Integrating digital technologies in the German language classroom: A critical study of the technology-integration experiences of three secondary German teachers

German language teachers are gaining increased access to smart classrooms and digital technologies that offer teachers and students greater access to authentic cultural and language materials and enable more student target language communication. Teaching with technology changes the teaching and learning environment in many ways. Little is known about how integrating technology into the daily German-language-teaching curriculum changes the implicit power structures embedded in all classroom interactions. Because of the central, decision-making role of the teacher, this study uses a critical theory of technology lens to examine the daily technology integration experiences of three secondary German language teachers. This study employed a holistic, multiple case study design with a mixed purposive sampling strategy. One classroom observation and two interviews were conducted with each informant. The three secondary German language teachers' descriptions of their decision-making process as they integrate digital technologies into their daily curriculum provide a deeper, more contextualized understanding of their perceptions of their technology integrations. The interpretation of the interview data produced several conclusions. First, digital technology integration is a process that happens over time for the three informants. Second, the informants' decisions about their classroom technology integrations are influenced by their second language acquisition (SLA) beliefs. Third, the informants' classroom technology integrations are influenced by the implicit power relations embedded in the normalized classroom discourse. Fourth, the informants' perception of their own identity and their students' identities influences their classroom technology integrations.