The influence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on modern societies is broad and deep. Different aspects of human life including teaching and learning are influenced by digital technologies (Starkey, 2012). ICT supported education has become an international phenomenon, and the use of digital devices is now a common practice in many primary classrooms (Sung, Chang, & Liu, 2016). Many young learners are allowed to bring their own technologies to schools after Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies were encouraged in many developed countries such as New Zealand (Starkey & Finger, 2018), Europe (Ottestad & Gudmundsdottir, 2018), and The United States (Scholz, 2016). Consequently, addressing the influence of using these devices on the cognitive and social processes of young learners is a timely topic in these countries. Many studies have examined the effectiveness of using digital devices in primary classrooms (Chauhan, 2017; Tingir, Cavlazoglu, Caliskan, Koklu, & Intepe-Tingir, 2017). However, there is still much unknown about what exactly happens when the learners use them for learning (Lai, 2018). Even in the European context where integrating ICT began earlier than other countries, research does not tell us much about “ways of use of technology in schools” (Ottestad & Gudmundsdottir, 2018, p. 1347).  

Learning in classrooms is a messy construct where many elements interact together including digital devices. Complexity Theory, as a holistic approach, provides a promising framework to understand the dynamics of the learning process in classrooms which can be considered as complex systems (Hurford, 2010). A complex system is composed of many heterogeneous elements that interact in different ways; these interactions can either add new features to the system, which is called self-organisation, or interact to maintain these features, which is called self-regulation (Boulton, Allen, & Bowman, 2015). A key assumption of Complexity Theory is that the role and function of any element in a complex system are determined by the interactions between the different elements in that system, not merely the qualities of the elements themselves (Merali & Allen, 2011). Hence by studying how students utilise digital devices and what interactions happen during their use, we can understand their influence, potentials, and how they can be reached.

This presentation will describe how a small group of primary students used digital devices in their classroom in order to understand the roles these technologies play in students’ learning. It also focuses on the factors that generated the utilisations of the devices. The following research questions are addressed:

1. How do students use digital devices for learning in a primary classroom?
2. What interactions and elements led to these ways of use?
3. What aspects of learning are influenced by these ways of use?

Case study methodology was used to develop a thick description of the dynamics that happened during a learning activity in a primary classroom in New Zealand. A teacher and three students aged 12-13 were observed over ten weeks to understand how they used digital devices in a STEAM workshops’ learning activity. This learning activity was composed of different workshops that employ STEAM principles. Participating students were observed in the workshops that required using digital devices. Different data collection methods were used including; observations to capture as much as possible the everyday interactions between students and digital devices, video screen captures to record students’ activities on the devices and their conversations with their peers, and think-aloud interviews with the students to explore their thinking while doing their tasks. In addition, various types of artefacts were collected; including electronic and non-electronic students’ works that exhibit their learning, besides artefacts related to the learning activity such as teachers’ preparations, shared documents, task guides, and classroom bulletins and instructions. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teacher, one before the term started, and the other after the term was ended. One group interview was conducted with the participating students by the end of the term. These interviews were used to explore other factors that were not observed by the researcher but influenced the utilisations of digital devices such as social actors’ perceptions and previous interactions and experiences. The abductive approach (Blaikie, 2009) was adopted to understand the causes of the utilisations of digital devices by students and the influences on students’ learning. The analysis process followed Denzin’s (1989) guidelines by combining deductive and inductive approaches first to identify the ways of using digital devices by students, followed by aggregating all possible interactions and elements that caused these ways of use, and finally identifying what aspects of learning were influenced by these utilisations. Mixed-methods triangulation and review by inquiry participants (Patton, 2015) were used to increase the trustworthiness of the study.

The findings describe six ways of use of digital devices during the learning activity which include a personal external memory, trial and error learning space, collective accessible memory, production medium, a source of information, and means of communication around and through them. Diverse interactions and elements contributed to the creation of these utilisations; some were originally initiated from the self-organisation interactions that happened mostly between the teacher and elements outside the classroom. Other utilisations resulted from everyday self-regulation interactions; some of these interactions were planned, structures, and explicit; others were unplanned, unstructured and implicit. These ways of use influenced the cognitive and social domains of learning in varying degrees. These domains were related to the five key competencies in The New Zealand Curriculum, which were also targeted by the teacher: thinking, using language symbols and texts, managing self, relating to others, and participating and contributing. This study shows how using digital devices, not only their features, determines their influence on students’ learning. The utilisations of digital devices result from context-dependent factors which are important to be considered when integrating ICT in primary classrooms. The findings of this study can help teachers, researchers, and developers to plan and work for making the utilisations of digital devices in classrooms more effective and efficient, and for making their influence on students’ learning more beneficial.

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