Becoming a construction worker in the connected classroom: Opposing school work with smartphones as happy objects

Abstract

This article aims to fill a very specific and acute gap; in addition to the few studies on youth and digitalisation, smartphones and other mobile tools, it is very clear that the field of research concerning these issues in regards to vocational education and training is close to non-existent. By examining male Building and Construction programme students’ collective use of smartphones in interaction during classes, this study contributes to increased knowledge about some of the challenges and possibilities that arise with the digitalisation of vocational education and training. The study uses new and innovative methods regarding how students’ digital activities in the classroom could be captured and studied, and approaches video recorded data through the lens of Sara Ahmed’s ideas of happy objects (2010), and the concept of community of practice (Wenger, 1998). The analyses show how the identity constructing processes that take shape when the students orient towards the smartphone as a happy object intersect with the students’ future vocational identity as building and constructing workers, as well as explicating an anti-school culture.

Smartphone Addiction among Adolescence Students: Its Implication toward Family Communication, Learning, Guidance and Counselling

“…Second, the teacher should understand students' conditions and aid them in reducing the negative effects, such as for students physical exhaustion, they should provide specific recess periods during the learning process. Third, the teachers should adopt motivational classroom management using smartphones (Asplund & Kontio, 2020). It is linear with the gradual adoption of technology in the learning process of schools in the United States of America (Slavin, 2019).…”

Practical subjects in the vocational curriculum: A critical review of the literature

“…We included four studies from Australia, two from the United States and three from Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa) in the data base. The literature included a wide variety of research methods, including surveys (e.g., Chandran et al, 2018;Dasmani, 2011;Dumbrell & Smith, 2013), observational studies (e.g., Asplund & Kontio, 2020;Louw, 2013;Sjöberg, 2014), interview-based studies (e.g., Aakernes, 2018;Callan et al, 2015;Heusdens et al, 2018), case studies (e.g., Gleeson, 2016;Kotsifakos et al, 2018), document-based studies (e.g., Nylund & Rosvall, 2016;Rauner et al, 2012), comparisons (e.g., Kap, 2014;Sappa et al, 2016;Schröder, 2019) and evaluations of interventions (e.g., Hoareau et al, 2017;Shrestha, 2016;Yasak & Alias, 2017). Several studies used mixed-method approaches, such as surveys and interviews (e.g., Deitmer & Heinemann, 2017;Stalder, 2012) and "obser-views" that combined observations with interviews (Aarkrog, 2019;Hamid et al, 2012).…”

“…In a technical course, teachers felt that the course was successful "not only if a student had gained an apprenticeship, but also if he or she had been rehabilitated from drug or alcohol problems or if he or she enrolled in another course" (Dumbrell & Smith, 2013, p. 170). Asplund and Kontio (2020) argued that students' "antischool culture" could be mitigated by the introduction of "happy objects" such as smartphones into practical training since the "happy objects" contributed to a positive "future vocational identity as building and constructing workers" (p. 65). Students' dispositions towards their chosen occupation were strongly influenced by their practical learning experiences and the extent to which their experience of practical training supported their identification with the occupation.…”

Introducing the object of learning in interaction: vocational teaching and learning in a plumbing workshop session

“…Hämäläinen and Cattaneo (2015), for example, examine how emerging technology-enhanced learning settings in school settings in Finland and Switzerland mediate instructional activities when teacher and students interact. In another interaction study, highlighting the application of new technology in vocational education, Asplund and Kontio (2020) show how smartphones are used as happy objects in students' identity work and that these identity constructing processes intersect with the students' future vocational identities (see also Kontio and Asplund 2019).…”

“…With the exception of Asplund and Kontio (2020) and Kontio and Asplund (2019) above, there are few studies that have an explicit focus on the interaction per se, and that uses video recordings as a research method in vocational school workshops. When it comes to studies concerning the vocational content, there are even fewer studies that use such an approach.…”