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Touching, tapping thinking Examining the dynamic materiality of touch pad devices for literacy learning
Abstract
As touch technologies such as phones, tablets and touch screen tables become more present within classrooms there is a need to examine the relationship between literacy and physical action, particularly non-linear reading paths. This paper presents data, that is part of an ongoing international study, to provide some insights from classroom observations of Year 5 students using iPads as well as traditional paper-based texts within their literacy lessons. This is ongoing research with a large corpus of data being analysed. We use specific examples to examine the reading and writing process for some students as they interact with the physical interface of the touch pads through the mode of gesture. Our goal was to investigate the cognitive and interactional processes that take place when the students read digital texts on a touch pad and to understand the processes used to render hybrid, multimodal ‘texts’ meaningful. We employ the concept of dynamism to interrogate the embodied iterative explorations students demonstrate through their learning, scaffolded by their teacher’s pedagogical adaptation to the potentials of the touch technology.
... In contrast, embodiment theories have pointed to the important recognition that human cognition and knowing is deeply grounded in multisensory processes and bodily experience of the world, with texts, and with technologies of multimodal inscription (Walsh & Simpson, 2013;Wilson, 2002). In fact, all human cognition, including abstract thought, has been shown to be body-based (Gibbs, 2005), the evidence of which is supported by recent research in the field of neuroscience and embodied cognition (Corcoran, 2018). ...
... The curved surface was formed of brush strokes that extended in a fixed radius from her body. The potentials of virtual painting for engaging large, gross-motor movement contrasts many digital design and representation tasks that involve fine-motor movements using a keyboard, mouse, controller, or touchscreen (Walsh & Simpson, 2013). It similarly contrasts the kinds of haptics used in many nondigital representational tasks in schooling, such as writing and drawing (Minogue & Jones, 2006). ...
Immersive virtual reality (VR) technology is becoming widespread in education, yet research of VR technologies for students’ multimodal communication is an emerging area of research in writing and literacies scholarship. Likewise, the significance of new ways of embodied meaning making in VR environments is undertheorized—a gap that requires attention given the potential for broadened use of the sensorium in multimodal language and literacy learning. This classroom research investigated multimodal composition using the virtual paint program Google Tilt Brush™ with 47 elementary school students (ages 10–11 years) using a head-mounted display and motion sensors. Multimodal analysis of video, screen capture, and think-aloud data attended to sensory-motor affordances and constraints for embodiment. Modal constraints were the immateriality of the virtual text, virtual disembodiment, and somatosensory mismatch between the virtual and physical worlds. Potentials for new forms of embodied multimodal representation in VR involved extensive bodily, haptic, and locomotive movement. The findings are significant given that research of embodied cognition points to sensorimotor action as the basis for language and communication.
... À l'heure actuelle, on ne trouve pas d'enquête portant spécifiquement sur les pratiques d'écriture sur tablette à l'école primaire. Quelques études de cas (Bernard, Boulc'h et Arganini, 2013 ;Hutchison, Beschorner et Schmidt-Crawford, 2012 ;Walsh et Simpson, 2013) mettent en évidence différentes utilisations de la tablette par exemple pour annoter des documents lus en vue de faciliter leur compréhension (voir par exemple Hutchison, Beschorner et Schmidt-Crawford, 2012) ou pour rédiger des textes documentaires (Walsh et Simpson, 2013. La tablette est également utilisée dans une phase pré-rédactionnelle afin de faire des recherches documentaires ou de prendre des notes (Bernard, Boulc'h et Arganini, 2013 ;Walsh et Simpson, 2014). ...
... À l'heure actuelle, on ne trouve pas d'enquête portant spécifiquement sur les pratiques d'écriture sur tablette à l'école primaire. Quelques études de cas (Bernard, Boulc'h et Arganini, 2013 ;Hutchison, Beschorner et Schmidt-Crawford, 2012 ;Walsh et Simpson, 2013) mettent en évidence différentes utilisations de la tablette par exemple pour annoter des documents lus en vue de faciliter leur compréhension (voir par exemple Hutchison, Beschorner et Schmidt-Crawford, 2012) ou pour rédiger des textes documentaires (Walsh et Simpson, 2013. La tablette est également utilisée dans une phase pré-rédactionnelle afin de faire des recherches documentaires ou de prendre des notes (Bernard, Boulc'h et Arganini, 2013 ;Walsh et Simpson, 2014). ...
Dans cette recherche, nous avons choisi de porter notre attention sur l’utilisation de la tablette à l'école primaire en situation de production d’écrit.
