Preschoolers' Construction of the Sociocultural Affordances of iPads as Tools for Multimodal, Multilingual Composing

• In Event: 72.020 - Theorizing Meaning-Making Around iPads in Educational Settings: Directions From Literacy Studies

Abstract

Objectives: We examine the cultural processes by which emergent bilingual/biliterate preschoolers constructed understandings of the affordances of iPads for composing multimodal, multilingual eBooks. Specifically, we analyze: a) how material features of iPads, composing apps, and digital cameras shaped children’s digital composing, b) how changing classroom practices shaped children’s understandings of the iPad’s affordances, and c) how power relations evident in local and institutional language and literacy practices shaped children’s use of iPads in eBook composing events.

Theoretical Framework: We employ a digital literacies lens to analyze operational, cultural, and critical dimensions of the distinctive screen-based processes that occur when iPads are used as tools for composing (Burnett, 2009, 2010). Social semiotic views of multimodality (Kress, 1997, 2003) and sociocultural perspectives on literacy learning (Barton & Hamilton, 2000; Gee, 2003) suggest children’s writing processes shape and are shaped by local literacy practices and the values and power structures inherent in them. Emergent literacy (Harste, Woodward, & Burke, 1984) and translanguaging pedagogies (García & Kleifgen, 2010) support instruction encouraging emergent forms of writing and integration of all children’s languages.

Methods: Data are drawn from a two year design experiment (Cobb, Jackson, & Dunlap, in press) aimed at supporting children’s emergent, multimodal, multilingual composing using kid-friendly digital cameras and iPads with drawing, writing, book-making, and photo apps. We recorded eBook composing using participant/observation, fieldnotes, audio-video recording, and digital photos. We used the constant comparative method (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) to develop grounded categories related to operational, cultural, and critical dimensions of children’s composing. Multimodal interaction analysis (Norris, 2004) was used to analyze how children and adults built shared expectations for the use of iPads as part of classroom eBook composing events.

Data Source: Participants were 37, 4-year-old, emergent bilinguals/biliterates attending a public, prekindergarten during two school years. Children were learning English and also spoke one of six different heritage languages.

Results: Analysis of operational dimensions of eBook events found that children strategically foregrounded, and backgrounded digital photos, drawing, print, and voice recordings to create multimodal texts. Over time, children negotiated and adapted familiar cultural practices for page-based composing and invented new ways of “living” the texts on the screen through dramatic play, and flexibly assembling meanings across the time/spaces represented in the composing event, school/home photos, and imaginary narratives recorded in drawings. Analyses of critical dimensions showed that children’s perceptions of the affordances of digital tools were shaped by classroom/institutional ideologies and power structures. Children’s perceptions of iPad voice recording features were constructed in relation to the use (or not) of their heritage languages in eBook events and other classroom activities. A Year 2 redesign of eBook events to incorporate all children’s heritage languages reshaped children’s understandings of the affordances of iPad voice recordings for creating multilingual texts.

Significance: These findings highlight the need to analyze multimodal potentials of iPads and apps, and the ways these affordances are constructed as part of the sociocultural practices of children’s classrooms.

Authors

• Deborah Rowe, Vanderbilt University

• Mary Ellen Miller, Vanderbilt University - Peabody College