Making room for the transformation of literacy instruction in the digital classroom

Abstract

Education is in the process of transforming traditional print-based instruction into digital formats. This multi-case study sheds light on the challenge of coping with the old and new in literacy teaching in the context of technology-mediated instruction in the early years of schooling (7-8 years old children). By investigating the relation between literacy and digital technology in diverse pedagogical contexts we capture the complexity in the educational transformation that needs to be acknowledged. Each of the cases demonstrates a distinct knowledge focus and goal for early literacy instruction, organisation and access around technology and what is made visible in instruction. All these factors had consequences for the teaching that occurred. Depending on epistemological beliefs, digital competencies were taught separately from literacy and considered as a goal on its own or integrated with literacy considered as a means and a goal for literacy teaching and learning. Implicit pedagogy with weaker classification and framing enabled conditions for infused approaches making use of digital technology in multimodal, functional and learner centred literacy practices. Furthermore, initial guidance and the weaving of invisible and visible pedagogy highlight a possible way to both exploit the potential of digital technology and support children from various backgrounds. The balance of teacher and student control was further affected in regard to the organisation of technology and choices of pedagogical methods. This research hereby expands the current discussion on the relation between technology and literacy with an understanding that the epistemological focus and context of practices are necessary tools to problematize, rather than measure or value, emerging practices in early literacy instruction. We conclude that in addition to the necessary heavy investments in digital technology in schools there is a need to provide

Multimodala bedömningspraktiker och lärares lärande

“…L sande och skrivande i digitala te tlandskap r komple t och st ller delvis andra krav på literacykompetens n pappersbaserade te ter och te tpraktiker (Kalantzis, Cope & Harvey, 2003;; Bearne, 2009a). Det medför i sin tur en ökad komple itet för literacyundervisning vad g ller kunskapsfokus och huruvida multimodalt meningsskapande r ett tydligt mål i undervisningen (Sofkova Hashemi & Cederlund, 2017;; Merchant, 2008). Det krver en e plicit och medveten undervisning som inkluderar multimodala och digitala aspekter av meningsskapande (Edwards-Groves, 2011;; Bearne & Wolstencroft, 2007).…”

Dealing with increased complexity. Teachers’ reflections on the use of tablets in school

“…This policy is underpinned by a desire to strengthen learning processes by increasing students' motivation and digital skills. It is a well-established fact that the use of digital technology in teaching presents new challenges in terms of planning and how to carry out teaching (Hashemi & Cederlund, 2016;Haugsbakk, 2010;Jahnke et al, 2017). We are interested in how teachers experience and relate to the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of digital technology.…”

Young students making textual changes duringdigital writing

“…The theoretical affordances of digital writing that were not used could be seen as untapped teaching and learning material for the lower grades, and could inspire the sort of initial guidance that young students need in relation to digital writing and operational literacy (cf. Sofkova Hashemi and Cederlund, 2017).…”

“…The aim is to describe students' digital writing as they use computers to create texts, with a specific focus on revision and performed changes. It has been suggested that young students need initial guidance when being introduced to digital technology at school, for example via a balance between invisible (weakly framed learning activities) and visible pedagogy (strongly framed learning activities), in order to exploit the potential of digital technology (Sofkova Hashemi and Cederlund, 2017). 2 As pointed out above, the curriculum places strong emphasis on the importance of the early introduction and subsequent use of digital tools for text-making.…”