Cette étude vise à caractériser l’activité de production d’écrit sur tablette, à préciser en quoi la tablette constitue une ressource dans cette activité et quelles contraintes elle impose. Pour répondre à ces questions, deux études exploratoires sont présentées dans ce chapitre. La première vise à caractériser l’activité instrumentée de production d’écrits enrichis chez des élèves de CM1 et CM2. La seconde étude s’attache à étudier plus spécifiquement l’activité rédactionnelle sur tablette chez des élèves en classe de CE2.
... À l'heure actuelle, on ne trouve pas d'enquête portant spécifiquement sur les pratiques d'écriture sur tablette à l'école primaire. Quelques études de cas (Bernard, Boulc'h et Arganini, 2013 ;Hutchison, Beschorner et Schmidt-Crawford, 2012 ;Walsh et Simpson, 2013) mettent en évidence différentes utilisations de la tablette par exemple pour annoter des documents lus en vue de faciliter leur compréhension (voir par exemple Hutchison, Beschorner et Schmidt-Crawford, 2012) ou pour rédiger des textes documentaires (Walsh et Simpson, 2013. La tablette est également utilisée dans une phase pré-rédactionnelle afin de faire des recherches documentaires ou de prendre des notes (Bernard, Boulc'h et Arganini, 2013 ;Walsh et Simpson, 2014). ...
... À l'heure actuelle, on ne trouve pas d'enquête portant spécifiquement sur les pratiques d'écriture sur tablette à l'école primaire. Quelques études de cas (Bernard, Boulc'h et Arganini, 2013 ;Hutchison, Beschorner et Schmidt-Crawford, 2012 ;Walsh et Simpson, 2013) mettent en évidence différentes utilisations de la tablette par exemple pour annoter des documents lus en vue de faciliter leur compréhension (voir par exemple Hutchison, Beschorner et Schmidt-Crawford, 2012) ou pour rédiger des textes documentaires (Walsh et Simpson, 2013. La tablette est également utilisée dans une phase pré-rédactionnelle afin de faire des recherches documentaires ou de prendre des notes (Bernard, Boulc'h et Arganini, 2013 ;Walsh et Simpson, 2014). ...
... It is based on the idea that cognitive processes are closely related with bodily interaction in the world (Wilson 2002). These theories contend that human cognition -including abstract thinking -is firmly grounded in multisensory processes and bodily experiences of the world (Walsh and Simpson 2013) (Corcoran 2018). iVR has the potential to foster embodied forms of teaching and learning, due to its highly immersive and modern interfaces that can use the human body as an input (Jensen and Konradsen 2018). ...
The consumer age of the Personal Computer and mobile devices has opened up a new world of opportunities for innovative teaching methodologies, many based on serious games and virtual worlds. Similar levels of market penetration are expected for the use of Immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) over upcoming decades, once all the core technologies for game engines and head-mounted displays are available on the market at affordable prices. In this chapter, a general overview of the state of the art of iVR learning experiences is presented. Firstly, the advantages of iVR over traditional learning are described – advantages that must be considered when defining iVR experiences for the optimization of student learning and satisfaction. Secondly, the relationship between learning theories and iVR experiences is briefly summarized; an area where constructivist theories appear to be the most commonly used theory in iVR experiences. Thirdly, some examples of the success of iVR applications at different learning levels, from primary school to higher education, are summarized. Fourthly, the key factors for the successful design and use of an iVR experience in education are identified, from the predesign stage to the final evaluation – with special attention given to the different possibilities of each type of HMD for different kinds of educational experiences. Finally, the main limitations of iVR for learning today and the future trends of this technology for teaching are also identified and discussed.KeywordsActive learningEducational gamesEducational technologyGames for learningHead-mounted displaysImmersive virtual reality
... These two have made possible the practice of present-day learners to access, read and share information with ease and haste. Thus, students are noted to use technology to their advantage (Walsh & Simpson, 2013). This means that more and more students are finding the utilization of technology beneficial and suited to their needs. ...
This empirical investigation intended to determine the digital reading habit of prospective reading teachers with age range of 17 to 40, and mean age equals to 20.46 (Standard Deviation [SD] = 2.95). Moreover, this cross-sectional investigation employed a descriptive-quantitative-correlational design to determine whether a gender difference exists on the digital reading habit of the respondents and whether a significant relationship could be drawn between the polychotomous variable socioeconomic status (SES) and the digital reading habit (DRH), the main contruct investigated in this research. The data drawn from 328 respondents were collected through the utilization of an adapted survey-questionnaire with determined reliability of Cronbach's alpha = 0.97. Analyses of the data evidenced that the respondents are of 'satisfactory' digital reading habit. In addition, it is disclosed that there significant difference on the DRH of the respondents of the study across the dichotomous variable gender with male to be noted to have better DRH. Moreover, the investigation established that there is a positive and significant relationship between the DRH of the respondents and their SES. Implications are provided.
