Litteracitet, små barn och ipad : en fallstudie av ett barnbiblioteks användande av ny teknik i en läsfrämjande kontext

Sammanfattning: Reading and literacy in relation to technology development and a changing media landscape is an area of current interest, not least because several studies show that Swedish children´s reading abilities are decreasing. The aim of our study is to gain a deeper insight into how a new technical tool can be used and comprehended in a reading promotion activity in a library context. In order to do this, we have conducted a case study were we have studied a project at Helsingborg Public Library called A fairytale workshop - making my own e-book. In the project, six five year olds from a preschool created their own fairytales using an ipad during five workshop sessions at the library. We have conducted observations during the workshops and interviews with the two librarians involved in the project and the preschool teacher. We have also studied documents surrounding the project. The focus of our study has been to examine how the project A fairytale workshop - making my own e-book can be comprehended from a sociocultural perspective by focusing on the project as a literacy event where a specific artefact holds a central position. We have studied the interactions between the adults, children and technology. Hence, the following research questions have been designed; How can the workshop sessions during the project A fairytale workshop - making my own e-book be comprehended as literacy events? How can the technology be understood in this context? What affordances or action possibilities are posed by this specific technological tool, i. e. the ipad? More specifically, what potentials and constraints arise from the use of the ipad when this situation is interpreted as a literacy event? The theoretical framework is a sociocultural approach to language and learning where the interaction and interdependence between humans and artefacts is of main importance. The analytical tools used have been inspired by Mats Dolatkhah´s research on reading practises were the social and material qualities of reading are emphazised. Our results show that the concept of literacy or more specifically literacy event provides opportunities to understand young childrens interactions with text, images, sound and narratives and that this project provides possibilites to understand and expand childrens literacies in different dimensions. Furthermore, we have identified that the technology poses certain action possibilites which afford both potentials and constraints. However, this is not always acknowledged and instead there seems to be a tendency to focus on the ipad as a neutral artefact.