Chapter 4 – Merry

 How have mobile technologies such as, touch screen educational tablets, impacted literacy learning in preschool?

Early literacy skills can be considered an integral part of a person’s education and ability to function and contribute in society. Literacy is a broad term that encompasses one’s ability to communicate through reading, writing, math, social circumstances, and even technology. As defined by dictionary.com, “literacy is the ability to use language proficiently,” and as stated previously, there are many different types of languages, or forms of communication. In order to become proficient with language, specifically reading, literacy skills must be taught in a hierarchical manner, building in complexity. Each step of the hierarchy must be taught
explicitly and with careful focus of when each step is learned before moving on to next step. The purpose of this chapter will examine the history of early literacy with a focus on reading and writing. Then we will discuss how literacy skills are targeted with the implementation of applications on educational tablets. We will ask questions throughout the course of this chapter, starting with “What is literacy?” “How has literacy instruction evolved over time?” and “How has the implementation of applications on educational tablets helped or hindered the acquisition of early literacy skills?”

In order to understand the current practices and methods of early literacy instruction, it is important to look back at how literacy instruction was conducted in the past. Like any facet of education, literacy has developed, changed, and evolved throughout history. The term literacy originates from the Latin term literatus which translates to, “educated, instructed, having knowledge of letters (etymonline.com).” According to Mezeske, reading instruction began in the early 17th century with the intent to teach pupils how to read the Bible. The focus later shifted to political curriculum, to scientific, and then to focus on military subject matter. Literacy instruction was not heavily researched as a code-breaking means to a comprehension end until late in the 20th century during the 1970’s as, “It was believed that effective reading instruction must be based on an understanding of how the reading process occurs, and reading as information processing became the most widely accepted theory (Mezeske).”

This timeline is a comprehensive look at how literacy as developed beginning with the early 17th century and ending with present day instruction methods. As you can see, some of the first instruction approaches did not include any discreet literacy skills but rather a focus on content. Literacy instruction was a part of a larger agenda that focused on specific areas of study such as, religious or political content, rather than teaching skills that would lend to pupils simply being able to read and write. As more was discovered about the educational pedagogy of literacy, instruction began to include steps necessary for teaching students how to decode and understand written text. Today’s literacy instruction begins at a very early age and is supported by learning throughout a student’s early educational process. 

Literacy instruction in the early childhood classroom can be an onerous task because learning how to read is essential learning how to decode written language. Much of early literacy instruction focuses on the sounds each letter stands for and how these sounds change as they are compiled into words. This letter-sound pairings and a child’s ability to recognize and manipulate sounds that letters represent is referred to as phonological and phonemic awareness. Phonological and phonemic awareness can be considered the foundation of early literacy learning. 

When one thinks about written language and the act of reading, it may not be apparent that what you are doing when reading is actually decoding the text before you. That is why it can be extremely challenging for young students to learn and also for teachers to develop effective instruction methods. “Decoding is defined as the ability to look at print and orally or silently respond with the proper sound translation; decoding is a print-to-sound process (Wolf 12).” It is imperative to teach the discreet letter-to-sound, one-to-one correspondences first before moving onto single syllable words, and then building on the skills to teach literacy overall. There is strong evidence “that children who are better letter-sound readers are the better consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) word decoders (Wolf 12).” This statement made by Wolf reiterates the importance of establishing a solid literacy foundation before including more complex literacy skills such as, sight words and multisyllabic words, in their literacy instruction.

How can mobile devices such as, tablets, support early literacy learning?

There are various reasons why mobile devices such as, tablets are so attractive to young children. For example, tablets are mobile,
making them easy for a child to carry them and use them comfortably. Their touchscreen capabilities are attractive to children to manipulate and provide instant feedback, and they also provide a multi-sensory experience with auditory, visual, and tactile output. Because many of the applications used on tablets require an adult to help navigate, they encourage shared learning experiences. This can increase interaction between students and teachers and also provided for more feedback opportunities.

