Slide image (PNG) Blank planner (PDF)

The cells are not a ladder. Passive-Replace is not "bad" and Creative-Transform is not the goal of every lesson. The grid tells you what role the technology is playing, so you can decide whether that's the role you wanted it to play. For a real lesson in each cell, see the nine cells, one lesson each.

A worked example

Say you set an exit ticket in Microsoft Forms at the end of a lesson. A handful of multiple-choice questions to check what has stuck. Where are we on the grid?

Students are answering questions, so they are Interactive. Not Passive (they're doing something), not Creative (they aren't making anything new).

Now ask what the technology is adding. Forms is doing the job the exit ticket slips did. Swap it back and you would ask the same of students. So you are in Interactive-Replace.

Switch on automatic marking. The data comes back instantly and you act on it, picking up misconceptions before the kids leave the room. The task hasn't changed, but the lesson is now using something the technology adds. You've moved one square to the right: Interactive-Amplify.

One more move, and this time the activity is different. Students put the same questions to an AI chatbot, reword them to see whether its answers change, and mark every answer against their notes. Now the task itself has changed, and it could not be set without the technology. That's Interactive-Transform.

You change one thing at a time.

That is the real point of PICRAT. It's not a competition to land in the top-right corner. It's a way to look at one lesson, work out where you are, and decide whether that is where you meant to be.

How to use it tomorrow morning

You don't need to print the grid or run a staff meeting about it. Ask yourself two questions about one lesson you taught this week.

What were the students doing with the technology: consuming, responding, or making?

Could you swap the technology for something else and ask the same of students: yes, yes but the lesson would lose something it uses, or no, there would be no such activity?

Thirty seconds, and you've placed the lesson on the grid. Then the interesting question: is that the cell I wanted for this lesson?

If you want some structure around that, Analyse walks you through those questions for any lesson and takes about two minutes. Generate gives you a full three-by-three grid of activity ideas for any subject and age range. Or browse PICRAT examples by cell, subject and key stage.

Where to go deeper

The PICRAT model in full. The reference page: the 2020 paper, the earlier models it built on, what each axis means in detail, and the known limitations.

PICRAT vs SAMR, PICRAT vs TPACK, or all the main models side by side. The short version: SAMR and TPACK describe the teacher. PICRAT adds what the students are doing.

Andy Perryer is Director of Education Innovation at a group of international schools and the creator of PICRAT Suite. The PICRAT framework was developed by Royce Kimmons, Charles Graham and Richard West in their 2020 paper in the CITE Journal.