The Affordances of Touchscreen Tablets and Digital Cameras as Tools for Young Children’s Multimodal, Multilingual Composing

Abstract

This chapter describes two related studies exploring the use of touchscreen tablets and digital cameras as a means for creating a “third space” where intercultural sharing and multilingual composing was invited and valued as part of classroom literacy events. Specifically, we used design-based research methods to develop, implement, and refine activities where children used digital cameras and touchscreen tablets to take photos at school, home, and in their communities, and then to use the images in the classroom for composing their own eBooks. Participants in Study 1 were 4-year-old, emergent bilinguals enrolled in a publicly funded prekindergarten classroom in the United States. Study 2 participants were multilingual second graders enrolled in the same school district. Analyses focus on children’s, teachers’, and families’ experiences composing with print, photographs and oral recordings, and publicly sharing their eBooks using the classroom’s digital projector. We conclude that touchscreen tablets and digital cameras afforded our participants with powerful opportunities for multimodal, multilingual composing that went well beyond those available in page-based activities. The multidirectional travel of digital tools between home and school encouraged students, families, and teachers to select and combine resources drawn from a complex circulation of interests, cultural experiences, languages, and composing practices. The affordances of digital technologies were collaboratively constructed and shaped by the ideologies and interactive practices of the classrooms, homes, and communities where they were placed.