Using Apps for Learning Across the Curriculum: A Literacy-Based Framework and Guide

295 Pages·2014·2.06 MB·English

by  Richard Beach

USING APPS FOR LEARNING
ACROSS THE CURRICULUM
“The authors take an eminently practical approach, informed by several of the
most important perspectives in our field today: literacy as social practice, literacy
and learning affordances, and multi-modal learning contexts. This book and the
accompanying wiki will delight you with an extensive array of new apps and new
ideas that you can use immediately in your classroom.”
Donald J. Leu, Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology at the
Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut
“This book is well-suited to provide educators with the knowledge, skills, and
dispositions needed to use iOS and Android apps in the classroom. Most of the
other books in this field are solely print-based, or do not contain the mix of
theory and practice, or do not include sound scholarship and online resources.
Using Apps for Learning Across the Curriculum contains all of these elements and more.”
W. Ian O’Byrne, Assistant Professor of Education and Coordinator
of the Sixth Year Diploma in Instructional Technologies and Digital
Media Literacy, University of New Haven
Richard Beach is Professor Emeritus, Department of Curriculum and Instruc-
tion, University of Minnesota, USA.
David O’Brien is Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Uni-
versity of Minnesota, USA.
How can apps be used to foster learning with literacy across the curriculum? This
book offers both a theoretical framework for considering app affordances and
practical ways to use apps to build students’ disciplinary literacies and to foster a
wide range of literacy practices.
Using Apps for Learning Across the Curriculum
• presents a wide range of different apps and also assesses their value;
• features methods for and apps related to planning instruction and assessing
student learning;
• identifies favorite apps whose affordances are most likely to foster certain
disciplinary literacies;
• includes resources and apps for professional development;
• provides examples of student learning in the classroom.
A website (www.usingipads.pbworks.com) with resources for teaching and fur-
ther reading for each chapter, a link to a blog for continuing conversations about
topics in the book (www.appsforlearningliteracies.com), and more enhance the
usefulness of the book.
USING APPS FOR
LEARNING ACROSS
THE CURRICULUM
A Literacy-Based Framework
and Guide
Richard Beach and David O’Brien
First published 2015
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Taylor & Francis
The right of Richard Beach and David O’Brien to be identified as authors of this
work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Beach, Richard.
Using apps for learning across the curriculum: a literacy-based framework and guide/Richard
Beach, David O’Brien.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Application software. 2. Internet in education. 3. Educational technology.
4. Tablet computers. I. O’Brien, David G. II. Title.
QA76.76.A65B38 2014
371.33—dc23
2014015384
ISBN: 978-1-138-78262-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-78263-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-76912-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Overview of the Book ix
Acknowledgments xi
PART I
A Literacy-Based Framework for Using Apps 1
1 Introduction: Defining Purposes for Learning With Literacies
Through Use of Apps 3
2 Acquiring Disciplinary Literacies Through Use of Apps 19
3 Planning Instruction Using Apps to Foster Learning With
Literacy 37
PART II
Guidelines and Classroom Examples for Using Apps 59
4 Using Apps for Accessing and Assessing Information 61
5 Using Apps for Reading Digitally 81
6 Using Apps for Writing 103
vi Contents
7 Using Apps to Foster Discussion 142
8 Using Apps to Respond to and Produce Images 166
9 Using Apps for Audio and Video Productions 190
10 Using Apps for Gaming/Simulations 212
11 Using Apps for Reflection/Assessment 233
PART III
Professional Development 251
12 Professional Development on Using Apps 253
Index 267
PREFACE
Students are increasingly using mobile devices in the classroom for academic pur-
poses. These devices are ubiquitous; portable; have intuitive touch features; and
allow for image, audio, and video productions. Given this increased use of mobile
devices, teachers are also employing apps supported by these devices.
However, overwhelmed with the availability of hundreds of thousands of
apps—as of 2014, about 500,000 iOS apps and about 600,000 Android apps—
teachers face the challenge of knowing how and why to use apps to foster learn-
ing in their classrooms. The purpose of this book is to provide a framework for