... Although a continuous change has occurred in the technology and the internet, the development and learning process of students, educators may make use of numerous materials in the reading education that can be from digital texts to the internet (Thoermer & Williams, 2012). According to (Walsh & Simpson, 2013), students are taking the advantage of technological materials in their learning to read and write outside of a school (Jahson, Adams & Cummins, 2012) and in a classroom (Akbar, Taqi, Dashti & Sadeq, 2015). The preference of a student will be performing these activities on a phone or the internet instead of reading the written material on books or listening to a teacher (Tolani, McCormac & Zimmermann, 2009). ...
The main objective of the current study is to investigate how digital reading can have an
influence on the improvement of EFL learners’ reading comprehension. The sample of this
study was comprised of 32 males studying at the Al Mafraq First Basic School for Boys in
Jordon. The study participants were enrolled in the 1st semester of the educational session
2020/2021. All the participants were categorized into a couple of groups namely the
experimental and control groups whereby the participants in the former group employed
digital reading to facilitate their reading comprehension while those in the latter group
employed conventional system for this purpose. The effectiveness of both the mentioned
methods was assessed by conducting a test. The test outcomes revealed that the reading
comprehension of the experimental group outshined that of the control group. A positive
outlook of the participants in the experimental group with respect to the use of digital reading
was also discovered. Overall, it was concluded that digital reading proved effective in
enhancing reading comprehension skills in learners both inside and outside the class.
... Depuis le début des années 2010, les tablettes sont de plus en plus régulièrement utilisées dans les classes dans le cadre d'activités d'écriture en primaire notamment (Villemonteix et al., 2015 ;Walsh et Simpson, 2013. Certaines études indiquent que la tablette améliore l'écrit d'un point de vue quantitatif mais également qualitatif puisque les élèves sont souvent plus créatifs et s'appuient sur un plus grand nombre de ressources (Karsenti et Fiévez, 2014). ...
... In one piece of research, the key findings showed that parents and teachers had a positive perspective of young children's use of tablets and viewed them as educationally valuable, although there were also concerns and a need for guidance for parents (Neumann, Merchant, & Burnett, 2018). Walsh and Simpson (2013) have also examined touch and the dynamic materiality in literacy learning. Crescenzi, Jewitt, and Price (2014) researched the role of touch in preschool children's learning to use a digital mobile device (iPad) versus paper interaction. ...
The article seeks to develop a better understanding of the contribution of materiality in a discourse between a creator (content producer) and an interface, dealing with analogue and digital artefacts. Focus is in the materiality of the two different art‐creation learning processes, acrylic painting and digital painting. The objective of this paper is to consider especially the affect and meaning of these two different content creation modalities and intra‐action within that. Through reflective autoethnographic consideration, the purpose is to consider the essences of materials manifesting and modulating the processes of content creation as a posthumanist phenomenon. It will be shown that the creation processes with paper are more experimental whereas the processes with digital screen are more playful. There is a growing need to deeper understand the cultural change of material cultures and the people’s intra‐action with the materials also enabling arts creation. This paper will widen our limited understanding and deepen our theoretical perspectives of the essence of materials which then avails confronting analogue and digital when developing teaching and learning in the posthuman era especially in early education.
Practitioner Notes
What is already known about this topic There is a growing interest in the new materialism and posthuman thinking amongst educational technology research and development.
Reading analogue versus digital is well‐documented.
What this paper adds New materialist thinking offers a useful perspective in education for looking at the essence of analogue and digital materiality modulating content creation.
Characterising the nuances in analogue and digital production can help in evaluating their educational potential.
Implications for practice and/or policy As practitioners we should critically question the political vision of education digitalisation especially concerning early childhood education.
There is a need to move beyond debates about analogue versus digital to look at more specific examples of their advantages (and disadvantages) in developing posthumanist education and intra‐active pedagogy especially for young children.
... Unfortunately, empirical evidence on the integration and impact of iPads in K-12 classrooms is scarce (Jahnke and Kumar, 2014). Walsh and Simpson (2013) agree that research into the impact of touch pads, such as the iPad, on learning and teaching is in early stages, and results are mixed, showing both the benefit of increased engagement and the challenge of distraction from learning. However, Jahnke and Kumar's (2014) study showed that students were engaged when creating artifacts and products using the iPads. ...
The purpose of this case study was to explore how teachers and students use iPads in class, the obstacles and barriers to teacher and student iPad use, and the relationship between types and frequency of use, in one high school in Southern Oregon. The study consisted of classroom observations and follow-up interviews with nine teachers with iPad carts over a three week period. Qualitative data was emphasized, with some quantitative data to support it. Overall, iPad use was low, even though access to iPads was high. When iPads were used, teachers used iPads mostly for communication and delivering instruction, and students used iPads mostly for reading, writing, and research. Observational data and interview data results on the types of use were consistent, indicating that teachers are well aware of how they use iPads in their classrooms.
