"This Is My iPad!" Reconfiguring Dialogic Reading in Parent-Child Interactions With iPad E-Books

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

Abstract

Objectives This single case study sought to understand the nature of meaning making in interactions between a five year old child and her parents around iPad ebooks. The research question was: What is the nature of meaning making in iPad ebook practices of our family during the first six months of my daughter’s use of ebooks? Participants were my daughter and my husband. I played a dual role of participant-observer. Case studies involving one’s own family are important because they provide perspectives on naturally occurring data (Dyson & Genishi, 2005).
What the literacy field knows about interactions between children and parents around books over time comes mostly from studies on traditional print (Wells, 2009). Studies of younger children’s interactions around ebooks concentrate mostly on the skills children gain from computerized book reading (Gong & Levy, 2009). Studies of interactions around technologies in home settings focused mainly on how technology is reflected in non-technology activities (Pahl, 2005).

Theoretical Framework
I employed activity theory to account for sociocultural conditions. Activity theory is an analytic framework that builds on the cultural historical approach to learning developed by Vygotsky (1978). The theory allows one to explain relationships between the following concepts: subjects (participants), objects (understandings), tools (iPads), division of labor (participants doing certain tasks), rules (routines), community, and outcomes.

Methods and Data Sources
My approach to grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) was innovative. I did not develop codes that would lead to larger themes and could result in decontextualizing an action from its explanatory context (Mercer, 2010), but, instead, I compared activities as they developed over time. I then theorized the relationships between activity system elements and changes in those relationships and asked questions about these relationships. As I continued with my analysis, I found that tensions between activity object, division of labor, and rules were evident. I then took those questions and began categorizing patterns of changes across ebook events. Data included observational notes, videos of interactions (about 15 hours), videos of the iPad screen, and informal interviews.

Findings Meaning making with ebooks was saturated with tensions around what dialogic reading on the iPad entails. As the child developed an emotional bond with the device and treated it as a living thing, she created her own dialogue with the iPad. First, she interacted with just illustrations and never allowed parents to read from the screen. Then, she engaged with a dialogue with both audio features and illustrations. This unique relationship bears resemblance to relationships children developed with robotized toys such as Furbies (Turkle, 2011). Although the iPad is not a robotized pet, iPads appear to be different from regular computers, because of their interactivity that makes them appeal to children like computerized toys (Dezuanni et al., 2015).

Significance Because foregrounding the relationship with the device, not with parents, changes the ways parents interact with children, how parents introduce the iPad to children and what they expect matter.

Author

• Barbara Maria Vokatis, Oneonta - SUNY