thinking about how to employ these apps in ways that will foster learning with
literacy across the curriculum. In thinking about the uses of apps, we focus on
how apps foster use of literacy practices involved in accessing/assessing informa-
tion, reading, writing, engaging in discussion, creating and reading images, using
audio/video, and using games/simulation. For example, we describe how uses of
annotation apps for responding to texts can be used to engage students in collab-
orative discussions about those texts.
Also, we describe how use of these literacy practices supports students in
acquiring certain disciplinary literacies unique to English language arts, social
studies, science, math, art, and music. For example, use of the affordances of
mapping apps is supportive of learning geography in social studies classes while
use of the affordances of drawing apps is supportive of learning in art classes.
We believe that our book is unique in that it goes beyond simply describing
apps as found in app recommendation sites or books about apps to provide a
framework for thinking about the uses of apps within the larger context of literacy
learning across the curriculum. Teachers from different subject matter areas can
use this framework to collaboratively devise activities supporting cross-disciplinary
literacy learning so that students are using the same or similar apps in different
viii Preface
courses. For example, teachers can plan activities involving use of annotation apps
for students to share and build on each other’s synthesis responses to their reading.
Teachers can also use this framework for devising criteria to assess students’
learning in terms of their ability to employ certain literacy practices, for example,
assessing students on their ability to employ annotation apps to synthesize their
understanding of texts.
This book also provides readers with a number of features related to sugges-
tions for using apps in the classroom through:
• descriptions of uses of app affordances supporting particular literacy practices
related to accessing information, reading, writing, discussing, image/audio/
video production, gaming, and reflection associated with learning in different
subject matter areas for further resources and reading on uses of apps;
• connections between use of certain literacy practices and addressing the
Common Core Standards;
• examples of classroom uses of apps demonstrating how students learn to
employ disciplinary literacies through their uses of apps;
• links to apps designed for use in fostering specific literacy practices for iOS
apps, to the iTunes Store; Android apps, to the Google Play Store; and
Chrome OS apps, to the Chrome Store;
• links to resources and further reading on uses of apps on the book’s website
http://usingipads.pbworks.com and a blog http://www.appsforlearningliteracies.
com for further discussion of topics in the book.
OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK
Part I: A Literacy-Based Framework for Using Apps provides a framework for the
book (Chapters 1 to 3).
Chapter 1 presents the idea that the affordances of apps—how apps support
literacy learning— reside not in the apps themselves but in how you design activ-
ities that exploit the uses of certain apps. This means that rather than let an app
itself drive your activity, it is your activity that drives how and why you are using
a certain app.
Chapter 2 describes how uses of app affordances can foster uses of literacy prac-
tices to help students acquire disciplinary literacies as they study English language
arts, social sciences, natural sciences, math, world/second language, art, music,
physical education, etc.
Chapter 3 provides strategies for planning instruction and creating activities
that exploit these app affordances based on determination of students’ prior expe-
riences, knowledge, needs, abilities, and interests. It also describes how devising
activities using app affordances fosters learning different disciplinary literacies in
ways that support implementation of the Common Core Standards.
In Part II: Guidelines and Classroom Examples for Using Apps, Chapters 4 to 11 look
at uses of apps to foster use of certain specific literacy practices in the classroom.
Chapter 4 describes the use of apps to foster accessing and assessing informa-
tion through the use of online database searches, including the ability to identify
relevant key terms and assess the validity of information acquired.
Chapter 5 discusses the uses of apps to help students learn to read digitally
through defining purposes for processing links in texts; synthesizing ideas through
uses of note-taking, annotation, mind-mapping, tagging, and social networking
apps; and acquiring the ability to select online texts relevant to one’s needs and
interests.