Enhancing Teaching and Learning

The increased availability of tablets presents new opportunities for educators. With new opportunities available, there is a need to understand how instruction and learning are influenced, as well as how those who utilize such technologies are influenced as technology, pedagogy, and content (TPACK) come together. A re-conceptualized clinic-based literacy methods course offered the opportunity to engage participants with digital media as a part of their elementary literacy instruction. Framed through a new literacies perspective and TPACK framework, this study describes and explains the experiences of two course instructors, 18 teacher candidates, and 18 tutees as they employed iPads with their literacy instruction, their learning experiences, and the ways in which TPACK was influenced. Course instructors and teacher candidates integrated technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge as they learned about and with iPads in a supportive environment that encouraged their learning. Teacher candidates utilized digital media with their literacy instruction as they provided tutees opportunities to engage with a variety of literacies. This study also explored issues of domestication.

Kyle F. Kaalberg has a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he taught literacy education courses. He currently serves in the President’s Office at UNLV as Special Assistant.