Abstract:

This paper presents the results of research into the ways in which classroom-based technologies such as tablets or mobile devices can be deployed with young learners in order to contribute to the creation of dialogic spaces (Wegerif 2013), enriched collaborative talk and increased student engagement (Bond and Bedenlier 2019). Using an analysis of data gathered from classroom observations of 2 different community language classes, this presentation will describe a conceptual framework for the organisation of teaching and learning with tablets and mobile devices in ways that ensure that the opportunities for rich collaborative dialogues are maximised. The data to be presented will include analysis of children’s collaborative talk using a framework derived from Mercer (1995), Mercer, Hennessy & Warwick (2019) and Mercer, Wegerif, & Major (2019). Examples of the ‘dialogic spaces’ created by teachers are presented. It will be shown that meaningful interactive talk is fostered when teachers focus on the creation of an environment where children’s agency around decisions relating to the use of the tablet are fostered. The conclusions drawn from the analysis highlight the value of tablet related tasks as an affordance for engagement and collaborative dialogues in learning as well as the need for the provision of a structured and scaffolded environment when deploying mobile devices and tablets in classrooms. Ways of optimising this scaffolding are explored in detail and the analysis of quality of the student talk is also highlighted.

The theoretical framework for this research is based on a socio-cultural view of teaching and learning that sees meaning making, and therefore learning, as something that requires collaborative interaction with others. For Vygotsky, the movement of the learner, from being able to perform a task with support, to being able to do perform the same task independently, was seen as requiring the scaffolded support of a more knowledgeable other. It follows from this that language is a necessary mediational tool through which we make meaning our own. Scholars such as Neil Mercer and Rupert Wegerif have taken this socio-cultural view of learning much further and greatly expanded our knowledge of the precise nature of the collaborative dialogues that accompany joint learning activities. For Mercer, education should be seen as ‘the discursive construction of shared knowledge’ (Mercer 1995). However, Mercer also highlighted the need both for a rationale ‘in terms of both procedures and principles’ (p.114) for classroom collaborative talk and the need for learners to have access to these principles. The work of Rupert Wegerif has built on Mercer’s work and developed the concept of the dialogic and in particular ‘dialogic spaces’ (Wegerif 2007; 2013) with reference to the internet and computer-based technologies. Wegerif sees technologies such as tablets as playing an important role in constituting and fostering such spaces.

The results of the research to be presented in this paper also provide support for the notion that tablets and mobile devices can develop students’ engagement and enthusiasm for constructing and sharing knowledge.

Keywords:

Tablets, classroom, Language.