Kerry Whitehead

ETEC 562 Article Review #3

An Examination of How a Teachers Use of Digital Tools Empowers and

Constrains Language Arts Instruction

As I looked for articles, I couldnt help but be drawn to the ELAR aspect of
instructional technology. I am a former Reading teacher and had aspirations of
having a blended, if not, flipped classroom. Articles like these interest and intrigue
me. The objective of this article was to follow a teacher during her persuasive
writing unit as she integrated technology into the unit. The outcome was to see
how the integration improved and/or hindered instruction.
This study used a conceptual framework. It focused on the TPACK model.
TPACK has three main components of knowledge: technical, pedagogical, and
content. TPACK advocates stress how the technology is used. TPACK advocates
that each of these knowledges should not be focused on in isolation but to be
looked at in pairs and as a whole.

The main research question of this article is: How does a teachers use of digital
tools in an English Language Arts classroom support and constrain the teacher and
the resulting classroom instruction? One issue that this article addressed was that
of mindset. It discussed two main mindsets that, after I read the article I realized
that I have discussed both of them at length with colleagues.

Mindset 1
o Sees that technology is prevalent and everywhere and might see the
value but sees technology as more of a production tool
o Sees technology for only specific purposes
o Teacher-centered; the teacher is the expert only
Mindset 2
o Sees technology is prevalent and everywhere and does see the value
but sees it for production AND collaboration
o Student-centered; the teacher AND students are the experts
o By having this mindset it allows for more critical thinking

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Kerry Whitehead
ETEC 562 Article Review #3

The researchers followed the teacher, Ms. Smith, during her persuasive writing
unit. The teacher targeted only three of her six class periods for this study. Each
class period completed the same instructional unit but each in a different way: use
of iPads, use of computer lab/laptops, and traditional pen/paper. I have included the
graphics of her instructional plan. The researchers collected data through
observations, interviews, and document collection (lesson plans, handouts, student
work, etc.)

Through this study the researchers discovered four main constraints and four
main empowerments through integrating digital tools. The first constraint was
inadequate technical knowledge. There were times throughout the study that Ms.
Smith was not very familiar with the tool she was having the students use and so
she was spending almost as much, if not more time, deal with the technology rather
than the instructional piece. A quote from one of her interviews, I was like, oh, Ill
this one and see what happens. (323). I have always found that a recipe for
disaster. Instead of the students working on the objectives we spend more time
troubleshooting. That is why I always suggest to my teachers, create whatever it is
you want them to create so that you can anticipate the problems and you can head
them off early. The second constraint was limited conceptions of purposes and
possibilities of digital technology. For the iPad class, she really only saw the iPad as

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Kerry Whitehead
ETEC 562 Article Review #3

a note-taking device and so instead of allowing the students to research and find
what they needed she provided it to them in the form of a handout and so the
missed out on crucial connections in the lesson. The third constraint was
expectations of students comfort with digital tools. Because she felt the students
would not be comfortable with the tools she limited what they were able to do with
the tools. She ended up scaffolding the students so much that most of the projects
came out in cookie-cutter fashion. I have to admit, as I look back, I had a tendency
to do that. I didnt allow the students the creativity they needed to complete the
project. I think in some respects I didnt have faith in the students technological
abilities. The last constraint that was discussed was expectations for the
assignment. Because Ms. Smith had the lack of knowledge and skills with the iPad
she was not able to gauge her time in completing the assignment(s). And so she
would have some finish quickly where others were unable to complete the
assignment.
On the other hand, there were four empowerments that came out of the study.
The first empowerment was an enhanced classroom environment. Ms. Smith was
very knowledgeable in pedagogy and content and so she realized the value in
collaboration. She noticed that students collaborated a lot more with the iPads than
they did in the other settings. A quote from one of her interviews in regards to this
empowerment, I just feel like Ive been able to let them be more independent with
the iPads than I have with other things. (329). A second empowerment was
simplicity and sophistication equaling innovation and empowerment. By using the
iPads more and more in her instructional unit she came to value the usefulness of
the iPad for more than just a note-taking device. To help get her point across to the
students she actually took an iPad out and videoed her principal and other teachers
so that the students could make the real-world connection in their unit. A third
empowerment is the combining of tools. From what I can infer from the article both
the teacher and the students were unsure of combining tools and felt you could only
use one tool at a time. However, as they all became more comfortable with the
apps they began to realize the value of combining tools to reach their end objective.
And this leads into the last empowerment. That empowerment is that digital tools
support multimodal communication. By combining different tools in their unit the
students were provided with the opportunity to learn new literacies that they would
not have learned under different circumstances. (331).
This is another article that causes me to pause and review my teaching practices
from when I was teaching Reading. I think that I was of Mindset 1 even though I
really wanted to believe I was of Mindset 2. I think back and realized that I
scaffolded my students too much, I didnt give them the creative freedom that I
should have. I can only imagine the kinds of projects I could have gotten.

Hutchison, A., & Woodward, L. (2014). An Examination of How a Teacher's Use of

Digital Tools Empowers and Constrains Language Arts Instruction. Computers In
The Schools, 31(4), 316-338. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07380569.2014.967629

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ETEC 562 Article Review #3

TPACK.ORG. (2016). Tpack.org. Retrieved 19 April 2016, from http://www.tpack.org/