Towards Digitization and Digital Language Learning in the Laptop Classroom in Catalonia
Author(s):
Boris Vazquez-Calvo (presenting / submitting) Francisco Javier Martínez Ortega (presenting) Daniel Cassany
Conference:
ECER 2015
Network:
31. LEd – Network on Language and Education
Format:
Paper

Session Information

31 SES 02, Reading, Literature and Digital Language Learning in the Classroom

Paper Session

Time:
2015-09-08
15:15-16:45
Room:
3008. [Main]
Chair:
Lisa Paleczek

Contribution

From 2009, the Department of Education in Catalonia implemented the 1x1 program (EduCAT 1x1 or EduCAT 2.0) on Secondary Mandatory Education, by which every student receives a laptop, in hopes of establishing a fully digitized education. The project provides the infrastructure for the ‘ideal digital classroom’: a) every student owns a laptop and brings it to the school on a daily basis, b) the school provides Internet access, digital textbooks, c) the classroom is equipped with overhead projector and a screen, e) there is a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), such as Moodle, where students and teachers upload the educational contents and their productions, f) students and teachers use digital textbooks. The program also observed technical support and teacher training. Despite funding cuts, the program is still in place in an important number of schools around the country. The technological infrastructure, however, may not represent pedagogical or methodological innovation (Area 2011, Alonso et al. 2014, Warschauer 2009). In this sense, it seems relevant to explore the context and the shape and change of the teaching and learning practices. Our particular interest is literacy and language learning, and previous studies have covered specific topics such as reading (Cassany and Vazquez-Calvo 2014) or writing (Cassany, 2013) in the digital classroom.


This paper tries to describe the broader context of the 1x1 program in Catalonia and examine the impact of digitization in the curriculum of the three languages of instruction (Catalan, Spanish and English) in Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE). This context of study prompts the following research questions:


a) How is the 1x1 program being implemented in the 3 schools? Does it present differences in its implementation when the 3 schools allegedly have the same technical characteristics?

b) How have the concepts of teaching and learning been affected by the 1x1 program? How are specific languages taught and learnt under the 1x1?

c) How have school literacy practices been impacted by the program? Are there events of pedagogical innovation regarding literacy and digital literacy?


The study is framed within the New Literacy Studies (Street, 1993; Barton & Hamilton, 1998; Cassany, 2006) as it takes on a sociocultural perspective to study reading and writing events in a particular community of practice. Also, we consider two related research fields: New Literacies (Lankshear & Knobel, 2011; Cassany, 2012) providing a conceptual frame for understanding technology, digital culture and literacy; and educational ethnography as analytical framework for teaching practices (Green & Bloom, 1997; Bertely, 2000; Rockwell, 2009).

Method

According to our theoretical framework we performed an ethnographic approach (Barton & Hammilton, 1998), which focuses on literacy practices in language teaching. We understand that the school context is permeated by the wider social and cultural context of all the participants. This scenario is the meeting point of different kinds of cultural practices - we focus specifically on literacy (including academic, vernacular and digital) and language teaching and learning practices. The 3 participant schools are located in Catalonia. School 1 (S1) is located in a middle-class neighbourhood in Barcelona. School 2 (S2) is in a low-class, multicultural neighbourhood in Barcelona. School 3 (S3) is in a low-income, peripheral area of a post-industrial town in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. Two instruments to collect data are used. In the first place, semi-structured interviews with all the educational agents are conducted as a means to capture their voices and perceptions. The items covered in the interview are 1) demographic and background information, 2) perception on and attitude towards the implementation of the 1x1, 3) changes in classroom activity, 4) changes in reading and writing, 5) the use of online language resources - such as dictionaries or translation software, 6) use of or attitude towards social networking, and 7) overall assessment of the 1x1. The interviews covered all the research questions, but from an explorative point of view in order to give a detailed description of the context. Also, classroom observation is conducted over periods of active technology use, as agreed with the corresponding teacher. This was recorded in the form of field notes following an open observation pattern which considers 1) teaching planning, 2) subject expertise 3) classroom activities 4) classroom interactions, 5) difficulties.The 1x1 school guidelines were also collected for better understanding of the context. We obtained the following data: 3 interviews with head teachers (1:59:52), 21 interviews with language teachers (21:44:58), 41 interviews with students from all levels in CSE (18:56:10), 29 events of classroom observation (24:29:21). Data analysis is done inductively through the lenses of Qualitative Comparative Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis. Data triangulation was observed by means of the two data collection instruments and the additional document collected at each school, the ‘1x1 guideline’, in order to offer both a focused and a comprehensive analysis of the context in terms of language teaching and learning practices with technologies.