... (Thoermer & Williams, 2012). Students are increasingly taking advantage of the technological materials in learning to read and write (Walsh & Simpson, 2013), both outside of school (Jahson, Adams & Cummins, 2012) and within the classroom (Akbar, Taqi, Dashti & Sadeq, 2015). If students have a choice, they prefer to do these activities on the internet or on the phone instead of listening to the teacher or reading the written materials in the classroom (Tolani, McCormac & Zimmermann, 2009). ...
Purpose: In today's world, the rapid spread of technology affects educational life. It has become common place in many countries to read digital texts on tablet computers, preferred for their portability, and long charging times; projects are done to improve educational quality in many countries. However, research is limited about how reading digital texts affects reading skills of primary students. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of digital text readings on reading comprehension, reading fluency, and reading attitude of 4th grade students.
... because the creation-comprehension or writing-reading relationship is highly reciprocal in the context of digital text (Oakley, 2017;Walsh and Simpson, 2013), it was anticipated that gains in reading might be made. The exemplar learning activities included: (1) electronic or digital Language Experience Approach (Oakley, 2001) to help children understand the relationships between oral and written language and concepts about print and screen and to help them write; ...
This article reports on an exploratory mixed-methods study that investigated how the creation of multimodal digital texts, using tablets, and open-ended creative apps contributed to the literacy learning of five-year-old children in two schools in low socioeconomic areas in Western Australia. Participating teachers learned about seven exemplar learning activities designed to engage children in multimodal text creation using tablets, primarily to improve literacy. Teachers used exemplars to guide their literacy planning and practice over three school terms. Pre- and post-test scores suggest that aspects of participating children’s reading had improved. Teachers also reported some improvements in children’s oral language and writing, as well as reading.
... We did not consider the effects of direct on-screen touch on comprehension, since our observations were limited to time spent looking at and engaging with touch screen activities rather than counting the number of touches. Touch may further complicate the relationship between interactive multimedia storybooks and comprehension, and research is only beginning to explore how direct on-screen touch might influence children's learning (e.g., Walsh and Simpson, 2013;Vatavu et al., 2015;Kirkorian et al., 2016). ...
Touch screen storybooks turn reading into an interactive multimedia experience, with hotspot-activated animations, sound effects, and games. Positive and negative effects of reading multimedia stories have been reported, but the underlying mechanisms which explain how children’s learning is affected remain uncertain. The present study examined the effect of storybook format (touch screen and print) on story comprehension, and considered how level of touch screen interactivity (high and low) and shared reading behaviors (cognitive and emotional scaffolding, emotional engagement) might contribute to comprehension. Seven-year-olds (n = 22) were observed reading one touch screen storybook and one print storybook with their mothers. Story comprehension was inferior for the touch screen storybooks compared to the print formats. Touch screen interactivity level had no significant effect on comprehension but did affect shared reading behaviors. The mother–child dyads spent less time talking about the story in the highly interactive touch screen condition, despite longer shared reading sessions because of touch screen interactions. Positive emotional engagement was greater for children and mothers in the highly interactive touch screen condition, due to additional positive emotions expressed during touch screen interactions. Negative emotional engagement was greater for children when reading and talking about the story in the highly interactive condition, and some mothers demonstrated negative emotional engagement with the touch screen activities. The less interactive touch screen storybook had little effect on shared reading behaviors, but mothers controlling behaviors were more frequent. Storybook format had no effect on the frequency of mothers’ cognitive scaffolding behaviors (comprehension questions, word help). Relationships between comprehension and shared reading behaviors were examined for each storybook, and although length of the shared reading session and controlling behaviors had significant effects on comprehension, the mechanisms driving comprehension were not fully explained by the data. The potential for touch screen storybooks to contribute to cognitive overload in 7-year-old developing readers is discussed, as is the complex relationship between cognitive and emotional scaffolding behaviors, emotional engagement, and comprehension. Sample characteristics and methodological limitations are also discussed to help inform future research.
... Tablet reading for children requires support from society to facilitate electronic reading processes in order to enrich their reading experiences. These processes involve reflection and creative thinking derived from touching, tapping, and tracking of reading content (Walsh and Simpson 2013). Teachers in remote areas manage the environment to help children develop self-regulated reading skills from self-exploratory and peer-sharing reading activities. ...
