Abstract
During the last couple of years there has been published several different articles, reports and books from different stakeholders in Denmark concerning the future of the Danish public school. From a policy perspective, the Danish students should be in top five in the international PISA-test in 2020. However there is currently a lack of financial resources in this public area, as in many others. Besides a focus on the core skills such as reading and writing in Danish, there is an increasing focus on integrating ict across the different disciplines in the entire school system. Some people view the integration of technology as the solution to pedagogical and learning matters, but in this thesis I explore a digital frame where technology is viewed as a means of developing pedagogic and learning for teachers and students.
In this thesis the author explores a digital frame within two second grade classes in a larger Danish school in the middle of Jylland. In each of the two classrooms eight interactive touch screens and one interactive table have been integrated. The project is called learning trough movement (læring gennem bevægelse) and takes place from August 2009 to the end of April 2010. One important aspect of this design is that the technology is viewed as a resource for the children’s learning in their everyday school life. Furthermore the integration builds on a belief that you have to qualify the teachers in their local practice to design digital frames for the learners.
To explore the children’s and teachers process of integrating the technology in this environment, the author applied a research design based on ethnography, dialog design and a socio cultural understanding of learning and development. To get a varied view on this context the author explores the use of lowfi video technology as a research tool. Throughout the project period more than 150 hours of video with learner’s interaction with each other in front of the interactive touch-screens has been recorded. To get a better and context dependent knowledge and understanding of this process, the research has been carried out with a principle of mutual learning among researchers and participants. Besides the conducted research with the teachers, the author explores a method for research with children through different methods and activities in their environment.
Based on a variety of different videos the author analyses seven different sequences in details that illustrates how two learners collaborate through language and actions with the touch-interface as a joint workspace. Furthermore the analysis shows how the learners create their own meaningful learning path within the digital frame and negotiate their learning path through a varied use of language, actions and cultural tools. However the methodology of the digital frame builds on a high level of interaction between the learners and teachers in the learning situation. Thereby it is possible to understand how the teacher can guide the learners through dialog and the digital frame, as a tool for guidance.
These perspectives have opened the author’s eyes for dialog based research in education, the negotiation of meaning between children through language and actions. Furthermore the possibilities and constrains within this digital frame applied in this environment.