The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire world's population and altered the way of life in most countries. State education systems, including institutions of higher education, have changed their teaching strategies, closing education institutions and moving to distance teaching and learning (UNESCO, 2020). In Israel, as in the rest of the world, in March 2020, the state education system moved to a distance learning. The entire higher education system began to teach and learn online including academic teacher education colleges. Thus, faculty members and students were forced to adapt to the new forms of learning. Frontal teaching and learning which is the prevalent type in teacher training colleges was transferred overnight to synchronous or asynchronous teaching or a combination of both (Kidd & Murray, 2020). This new reality of distance learning presented teachers with complex challenges, without prior preparation and without time to adapt (Ministry of Education, The Chief Scientist's Bureau, 2020). Teaching through distance learning requires unique skills, new pedagogical thinking and adaptation of frontal courses to courses taught online (DePietro, 2020).

The transition to distance learning in institutions of higher education requires advanced training, seminars and online learning sessions and even private mentoring. Many lecturers search for ideas to ensure that meaningful learning takes place (Dietrich et al., 2020). In addition, distance learning requires mastery of technical, cognitive and social skills, which form the foundations for success in online learning environment (Scull et al., 2020). Teacher education colleges have become involved as communities in learning and researching methods that will help online learning (Donitsa-Schmidt & Ramot, 2020). Digital Game-based learning (DGBL) is a pedagogical tool that enables innovative learning (Prensky, 2006). DGBL includes computer games, online games and simulations, and the use of these tools encourages active learning and creates motivation to achieve learning goals (Hayak & Avidov-Ungar, 2020). This innovative pedagogy emphasizes autonomous and collaborative learning, encourages creativity, initiative and personal responsibility, develops thinking, facilitates collaboration and allows each student to develop according to his talents and inclinations. DGBL promotes learning according to a constructivist approach, making the game not only an adjunct to learning but an integral part of it (Squire & Jenkins, 2004).

Our study aimed to trace the integration of DGBL in teacher training during the Covid-19 pandemic in Israel from the teacher educators' perspective, focusing on questions regarding their role as teacher educators implementing DGBL for teacher education, their motivations for using DGBL in teacher training in the Covid-19 period and what they see as the contributions of this tool during the transfer to distance learning. The research aimed to examine the implications of distance learning on the different dimensions of the use of DGBL during teacher educators' instruction for teacher training students, during the Covid-19 period. The study was guided by two research questions:

1. What are the teacher educators' perceptions concerning their role when integrating DGBL in their distance teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic in their work as teacher educators?
2. What characterizes the teacher educators' patterns of use of DGBL in their teaching as teacher educators during the Covid-19 pandemic?

This was a qualitative study (Denzin & Lincoln, 2008) enabling the investigation of ways in which teacher educators implementing the DGBL into their teacher instruction work, learning first-hand about the phenomenon from their personal perspective and understanding how they perceive and interpret the Covid-19 period's impact on their role as teacher educators and on the inclusion of DGBL into their instruction. Participants The study investigated 34 teacher educators from 12 academic teacher education institutions (colleges of education in Israel) who integrated DGBL in their teaching (N = 34). The population was selected according to the degree of their integration of DGBL in their teaching. The teacher educators were selected, indicated that they implementing DGBL in teaching to a large extent and to a very large extent. The teacher educators teach a variety of disciplines including: special education, English, math, language studies and the use of technologies in teaching and science. Data Collection The teacher educators who participated in the study were interviewed in semi-structured interviews conducted on Zoom. The interviews included open-ended questions concerning their perceptions of the integration of DGBL in teaching in teacher training and questions concerning the integration of DGBL during the Covid-19 period. Each interview lasted about forty minutes to an hour. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Data Analysis The transcripts of the interviews in this study were analyzed using the constant comparative method (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). According to this approach, the analysis consists of reflective cycles during which inductive categories are identified and compared with the content of the interviews to determine whether the categories can be further honed or need to be changed or reorganized.

Analysis of the findings reveals that teachers have understood that the Covid-19 crisis necessitates a change in their teaching and adapt their role to the new reality of distance learning. Using DGBL in the distance learning is part of this change. They recognized the value of integrating DGBL into frontal learning, but also believe that the Covid-19 period has created an opportunity to integrate this tool into distance learning as well. They feel the need for DGBL has developed, because it serves as modeling for the student-teachers they teach (Pope et al., 2005), demonstrating how to integrate the games in distance learning during their clinical training practicum, which has also switched to a distance learning format, and especially after their graduation. Extant literature describes how teacher educators' role includes serving as models for student-teachers concerning integration of techno-pedagogical tools in teaching (Connolly et al., 2012). Analysis of the data indicated three main patterns of use when using DGBL: the traditional pattern - use of DGBL traditionally for memorization; Integral pattern - use of DGBL as an integral part of teaching and learning; And the integral pattern - teaching and learning through DGBL. Findings also linked the use of DGBL to a constructivist teaching environment. Current research literature during the Covid-19 period indicates that many lecturers sought ideas and learned from each other to ensure optimal learning (Kidd & Murray, 2020). The findings of the study indicate that even in the field of teacher education, DGBL is recognized as an important pedagogical tool that contributes to learning, so that teacher educators promote the use of this tool in distance learning to improve their teaching.

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