Missing from both Educational and IS literature is a focus on interaction between pedagogical task complexity and technology structural dimensions. When using technology tools, the technology characteristics should positively support the needs of the pedagogical task, thus outlining an argument for a contingency perspective on interaction (Goodhue & Thompson, 1995). Figure 1 summarizes the model.
Conceptual model
The first input into the system is the technology (since that is the variable of interest in this paper). The original conceptualization of TTF focused on understanding the technology features; i.e., the ability to write on the wiki. However, this conceptualization has not produced consistent results (Goodhue, 2006). Thus, we expand this concept to focus on three structural dimensions of the technology – communication support, process structuring and information processing. These dimensions help us understand the nature and the purpose of the technologies. The second input into the system is the pedagogical task itself. To understand the variety of pedagogical tasks, we look at the underlying epistemological assumptions of these tasks as well as the underlying complexity involved.