Expected Outcomes

The data obtained so far hint some preliminary remarks to make on the 1x1 impact on schools in Catalonia and on language learning: The digitization process is slower than expected. We identified hindering factors mainly related to technical problems or lack of training of or support for the teachers. Students welcome digitization and laptops as they are closer to their reality, they use computers at home for personal reasons and feel comfortable with them. They also appreciate the lighter weight computers and digital textbooks have in comparison with paper-based textbooks, but they see some incongruencies when some teachers still require paper-based practices like note taking. The digital textbook is an enriched PDF document. Some teachers complain about their quality and the ‘limitations of the screen’ (linear reading is more complicated). Students wonder why it is necessary to have the computer when you are not asked for more than just reading the textbook and extracting information from it. Basically the learning experiences with textbooks remain intact. Teaching practices are digitized but not always digital. There is assimilation of the technology, but no transformation of the teaching practices. We identify teacher trends related to transformation of teaching practices, they: believe technology is the future of education, keep up to date with new trends in educational practices, have low dependence on the textbook and are not afraid to explore for new materials on the web. Specifically the language teacher believes language teaching and learning is for communicative purposes, rather than for philological study of the language and sees technology as a communicative tool. Digital literacy is not normally observed or taught. New skills are required when using a digital device such as navigating the web and searching for information, organizing the information or critically assessing the information found.

References

Alonso, C., Guitert, M., Romeu, T (2014). Los entornos 1x1 en Cataluña. Entre las expectativas de las políticas educativas y las voces del profesorado. In Educar, vol. 50/1 pp. 41-64. Area, M. (2011). Los efectos del modelo 1:1 en el cambio educativo en las escuelas. Evidencias y desafíos para las políticas iberoamericanas. In Revista Iberoamericana de Educación, No. 56, pp. 49-74. Barton, D. & Hamilton, M. (1998). Local Literacies. Reading and writing in one community. London: Routledge. Bertely, M. (2000). Conociendo nuestras escuelas. Un acercamiento etnográfico a la cultura escolar. México: Paidós. Cassany, D. (2006). Tras las líneas. Sobre la lectura contemporánea. Barcelona: Anagrama. Cassany, D. (2012). En_línea. Leer y escribir en la red. Barcelona: Anagrama Cassany, D. (2013). ¿Cómo se lee y escribe en línea? In Revista Electrónica Leer, Escribir y Descubrir, Abril 2013, pp. 1-24. Cassany, D. & Vazquez-Calvo, B. (2014). Leer en línea en el aula. In Revista Peruana de Investigación Educativa. No. 6, pp. 63-87. Green, J. & Bloome, D. 1997. Ethnography and ethnographers of and in education: A situated perspective. In Flood, J., Heath, S. B., & Lapp, D. (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching literacy through the communicative and visual arts. New York: Macmillan Publishers, pp. 181-202. Rockwell, E. (2009). La experiencia etnográfica. Historia y cultura en los procesos educativos. Buenos Aires: Paidós. Street, B. (ed.) (1993). Cross-Cultural Approaches to Literacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Warschauer, Mark (2009). Learning to Write in the Laptop Classroom . Writing & Pedagogy, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 101-112. Available at: http://www.equinoxpub.com/journals/index.php/WAP/article/view/4886. Date accessed: 28 Jan. 2015 doi:10.1558/wap.v1i1.101.

Author Information

Boris Vazquez-Calvo (presenting / submitting)
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Barcelona
Francisco Javier Martínez Ortega (presenting)
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Translation and Language Sciences Department
Barcelona
Daniel Cassany
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain

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