Equal access has serious implications for the growing chasm in learning in remote areas and in economically disadvantaged communities. To help bridge the digital divide for children in remote areas, engaging communities to provide the needed resources in remote schools is essential. With an aim to promoting teachers’ adaptation of tablet reading and teaching among remote schools, a platform for sharing experiences and exchanging ideas among teachers was developed. College students also volunteered for follow-up mobile reading promotion in order to provide needed human resources for tablet reading integration among disadvantaged communities. Collaborative efforts by the university and teachers in remote schools provided a case for study. The main issues explored in this study were: (1) how teachers in remote areas adapted tablet reading in the classroom, and (2) what university students experienced from promoting tablet reading. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of integrating volunteer services and civic engagement in promoting tablet reading, and highlights the mutual benefits, challenges, and recommendations for future implementation. Various data resources were integrated into the inductive analysis, and different resources were used for triangulating the reported phenomena. The study concludes that the teachers obtained experience of tablet reading, and the college students experienced innovative volunteer-service opportunities. The collaboration among the society, the university, and learning sites were all essential for promoting tablet reading among children in remote areas.
With seismic changes in forms of communication and more pervasive use of mobile devices to understand content, reading requires reimagining. Though traditional notions of reading and years of reading research continue to be relevant, there are clearly differences between not only the texts that we read and understand but also differences in how we read them. In this article, I adopt a phenomenological approach to reading practices in order to illustrate how sensory and embodied reading is and, in turn, how methods for interpreting and analysing reading need to turn more to phenomenology and identifying what Merleau-Ponty (1964) describes as ‘the essence of the experience’. Built on more of a game-based, ludic approach to reading, I argue that content (i.e., different texts and narrative styles) are processed in different ways and not in a traditional linear, narrative manner. The article draws from a multi-sited two-year project of iPad reading to illustrate how reading has shifted and how our methods for examining it need revisiting.
In this paper we explore how the use of gesture and touch with digital technology fits into an overall scheme of meaning making. We investigate the concept of dynamic materiality by looking at examples of cognitive, socially situated and technologically mediated experiences of literacy. Dynamic materiality refers to the constant shift between modes and texts through which students need to navigate to build cohesive layers of meaning between reading and writing for literacy and learning tasks at school. Data for the study was collected through observations of literacy lessons that incorporated reading, writing, talking, listening, creating and viewing in a fifth grade class where each student had a touch pad. Lesson sequences that integrated the use of touch pads for targeted learning purposes were recorded and analysed for evidence of modal layering. When the overall semiotic context was coded it became clear that gesture and touch must be considered as important communicative tools for students working with digital technologies. Furthermore, when students reflected orally on their learning and thinking processes the data shows how their purposeful use of touch provides evidence of dynamic materiality. These findings illustrate the value of including touch in the consideration of modes in meaning making and reveal new ways of viewing literacy in contemporary times.
Η μελέτη αυτή καταγράφει τα χαρακτηριστικά της έντυπης και ηλεκτρονικής μορφής του παιδικού βιβλίου στο χώρο των εκδόσεων στην Ελλάδα, από το 1990 έως σήμερα, και εξερευνά τις τάσεις και τις προοπτικές των δύο μορφών. Η υλικότητα της έντυπης μορφής του παιδικού βιβλίου παρουσίασε αναρίθμητες διαφοροποιήσεις του σχήματος, του μεγέθους και των μεθόδων βιβλιοδεσίας της. Παράλληλα, ένα πλήθος καινοτομιών ενίσχυσε την υλικότητά της με οπτικο-ακουστικές και απτικές τροπικότητες. Από το 2010, οι νέες τεχνολογίες προσέφεραν στο παιδικό βιβλίο μια ακόμη μορφή. Οι Έλληνες εκδότες διέθεσαν την ηλεκτρονική μορφή παιδικού βιβλίου σε όλα τα γνωστά είδη και τους μορφότυπους, θέτοντας μια πρόκληση για το έντυπο παιδικό βιβλίο και την ανάγνωση των παιδιών. Τα αποτελέσματα της μελέτης αναδεικνύουν ότι κάθε επιλογή χαρακτηριστικού εξυπηρέτησε μια συγκεκριμένη λειτουργία στα πλαίσια της κάθε μορφής βιβλίου και συμπεραίνεται ότι η έντυπη και η ηλεκτρονική μορφή παιδικού βιβλίου θα συνυπάρχουν και θα εξελίσσονται παράλληλα, σε μια σχέση αλληλοσυμπλήρωσης και αμοιβαίας επιρροής.
