Digital technologies have the potential to shift literacy practices, and the act of writing involves semiotic and technological complexity. This poster presents the reported capabilities of iPads and the writing-specific applications used in writing activities in a Norwegian elementary classroom. From a European perspective, Nordic countries are frontrunners in the deployment of high-speed Internet in schools, and Norway is also one of the top five countries in terms of student access to computers and tablets (European Commission, 2019). Despite regional differences, elementary schools increasingly adopt tablet technology. Review studies on tablets have shown the lack of longitudinal studies monitoring students’ writing practices with tablets (Haßler, Major, & Hennessy, 2016; Zhang & Nouri, 2018). Furthermore, research into the modal complexity offered by tablets that considers the learning context remains scarce (Simpson & Walsh, 2017). International studies identify the iPads’ multimodal intuitive logic that could facilitate students’ learning, extending the range of resources for communication and representation and allowing combinations of verbal, visual, and aural modes (Gallagher et al., 2015). On the other hand, two large-scale effect studies on the implementation of iPads in Norwegian elementary schools conclude that iPads have rather limited effects on students’ learning outcomes (Krumsvik et al., 2018, 2019). In short, students’ literacy practices with iPads still constitute an emerging area of educational research. The objective of this longitudinal PhD study was to examine the iPad as a writing tool and to identify its’ possibilities and limitations when used by 12-year-old students to compose texts in school. My research question for this poster inquiries into the perceived material, social, and multimodal affordances of the used device: What are the possibilities and the limitations of writing with iPads, according to the students? The analyzed data include the students’ essays and questionnaire responses, as well as classroom observations during the writing process. The findings will be presented as a three-category model, and as student quotations and multimodal representations from the students’ texts. My study lies at the intersection of social semiotic multimodal theory (SSMT) and the new literacy studies (NLS). NLS scholars regard literacy as a set of social practices that are observable in events mediated by written texts and have informed numerous studies that explore issues of affordance and agency in relation to digital and multimodal practices. Digital technologies are key sites for multimodal investigation because their design and situated use make a wide range of modes available (Jewitt, 2016). Affordances—the meaning potentials of modes and media—constitute a key notion in my study. In the SSMT, affordance has been used as a means of comparing the gains and the losses of using the image mode instead of the writing mode (Kress, 2010). Kress (2010) argues that technologies’ characteristics and cultural uses also offer different affordances. This perspective encourages close-grained analyses of students’ writing with iPads, including examinations of the specific semiotic, material, and social gains and losses that these devices bring into the writing process. First, new technologies such as iPads make multimodal representation possible at little cost (Kress, 2010), extending the students’ possibilities to represent knowledge in several modes (writing, images, videos, sounds, etc.). Second, the writing-specific educational apps and software could have an impact on students’ writing. Digital literacy requires both cognitive and technical skills. While iPad affordances might fuel semiotic practices, the built-in constraints and preselected resources chosen by the developers (e.g., Apple) might limit the writer’s choices (Poulsen et al., 2018). Finally, although not designed for class use, iPads could support certain social elements of composition, such as co-creation and feedback (Strømman, 2021).

This poster is a small part of a larger ethnographic study on the use of iPads in multimodal writing, carried out over 1.5 years by Grades 6–7 students in a Norwegian elementary school. The classroom can be described as a tablet-mediated environment, and the participants are 12-year-old students who are confident in their ability to use the iPad as a tool for both educational and recreational purposes. A written assignment and a questionnaire were designed to inquire into the students’ perceptions of creating texts using iPads. The essays and questionnaires were read through an affordance lens. Nonetheless, the text analysis was essentially inductive, that is, the resulting meaning structure was derived from individual data. I used a thematic approach to analyze the students’ texts, detect patterns or themes among them, and discern the perceived gains and losses, understanding a “theme” as one that captures something important about the data in relation to the research question and represents some level of patterned response within the dataset (Clarke & Braun, 2014). The analyses of 42 student essays and questionnaires helped identify three categories that inherently contribute to the description of writing with iPads: functionality, interaction, and multimodality. The poster presents a model showing these categories, which are grouped based on their commonalities. Functionality represents the material or tool-oriented affordances and is directed toward perceiving iPads as artifacts that can be used by students to achieve certain learning objectives in writing. Multimodality refers to the iPad as a technological carrier of semiotic displays, a tool for creating multimodal texts, and a social and semiotic artifact in itself (Poulsen et al., 2018). Interaction represents the social affordances of digital writing. The model shows the central iPad affordances identified in the students’ texts, sorted under the three thematic categories and into gains and losses. The figure also shows the number of students who mention each theme. As such, the model allows me a shorthand to discuss the gains (possibilities) and the losses (limitations), as well as the implications of writing with iPads. Furthermore, the model provides a set of characteristics that writing instructors can use to recognize the iPad affordances in the composition classroom. The visual design of the model could help initiating discussions about the distinct potentials and limitations of writing with iPads and to help identify different affordances than those reported in this study.

The students report and demonstrate high self-confidence in using iPads for writing, a finding that aligns with previous studies’ results. The students’ typing, editing, and revising strategies are mainly purposeful. Fast typing is cited as motivational, and the use of auto-correct eases the proofreading phase but causes misspellings. Most of the 42 students prefer using the virtual over a physical keyboard (36), as well as typing over handwriting (39), findings that contrast other studies’ results (Wollscheid et al., 2016) and may be related to the students’ level of keyboard training. The participants are consumers and active producers of multimodal texts due to their partaking in various online affinity spaces. The model will present examples of how the students engage in writing/image ensembles to represent curricular knowledge. The examples show how they customize fonts, redesign images, and combine ready-made with self-made materials, representing in ways apt to the subject area. My previous studies from this class elaborate on these findings (Strømman, 2020; 2021). The use of iPads in schools is frequently debated in the national and international media. However, an unanticipated finding is that some students have picked up and positioned themselves in various technology-related discourses (e.g., hacking, loss of handwriting skills etc.). In the texts, the students are critical, yet their self-reflections are more often accompanied by expressions of self-efficacy. The participants are empowered to act independently in writing activities, e.g., by choosing apps and semiotic resources to suit their needs. These are transferable literacy practices not explicitly mentioned in current Norwegian iPad research, indicating that more case studies are needed to complement large-scale effect studies on tablets. The poster will present these findings, related to the iPads’ possibilities, as well as the perceived challenges and limitations.

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