Today children are surrounded by technology and it is inevitable that they will not only come in contact with tablets but also use them frequently. Why not try to incorporate them into their educational setting and/or contexts? There are three categories of educational tablet apps that have been identified for early education: games, creating , and ebooks. Multi-sensory games, creating apps, and ebooks such as, PBS Super Why, Letter School, and The Reading Train respectively, help to teach and reinforce literacy skills through stimulating sounds, brightly colored visuals, and frequent tactile opportunities. 

When examining the positive influence of these three types of apps, there is evidence showing progress when children use literacy game apps with improved skills such as, phonemic and phonological awareness and rhyming. Ebooks have been used in place of traditional print books and support literacy learning, especially when used in a shared learning experiences while reading with a parent or caregiver. There is little evidence that apps involving creating, or writing skills, support literacy progress however, children exposed to letter tracing are not likely to be hindered by this practice. (Neumann & Neumann)

Implementing Mobile Technology into the Classroom: A Case Study

After careful considerations and planning, a teacher and her 23 students used iPads during their literacy instruction along with print materials to supplement learning for a 3-week time period. Targeted literacy skills included independent reading, sequencing, visualization, retelling, cause and effect, and main idea vs. details. iPad apps utilized during this study were iBooks, Popplet, Doodle Buddy, Strip Designer, and Sundry Notes. Outcome examples from this 3-week instruction time period included how to graphically organize narrative events and sequencing, initiation of digital correspondence between classroom peers, and literacy interpretation and reading comprehension and creative collaboration within the classroom. (Hutchison et. al.)

The Hutchison et. al. study examined what is readily apparent to most when thinking about implementing educational tablets into literacy with young learners – tablets are attractive to preschool-age children because they are multi-sensory and fun. Tablets also provide subtler advantages such as immediate feedback, collaborative learning opportunities, and reinforcement of learned skills. Considerations for future implementation may include more preparations and planning on how to include educational tablets in literacy instruction with a more standardized, or structured, curriculum. This curriculum could focus on using tablets to establish discreet learning of literacy skills and confirming retention before moving onto more complex skills.  

Conclusions & Discussion

When considering implementing mobile technology such as, apps on touchscreen tablets, into an early education classroom to teach literacy skills, it is important to first carefully plan. Each step of literacy instruction needs to be taught in a very discreet manner when using a traditional approach to teaching literacy skills, therefore when incorporating educational technology into literacy curriculum apps need to be thoroughly evaluated for each literacy skill targeted. There are many advantages to using tablets in an educational setting as listed above, and it’s important to remember that children need be exposed and learn from the most current technology available. Implementing technology into literacy learning can not only support development of imperative skills, but also make it a rich and rewarding experience for everyone involved.

Furthermore, research suggests that technology, specifically tablets, are used by preschool-age children on a regular basis at home. In order to bridge the early literacy learning gap of preschool students, it is necessary to constructively implement a more standardized and thoroughly researched curriculum. As technology advances, so does literacy instruction which means incorporating educational tablets into early literacy curriculum will continue to be a challenge. Because educational tablets are so attractive to young learners for many reasons, it is a valuable opportunity to include them in literacy curriculum and could support and even advance literacy learning. (Burnett)

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Hutchison, A., Beschorner, B., and Schmidt, C. (2012). Exploring the use of the iPad for literacy learning. The Reading Teacher 66, 15-23.

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Kuilman, Arne. (Photographer). (2011, June). iPad 2 Test Setup [digital image]. Retrieved from www.flickr.com/photos/arne/5835855777/

Literacy. (n.d.). In Online Etymology Dictionary online. Retrieved from:    http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=literate

Mezeske, R. (1995). Historical Perspective on Reading and Literacy. Retrieved from: http://www.hope.edu/academic/education/wessman/2block/unit3/history.htm

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Neilson, D. (2014). Why Is Literacy Important? Retrieved from: http://www.3plearning.com/literacy-important/

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Neumann, M. & Neumann, D. (2013). Touch Screen Tablets and Emergent Literacy. Early Childhood Education Journal 42:231–239.

Teale, W. (1995). Young children and reading: Trends across the twentieth century. Journal of Education 177, (3) 95-124.

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