Exploring the affordances of the iPad for literature discussions

Date

2018-01-15

Authors

Dorion, Charlotte

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Abstract

This six-week qualitative exploratory case study examined the affordances of the iPad for students and teachers when used to video record discussions about literature. The 13 Grade 6 and Grade 7 participants self-selected their literature circle groups and their novels. Preparation for engaging in student-led literature discussions included specific teaching about participation in a literature circle discussion and a pilot study. Data included six 20-minute student literature discussion videos, students’ individual reflective videos made on the iPads, and individual participant interviews with the researcher audio recorded on the iPad. The student reflective videos were partly transcribed and the participant interviews were transcribed. The data analysis involved open coding of the videos and transcripts using a system of screenshots and written codes. The three codes that emerged most often and that were most relevant to my research questions focused on the concept of audience. The students’ behaviours, when videoing their discussions with the iPad, fluctuated through a continuum from acknowledgement of the teacher as audience to behaviours that suggested the teacher had been forgotten. The concept of audience also included the students themselves as mirrored in the screen, and an ‘other’ audience, which seemed to be YouTube. The findings suggested that the students’ shifting perspective of audience around the iPad screen, which also acted sometimes as a participant and a co-regulatory more knowledgeable ‘other’, seemed to contribute to their self-regulatory behaviours and to their observed and professed engagement. Overall, the analysis of the data revealed the use of the iPad for discussions about literature afforded students with opportunities to self-regulate their behaviours and discourse in ways they seemed to find engaging, and afforded me an unobtrusive window into their discussions, which provided an additional perspective on the students and their work.

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Keywords

iPads, Middle School, Literature Discussions, Literature circles

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