Λέξεις-κλειδιά: έντυπη μορφή, ηλεκτρονική μορφή, παιδικό βιβλίο, ηλεκτρονικό βιβλίο, σχήμα, μέγεθος, βιβλιοδεσία, καινοτόμα χαρακτηριστικά, EPUB, PDF, εφαρμογές, apps, διαδραστικά χαρακτηριστικά
With the rise in translanguaging pedagogies scholarship, researchers have explored how educators can employ translation strategies to support emergent bilinguals’ identities and literacy learning (e.g., Jiménez et al., 2015 Res Teach Engl 49:248–271: 2015). Increasingly, technological devices such as iPads and laptops are used in classrooms to facilitate translation because websites like Google Translate provide efficient access to numerous languages and can afford many emergent bilingual students the opportunity to participate creatively and fully in the classroom. However, there is a dearth of research that considers the material affordances of such pedagogies, and furthermore takes a critical look at how (or whether) technology-based pedagogies actually meet the empowering aims of translanguaging scholarship in practice, particularly in primary grade classrooms (Grades K-2). As such, this chapter explores how three second-grade children use an iPad during a collaborative translation activity. Drawing on critical multimodal analysis (Wohlwend, An introduction to critical discourse analysis in education. Routledge: 2011), findings revealed that physical access to the iPad and modes such as proximity, touch, and grabbing reinforced unequal power relations and monolingual norms in this activity. We conclude by sharing implications for research and practice with regard to the role of iPads in translation activities with young children.
This empirical investigation on the e-reading habit involved 109 graduate students (32.29 as mean age, SD-10.34). The cross-sectional study gathered data through the employment of an 16-item adapted [by Maden (2018)] survey-questionnaire (with a reliability of Cronbach alpha = 0.87). Analysis of the data revealed that the respondents, on the average, are of 'satisfactory e-reading habit'. Moreover, it was determined that a gender difference exists favoring the female respondents of the study. In addition, a significant negative correlation is established between the respondents' e-reading habit and age. Finally, the study disclosed that respondents socioeconomic status influences e-reading habit. Discussions and Implications are herein found.
As digital technologies proliferate throughout classrooms in the United States, iPads and other mobile tablets have been heralded as tools for enhanced peer collaboration. However, little research has examined exactly how students interact with and around iPads during collaborative learning tasks. This study employs multimodal interaction analysis to investigate how secondary Spanish immersion students leveraged the physicality of the iPads as multimodal affordances when completing a world history literacy-based task in a target language. In particular, I consider how the focal students employed touch-based communicative modes to complete higher-level actions, and the potential relationship between these modes and target language development. Findings have implications for materials use research in language teaching/learning classrooms as well as progressing our understanding of the impact of iPads on classroom discourse.
The chapter discusses the concept of ‘multimodal layering’ as both a theoretical perspective and a methodological framework for analysis. It helps the researcher explore points of potential meaning making coherence created through digital platforms such as iPads. Multimodal layering refers to the multiplicative effect (Lemke in Visual Communication 1(3): 299–325, 2002) when semiotic modes closely associated with a text are reframed in new contexts as users make meaning in digital spaces. The effect occurs in the constant shift between the material and immaterial layers of screens, modes and texts through which individual students need to navigate when reading and writing in learning events (Walsh and Simpson in Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 37(2): 96–106, 2014). This layering is made even more complex when meaning is constructed in the social context of the classroom in the dynamic operationalization of iPads/tablets in private and public spaces. We propose that the multiplicative effects existing within the semiotic boundaries of a text alter when multimodal layering occurs as the text is repurposed in a new interaction and the learner is repositioned to respond to the reconfiguring of semiosis.
Type in ‘how to become an autodidact’ into Google and the first entry that appears is a blog called Loner Wolf with a list of such famous self-taught masters as Ray Bradbury, Frank Zappa, Stanley Kubrick, Benjamin Franklin, Malcolm X, Albert Einstein and the list goes on, especially with the infinite accessibility to information on the web, autodidactic practices are on the rise and indeed flourishing. Drawing on data collected from an iPad research study, this chapter focuses on one young man, Cole, and his passion for autodidactic practices to think and design texts as a part of his everyday repertoires of practice. Applying Tim Ingold’s environmental, anthropological framings of social practices to theorize iPad thinking and being, we explore how Cole’s hybrid, rhizomatic and web-like navigations point to reframings of literacy practices that are valued by younger people.
The concept of ‘literacy,’ while often contentious, has constantly evolved along with social change and technological advances. Even more so in the twenty-first century the unprecedented impact of digital technologies has produced new theories and research around the nature of literacy. We are able to communicate instantly with combinations of text, photos, or videos through mobile technologies and obtain instant information from the Internet. The phenomenon of Web 2.0 has raised levels of online interaction with social changes accompanying different patterns of communication. Due to these changes key questions are raised about literacy education in classrooms. Is reading and writing different in this digital, multimodal, and multimedia environment? How can we work across traditional views of reading and writing within this new communications environment? This article examines new views of literacy that are supported by worldwide research in schools and provides examples of practical articulation between new theories of communication and classroom practice.
