Hey World! Skype And Weblog - Tools For Developing Communicative Competences In A Primary School In Sweden
Author(s):
Karin Forsling (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2013
Network:
06. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Format:
Paper

Session Information

06 SES 01, Creativity in the Network Society

Paper Session

Time:
2013-09-10
13:15-14:45
Room:
D-406
Chair:
Karin Forsling

Contribution

Background

Today´s society demands communicative skills, and the act of arranging meaningful and meaning-making communicative meetings is possibly one of education´s most important responsibilities.

For pupils diagnosed with dyslexia, paradoxically though, school can sometimes be a hindrance for learning how to read and write and how to gain a functional communicative competence. Lack of teachers´ knowledge and skills could be factors raising obstacles for learning.

Every child has a right to develop communicative literacy. Using multi-modality in education is a way to reach the aim of the curriculum.  Here I see aesthetic learning processes and digital literacy as critical elements in the process of developing multiliteracy.

Learning is dependent on collaborative processes. In the process of multimodal learning the construction of meaning is made visible in the participants’ acts of concrete communication. Digital tools and aesthetics are some of the cultural tools well needed in the education. This will be important to children with language disabilities and especially for pupils diagnosed with Dyslexia.

From the view of a design orientated perspective, built on a socio-cultural theoretical framework, key words like design, settings, tools and affordances becomes important. A central idea is that learning is a process of mastering different tools. Learning is to be seen as meaning making in social contexts. The teacher and /or the child can be designers of and actors in the institutional setting.

Aim of paper

The aim of this paper is to describe how six teachers in a Swedish primary school design the everyday school-activities, using digital devices together with the children. Focus will be on how the teachers reflect on the children´s developing of digital and communicative skills. A special focus will be on how the teachers discuss the possibilities and hindrance for children with special needs.

 Research Question

How do the teachers didactically design for children’s learning with digital learning tools, and how do digital learning tools influence the development of the children’s digital and communicative competences?

How can the use of digital learning tools in education give  possibilities or become hindrance in developing communicative competences for children with language difficulties?

Method

Method My methodological approach is ethnography. Ethnography can be seen as a kind of multi-method, which affords a variation of methods. I collected data by using participant observations, video observations and interviews. This paper focuses mainly on the outcome of the interviews. The school in my study, is a primary school in a minor city in Sweden. A researcher colleague told me about a project he was going to do in this school. He had interesting discussions with the teachers about reading and writing but while his focus was on the digital devices and not literacy, he thought this would be interesting for my research. During the autumn 2012, I made six interviews with teachers at the school. Two teachers are working with “förskoleklass”, i.e. six-years-old children, two teachers are working with grade 1 (7 years old) and two teachers are working with grade 2 (8 years old). My intention is to come back for interviews in spring 2013. I used an iPad for recording and a mac-computer for transcribing. The transcription was divided into categories, regarding themes, such as; didactic design, learning tools, special need, digital competence and communicative competence. The categories were then designed as narratives.

Expected Outcomes

Conclusions The teachers had initially little knowledge of how to use digital learning tools in the classroom. Nevertheless, their expectations from the outcomes of using digital tools in education were high from the very beginning. They got inspired from colleagues who in a trial- and- (t)error way elaborated and experimented with iPads, digital cameras and computers, a kind of media play. A project about skype and weblogs developed the teachers’ digital and communicative competence. In the interviews the teachers talk about possibilities and difficulties of using digital tools. They can identify the more common benefits, but also the hindrance for some of the children. The teachers had all, in one way or another, become very excited in using digital tools, even if they did it in a variation of ways. Their actual pedagogical settings were very different as well as their theoretical grounding. I further found that the teachers initially had little awareness of the learning designs. This was something reflected on in informal conversations after the interviews.

References

Buckingham, D. (2009). New media, new childhood´s? Children´s changing cultural environment in the age of digital technology. In: M.J. Kehily, ed. An introduction to Childhood Studies. London: Open University Press. Burden, R. & Burdett, J. (2005). Factors associated with successful learning in pupils with dyslexia: a motivational analysis. British Journal of Special Education 32(2),(100-104). Cope, Bill & Kalantzis, May (eds.) (2002), ”A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies”, Multiliteracies. Litercy Learning and the Design of Social Futures. London New York: Routledge. Damsby, G. (2008). Implementering av kompensatoriska datorprogram i undervisningen – belyst ur specialpedagogers perspektiv. Malmö: FoU-enheten, Habilitering & Hjälpmedel, Region Skåne. Erstad, O., & Hauge, T. E. (Eds.) (2011). Skoleutvikling og digitale medier. Kompleksitet, mangfold og ekspansiv læring. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk. Helsper, J. & Eynon, R. (2010). Digital natives: where is the evidence? British Educational Resourch Journal 36: 503-520. Jewitt, C. (2006). Technology, Literacy and Learning. A multimodal approach. London: Routledge. Johansen, S., L. (2011).Medialiseret legepraksis i börns hverdagsliv. Ur: Barn, nr 3-4, 2011.Tema: Digitale medier i börns og unges hverdag. Norsk senter for barneforskning. Norges tekniks-naturvitenskaplige universitet. Trondheim. Kjällander, S. (2011). Designs for Learning in an Extended Digital Environment. Case Studies of Social Interaction in the Social Science Classroom. Avhandling. Department of education. Stockholm University Klerfelt, A., (2007). Barns multimediala berättande. En länk mellan mediekultur och pedagogisk praktik. Göteborg studies in educational Sciences, 256. Göteborgs universitet. Knivsberg, A.M., & Heber, E. (2009). Lese- og skrivevansker. Fra teori til IKT-baserte tiltak. 2.utgave. Stavanger: Lesesentret Universitetet i Stavanger. Kress, Gunther. (2010). Multimodality–A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. London: Routledge. Selander, Staffan & Svärdemo-Åberg, Eva (red.). 2008. Didaktisk design i digital miljö –Nya möjligheter för lärande. Stockholm: Liber.

Author Information

Karin Forsling (presenting / submitting)
Karlstads University
Segmon

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