Designing for Purpose-Driven Technology Use Among Preservice English Teachers

This chapter reports on a case study of a 12-week technology course for preservice English language arts teachers in which the teacher educator attempted to shift away from tool-centric approaches by foregrounding purpose-driven tool use and project-based learning experiences. Findings from analyses of classroom, interview, and survey data suggested that specific design choices helped to promote purpose-driven technology use for literacy learning. These included the instructor's articulation and modeling of a “pedagogy first” stance that centered pedagogical reasons for digital tool use and affordances of digital tools, and the organization of a project-based learning environment that engaged preservice teachers in hands-on exploration of digitally mediated ELA learning through continual cycles of making, sharing, and reflecting on digital artifacts.

Exploring Digitally Enhanced Literacy Practices With Preservice Teachers

Two professors in a teacher preparation program purposefully examined their courses for ways in which the learning opportunities in each separate course could be connected to facilitate development of preservice teachers' understandings of purposeful integration of technology within literacy instruction for elementary student learners. Preservice teachers in the courses used their knowledge of children's literature and best practices to create rich learning opportunities before examining them through the lens of the TPACK framework and SAMR model. This process enhanced and transformed preservice teachers' instructional decisions to illuminate educational technology as part of literacy instruction.

Bye-Bye Basal

Due to instructional limitations embedded within basal reading programs, the use of text sets offers teachers alternative instructional resources. Text sets can be utilized in all subject areas to increase exposure to a variety of digital and print literacy resources. Multimodal literacy as a form of blended learning, incorporates traditional texts with digital opportunities, allowing learners to connect, experience, and understand literacy through a plethora of engaging channels. Digital tools and digital literacy allow students to connect with current information in an engaging manner while increasing literacy skills. The end goal of incorporating digital components into text sets is to meet the academic needs of all students.

Equity, Literacies, and Learning in Technology-Rich Makerspaces

This chapter uses an equity lens to examine learning in makerspaces with a focus on the role that literacies and technologies play in these spaces. The authors examine ways that makerspaces bridge formal and informal learning and serve as important contexts for community building and mentorship. This stance on makerspaces centers equity and inclusion as driving forces that must become central to the design of these innovative learning spaces. The piece includes a review of the literature aimed at building a deeper understanding of the principles that underlie literacy practices, collaboration, and learning engagement. The authors offer principles and recommendations for designing, organizing, expanding, and sustaining learning-through-making opportunities for all learners.

Multimodal Information Literacy in Higher Education

This chapter addresses technology in education, multimodal texts, and information literacy in a STEM research-focused university setting. Students produce multimodal content in first year composition classes, but composition instructors lack the skills required to teach students multimedia technology. Librarians respond to the needs of the faculty and students they support. Library instruction takes place within the composition class (course-integrated or “one-shot” instruction) or in a multimedia classroom at the library. The librarians bring technical skills as well as a grounding in information literacy, and their instruction increases students' written, sonic, visual and data literacy. As a result, students become more savvy content consumers as well as creators.

Online Student Discussions for Social Construction of Knowledge and Dialogue

Digital tools and practices are becoming more integral to what happens in classrooms at all levels, so it is helpful to examine how teachers and students are utilizing technology during literacy practices. This chapter presents a review of research regarding instructional practices and classroom environments that cultivate purposeful use of technology for literacy development. Specifically, this chapter investigates aspects of online conversations that promote social construction of knowledge, reflective dialogue, and increased reading comprehension; it also provides insights for educators who seek to enhance or transform the structure of their students' online conversations about assigned readings. This review of research is guided by the following research questions: (a) What are the general affordances of online discussions? (b) What types of comments are students making in such discussions? and (c) What are the observed effects of online discussions on reading comprehension?

Examining Graduate Students' Cooperative Learning Experiences in an Online Reading Course

This chapter examines one way in which students engage in learning literacy content in an online context utilizing cooperative learning pedagogy, a research-based, best-practice approach to learning. The online course was purposefully developed to integrate the elements of cooperative learning: positive interdependence, student interaction, individual accountability, use of interpersonal/ small group skills, and equal opportunity for success, as referenced papers show. Findings indicate that students had positive learning experiences when utilizing cooperative learning pedagogies in an online environment. Three significant themes emerged from the data analysis: students 1) clearly identified the importance of leadership in the course experience; 2) articulated their appreciation of learning from others; and 3) stated they had an enhanced learning experience through the cooperative learning structure. As more universities, high schools, and elementary schools seek additional options for students to learn online, they should consider cooperative learning as a highly viable option.

Teacher Curatorship

Grounded in digital literacy and literacies research, the authors explore how a kindergarten teacher facilitated digital literacy in a science lesson using YouTube playlists and the YouTube Kids app. By curating videos and modeling how to “read” the video texts, the teacher prepared her students for their own guided searches using streaming video texts in the YouTube Kids app on iPads. The authors show how teacher curatorship can foster real, authentic learning experiences, even for young children, as a way for students to begin developing the complex new literacy practice(s) of curating videos across in and out of school spaces.

Using Technology to Build Interactions Within and Beyond the Literacy Classroom

Becoming an educator today, specifically one who teaches literacy, requires more than a strong understanding of pedagogy and best practices. Today's educators must be equipped to survive, as well as thrive, in a 21st-century literacy classroom. New programs, websites, apps, etc. are being introduced daily, therefore, our pre-service teachers need support in order to utilize tools effectively. By providing experiences with a variety of tools, novice teachers can employ existing pedagogical frameworks for technology integration with literacy instructional tools. This study identifies how pre-service teachers perceive their skills and pedagogical decision-making for the integration of technology tools within their literacy instruction.

“Nobody Really Does the Reading”

Although quizzes and written summaries are more traditional ways to hold students accountable for reading, more than two thirds of college students report not completing assigned readings, references show. In this mixed-methods study, the researchers explored whether various technology strategies motivated undergraduate literacy education students to not only read, but also learn from these assigned texts. Collecting survey data from our literacy preparation courses, the authors examined how the students perceived these strategies.