This chapter describes the challenges of integrating new technologies with literacy education in preservice primary teacher education in Australia. The authors describe the policy context and regulatory mechanisms controlling pre-service education, including a national set of professional standards for graduate teachers, a new national curriculum for school students, the introduction of high stakes national assessment for school students, and the looming threat of decontextualized back-to-the-basics professional entry tests for aspiring teachers. The chapter includes three case studies of the authors' pedagogical practices that attempt to reframe conceptions of the literacy capabilities of pre-service teachers to reflect the complex and sophisticated requirements of teachers in contemporary schooling. The authors conclude the chapter with a discussion of the implications of these case studies as they illustrate the ways that pre-service teachers can be scaffolded and supported to develop creative capacity and critical awareness of the kinds of literacies required in the digital age despite restrictive regimes.
This year-long qualitative study draws from multimodal theory and New Literacies Studies to document the digital literacy experiences of a diverse group of 2nd-graders using e-readers. Twenty-first century classrooms must expand traditional notions of literacy to prepare students for the ever-changing, media-rich world. Students participated in small-group digital reading workshops, where they read interactive picture books. The data mainly drew from transcripts of student interactions and open-ended interviews and were analyzed through a combination of comparative and discourse analyses. The author argues that multimodal texts offer opportunities for rehearsal of literacy practices, engagement, talk as a choice of reader response, and student agency. Even though personal digital devices offer opportunities for independent reading, young readers still need social interactions around books to co-construct meaning. The study found the students spent additional time reading and successfully mediated the available resources as they engaged in digital reading.
This article considers adolescents’ contoured meaning making with videogames and related texts and suggests that students' interest-driven, multimodal, and cross-literate experiences can be part of contemporary English classrooms.
This paper reports a study that examines the integration of tablet technologies such as iPads into literacy lessons to investigate how reading and meaning-making occur within this digital medium. Specifically in this paper, we discuss the concept of reading paths as applied to physical and cognitive planes of meaning-making. The paper reports on data collected as part of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded project involving researchers from Canada, the United States and Australia. The study is currently under way in schools in the three different countries where the researchers are observing students in classrooms in primary and secondary schools. The research is designed with a mixed methods approach coding video footage of dyads to enable close study of their interaction during literacy tasks incorporating iPads. Our findings show that the affordances of touch technology allow for multimodal, multidirectional reading paths. By tracking students' interactions with the digital platform through touch, it is possible to see navigation as evidence of the relationship between material and cognitive processes, which fosters metatextual awareness. These aspects of modes and new literacies construct a dynamic materiality for students' reading and writing. As a result, we propose that current awareness of the mode of gesture needs to be expanded to take into account haptic ways of learning.
Changes to literacy pedagogy are gradually occurring in classrooms in response to contemporary communication and learning contexts. These changes are diverse as teachers and educational researchers attempt to design new pedagogy to respond to the potential of digital technologies within existing curriculum and assessment policies. This paper discusses evidence from recent classroom research where 16 teachers worked in teams in nine primary school classrooms to develop new ways of embedding technology for literacy learning. Data from the nine case studies provides evidence that teachers can combine the teaching of print-based literacy with digital communications technology across a range of curriculum areas. Findings from this research confirm that literacy needs to be redefined within current curriculum contexts, particularly in light of the emergence of a national curriculum. New descriptors of language and literacy criteria are proposed within the framework of multimodal literacy, the literacy that is needed in contemporary times for reading, viewing, responding to and producing multimodal and digital texts.
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This paper argues that Critical Discourse Analysis needs to extend its work to new communications media. I identify the phenomenon of the distributed transmedia franchise as a new kind of inter-medium with significant ideological potential. Some components of transmedia franchises such as immersive worlds and identification through online communities, as well as its ability to continue to present itself to us across many guises, sites, and extended periods of time, may make it a more powerful medium for shaping people's views of what is natural in the social world than prior media. Finally, I propose a specific analytic model and strategies to enable us to assess the affordances, effects, and dangers of this new inter-medium and its messages.
Good computer and video games like System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Pikmin, Rise of Nations, Neverwinter Nights, and Xenosaga: Episode 1 are learning machines. They get themselves learned and learned well, so that they get played long and hard by a great many people. This is how they and their designers survive and perpetuate themselves. If a game cannot be learned and even mastered at a certain level, it won't get played by enough people, and the company that makes it will go broke. Good learning in games is a capitalist-driven Darwinian process of selection of the fittest. Of course, game designers could have solved their learning problems by making games shorter and easier, by dumbing them down, so to speak. But most gamers don't want short and easy games. Thus, designers face and largely solve an intriguing educational dilemma, one also faced by schools and workplaces: how to get people, often young people, to learn and master something that is long and challenging--and enjoy it, to boot.
With the rise of new technologies and media, the way we communicate is rapidly changing. Literacies provides a comprehensive introduction to literacy pedagogy within today's new media environment. It focuses not only on reading and writing, but also on other modes of communication, including oral, visual, audio, gestural and spatial. This focus is designed to supplement, not replace, the enduringly important role of alphabetical literacy. Using real-world examples and illustrations, Literacies features the experiences of both teachers and students. It maps a range of methods that teachers can use to help their students develop their capacities to read, write and communicate. It also explores the wide range of literacies and the diversity of socio-cultural settings in today's workplace, public and community settings. With an emphasis on the 'how-to' practicalities of designing literacy learning experiences and assessing learner outcomes, this book is a contemporary and in-depth resource for literacy students.
