Materially Mediated Classroom Practices: The Multimodal Actors Behind iPad Video Composition

• In Event: 43.053 - Materiality Meets Multimodality: The Forgotten Role of Material Objects in Digital Literacies

Abstract

Objectives
This paper analyses the effects of the iPad’s material affordances on the rapport between a paper-based, linear video composition method favored by a group of teachers, and a non-linear, fluid and blended (paper and digital) way of video composition embraced by a group of students.

Theoretical Framework
This study relied on: A) Sociocultural theory’s view of “text” as a cultural construct that incorporates multiple sources and various human mediators (Alvermann, 2008). B) Multimodality’s claim that individuals are active creators and interpreters of modes (Flewitt, 2011; Jewitt, 2011). C) Post-humanism’s (Leander & Bolt, 2013; Taylor, 2013) focus on the role of human and non-human actors in shaping literacy as “embodied” or situated in tangible, material spaces. The study points out the different and often complementary material affordances of both the iPad, the storyboard, and the script and reveals the processes through which the students orchestrated (Rowsell, 2013) and prioritized various modes that challenged the teachers’ paper-based literacy practices.

Methods and Data Sources
The data was drawn from a three-month observation of a group of 25 students living in a major city on the West Coast. This paper is based on a case-study of a group of five students. The data was collected through participant observation, videotaping, semi-structured interviews and field notes. The author relied on Maxwell’s (2005) “narrative analysis,” and narrowed it to “vignettes” (Seidman, 2013), i.e. episodes that stood out either through repetition or through the novelty they brought to the teacher-student dynamic.

Results
Findings focused on the “assemblage” stage of iPad moviemaking. It revealed the students’ engagement in strategies that maintained a multimodal “grip” on video making, even when the teachers presented them with the sole option of working on paper. While the students seemingly followed the teachers’ recommendations, they engaged in “performance epistemology” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2003)— defying the teachers’ recommendation to start “with the first scene on the storyboard.” Engaging in “recursivity” (Fulweiler & Middleton, 2012), the students made use of the iPad’s material affordances to revise, add, and delete images without the worry the device would not be able to accommodate that request. While one student emerged as “the tech person” and found iPad features that sped up the completion of the movie, another student positioned himself as a liaison between paper-based and digital-based literacy practices. The students displayed an extraordinary ability to rely on each other’s multimodal strengths and exploited the iPad’s material affordances to their advantage. Overall, the project revealed the power of collaborative discovery of the iPad’s multimodal affordances and the importance of the teachers’ trust in the students’ ability to troubleshoot difficult video making problems.

Significance
The study focused on the interplay of propositional and performance epistemologies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2003) in a classroom previously dominated solely by paper-based literacy practices. It offers both researchers and practitioners a glimpse into how digital literacies can challenge “teacher-centered” and “deviceless” instruction and offers thought-provoking ideas for teachers regarding the students’ capacity for improvisation through the iPad’s versatile multimodal affordances.

Author

• Andreea Fodor, Stony Brook University - SUNY