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The Fluid Materiality of Tablets: Examining ‘the iPad Multiple’ in a Primary Classroom

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The Case of the iPad

Abstract

This chapter explores interactions between children and iPads in a primary classroom in England. Focusing on iPads as artefacts rather than on use of specific apps, it highlights the ‘fluid materiality’ of iPads, which become different things as they are ‘actor-enabled’ within a mess of bodies, texts and other objects. It explores how interactions between bodies and devices are significant to the different ways children take up iPads. Drawing on Law’s (2008) work on complexity, it asks What does a tablet ‘become’ in a classroom? And what kinds of relationships and meaning-making opportunities are associated with its use?

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I refer specifically to ‘iPads’ for reasons of clarity as these were the tablets used in this classroom. Chapter 1 problematises the dominance of iPad both in the market and in the educational discourse on tablets.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK

    Cathy Burnett

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  1. Cathy Burnett
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Correspondence to Cathy Burnett .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Cathy Burnett

  2. Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, United Kingdom

    Guy Merchant

  3. The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Alyson Simpson

  4. The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia and The Australian Catholic University, North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Maureen Walsh

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Burnett, C. (2017). The Fluid Materiality of Tablets: Examining ‘the iPad Multiple’ in a Primary Classroom. In: Burnett, C., Merchant, G., Simpson, A., Walsh, M. (eds) The Case of the iPad. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4364-2_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4364-2_2

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-4364-2

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