In this 'new media age' the screen has replaced the book as the dominant medium of communication. This dramatic change has made image, rather than writing, the centre of communication. In this groundbreaking book, Gunther Kress considers the effects of a revolution that has radically altered the relationship between writing and the book. Taking into account social, economic, communication and technological factors, Kress explores how these changes will affect the future of literacy. Kress considers the likely larger-level social and cultural effects of that future, arguing that the effects of the move to the screen as the dominant medium of communication will produce far-reaching shifts in terms of power - and not just in the sphere of communication. The democratic potentials and effects of the new information and communication technologies will, Kress contends, have the widest imaginable consequences. Literacy in the New Media Age is suitable for anyone fascinated by literacy and its wider political and cultural implications. It will be of particular interest to those studying education, communication studies, media studies or linguistics.
The 21st century is awash with ever more mixed and remixed images, writing, layout, sound, gesture, speech, and 3D objects. Multimodality looks beyond language and examines these multiple modes of communication and meaning making. Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication represents a long-awaited and much anticipated addition to the study of multimodality from the scholar who pioneered and continues to play a decisive role in shaping the field. Written in an accessible manner and illustrated with a wealth of photos and illustrations to clearly demonstrate the points made, Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication deliberately sets out to locate communication in the everyday, covering topics and issues not usually discussed in books of this kind, from traffic signs to mobile phones. In this book, Gunther Kress presents a contemporary, distinctive and widely applicable approach to communication. He provides the framework necessary for understanding the attempt to bring all modes of meaning-making together under one unified theoretical roof. This exploration of an increasingly vital area of language and communication studies will be of interest to advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of English language and applied linguistics, media and communication studies and education.
The goal of this investigation was to explore how a fourth grade teacher could integrate iPads into her literacy instruction to simultaneously teach print-based and digital literacy goals. The teacher used iPads for a three-week period during her literacy instruction and selected apps that provided unique approaches to helping the students meet their literacy learning goals.
An explanation of how to develop lessons that meaningfully integrate iPads is presented, as well as lessons learned from the project. Considerations for integrating tablets, such as the iPad, into literacy instruction are provided.
Because iPads and similar tablets are relatively unexplored as tools for literacy learning, this work may provide a foundation for teachers and leaders making decisions about whether mobile devices such as these can be useful in literacy classrooms.
Electronic books have become quite common in the early school years. The types of stories include instructional materials for packaged reading programs, traditional tales, well known classic and contemporary children's literature and recently authored digital narratives. Some of the latter deploy hypertext and multimodal resources in ways that facilitate innovative construction of point of view and metafictional elements, to engage readers in active, reflexive reading in ways not possible in conventional books. The range of CD stories reflect reading practices from those most closely aligned with reading conventional books to those associated with new digital narratives. Current research and classroom practice seems to be largely positioned at the conventional literacies end of the continuum. This paper proposes rethinking that position and the relationship between research and practice in the classroom use of CD narratives.
The basic features of digital reading devices (such as the Amazon Kindle) are described in this article. The author also considers how such devices can advance e-book readership among primary students by offering new avenues for accessing and interacting with a wide array of texts. Rooted in the transactional theory of reader response and a new literacies perspective, this case study examines the reading and response behaviors of two second-grade girls as they read a book on a digital reading device. Findings suggest that using digital reading devices with second-grade students promote new literacies practices and extend connections between readers and text as engagement with and manipulation of text is made possible through electronic tools and features.
This paper deals with the following questions:1The ‘problem’: what is the ‘Literacy Debate’ and why do such apparently arcane accounts of language and literacy have such a high profile in popular media?2What are the New Literacy Studies (NLS) and what are the new understandings of language and of literacy on which NLS are based?3. What are the implications for literacy education?
The chapter explores the conceptual framework of 'learning by design' as new learning theory (Kalantzis & Cope 2005). The framework and its attendant pedagogies have the potential to (a) cater for the diversity of students cognitively, socially and culturally; (b) reflect global text practices in the classroom; (c) explore communications and their design in a digital age; (d) plan for a breadth and depth approach to knowledge by activating processes aligned to experiencing, conceptualising, analysing and applying; and (e) make obsolete an outdated, separated disciplinary regime by breaking down unnatural walls of the curriculum. Real and tangible differences between traditional literacy pedagogies and a new learning model become evident, demonstrating that the pedagogic shift is neither reactive nor sensational, but timely and appropriate.
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