Please click on the light bulb photo to access a collated version of our individual literature reviews. This is a compilation of research findings from the three major areas that we researched. Numeracy, Reading and Writing are included.
Summary of Findings
Through our research, we have found that the use of mobile devices in primary classrooms directly improves student agency, engagement and motivation. Mobile devices support the accessibility of content for all learners. Mobile devices increase the accessibility of content for all learners. Levy (2014) explained that “iPad's act as a translation, communication, and individualization tool with unrivaled effectiveness. In so doing, these devices reduce frustration, build confidence, and, well, just work in teaching students the skills they need to learn to thrive.”Students with disabilities will also benefit from having alternate ways to learn, explore and then show their understandings.
In a face-to-face classroom where there is a set of 10 iPad's being used with primary students, we have seen a marked increase in Reading levels and Math skills. The programs used are programs that can be accessed at both school AND home. Just as Lynch stated (2017) “More recently, two studies that separately followed fifth and eighth graders who used tablets for learning in class and at home found that learning experiences improved across the board." We have seen this in action. This is important to note, as students who are able to access content at school AND at home saw marked improvements in their learning. When we can provide them with apps and programs to use at both school and at home they are able to independently practice needed skills.
Teachers would benefit from having mobile devices to support their teaching as these devices would make learning accessible to students immediately. We see that we have huge needs at both ends of our classroom in terms of learning abilities. Mobile devices and mobile learning facilitate teaching to all of our students within the traditional face-to-face delivery model. At the younger ages, students often have difficulty completing assignments independently if the teacher is trying to work and teach a small group. Some of our advanced students are able to work independently on more challenging material due to their advanced Reading level and skill base. Darrell West (2013) states that"neither advanced students nor those requiring extra help are well-served under the current status quo". He believes that using mobile learning is one way to help reach and enable students at both ends of the learning pendulum. Mobile devices also benefit students as they have the opportunity to practice skills and work on projects both at home and at school.
In our current classrooms we spend a lot of time on assessment. Formative and summative assessment during the year can be a very onerous task for teachers. If you are a primary teacher in our school district you are asked to complete formal reading benchmarks at least 3 times per year. This requires anywhere from 10 - 30 minutes per child per assessment. In addition to these benchmarks, we are expected to report using communicated student learning district rubrics. We are expected to report to parents on two learning areas per month throughout the year. According to West (2013), we could have more time to teach if we used mobile devices to assess some of the skills. In our shared learning experiences, the mobile devices would also help create responsible and reflective students who are able to set their own learning goals. Having the autonomy with assessment will help create life-long learners.
We envision students being able to self reflect and upload their own evidence to their e portfolios. These e portfolios are then shared with their families, who have a chance to view, comment on and be engaged in the learning that is happening for their child at school.
Another important takeaway from our research was that not all apps are created equal and that many are not suited for the way primary children learn. Teachers need time to explore apps that will address the individual needs of our students. Haelle (2017) suggests to filter apps using the following five key questions. Does it promote active mental engagement? Will it help focus students learning without having distractions built into the app? Does it scaffold learning? Is it interactive and provide either feedback through the teacher or app? Does it clearly define objectives that can be tracked and assessed by the student or teacher?
Practical Applications For Your Practice
What Does This Mean For You? The evidence in our research is overwhelmingly in favor of supporting students to learn with mobile devices. We need to first have devices in order to start implementing any of the great suggestions that we have found. In order for us to create blended learning in our classrooms using mobile devices, we would first need the support of our district. Not only for devices, but also for infrastructure (WiFi in certain areas). Through our research we found that iPads were the most conducive to accessing learning programs. Young students have greater success when there are pictures to click on as opposed to finding websites on computers, using their finger to manipulate games as opposed to a mouse, and the portability allows for students to merge hands on manipulatives with the technology.
How Are You Going to Use This? In our classrooms we would use a mix of whole class instruction with a Station Rotation approach to help address the diverse learning abilities of our students. A typical Station Rotation model would consist of 4 or 5 stations. For example, in Math we would have a Teacher Station that provides direct skill instruction, problem solving station based from teacher instruction, a Cooperative Board Game Station and a Technology Station that provides skill-based practice. At other times the technology would be used to augment the learning experiences as whole class or as individual learning experiences. For example, when publishing their stories from Writing Workshop, students could create books or videos to demonstrate their learning. Mobile devices could be used to provide assessment of student's personal learning. This would be student driven as they could take pictures and videos of their learning and using the Scholantis app upload these to their eportfolio.
What is the Next Step? We need to continue to look at what technology and apps we would want to incorporate into a blended learning program. We need to try to integrate sites with google classroom, as our school district has moved to a partnership with GSUITE.
Our Key Learnings:
Mobile devices increase the accessibility of content for all learners. Levy (2014) explained that “iPad's act as a translation, communication, and individualization tool with unrivaled effectiveness. In so doing, these devices reduce frustration, build confidence, and, well, just work in teaching students the skills they need to learn to thrive.”
Students with disabilities will benefit from having alternate ways to learn, explore and then show their understandings.
Students need access to their learning material both at school and at home. According to Lynch (2017) “More recently, two studies that separately followed fifth and eighth graders who used tablets for learning in class and at home found that learning experiences improved across the board". This is important to note as students who are able to access content at school AND at home saw marked improvements in their learning. When we can provide them with apps and programs to use at both school and at home,they are able to independently practice needed skills.
Students at both ends of the learning pendulum benefit from using mobile technology in the classroom. Darrell West (2013) states that "neither advanced students nor those requiring extra help are well-served under the current status quo". He goes on to explain that using mobile learning is one way to help reach and enable students at both ends of the learning pendulum.
Mobile technology enables teachers to have more time to teach, as opposed to completing time-consuming assessment of skills. According to West (2013) "A benefit of the digital world is the ability to embed assessment within learning tools".
By choosing the right app to augment student's learning in primary classrooms, students with many diverse learning needs will be reached. Not all apps are created equal, or are beneficial to younger learners. According to Haelle (2017) primary children's apps should include the following five key elements: they promote active mental engagement, there should be focused learning without distractions in the app, bridging knowledge to things we know and the world, socially interactive with feedback, clearly defined objectives that can be tracked and assessed by student or teacher.