30 MINUTES OF SYNCHRONOUS CHAT WILL BEGIN AT 10:00AM (MST) TUESDAY OCT. 4 USING THE EMBEDDED TLK.IO WIDGET ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE SCREEN (PLEASE LOOK FOR THE BLUE BAR TITLED L2DLAZCALL2016).
Wyatt Brockbank, University of Iowa
Click the video frame above to view the presentation. To ask the presenters a question about their presentation, please add a comment at the bottom of this page between October 3 and October 8. Presenters will check for and reply to questions each symposium day.
Abstract
As more students who are learning English integrate into the school systems, it becomes increasingly beneficial to understand these students’ lives and communities (Zentella, 2005). Previous research has shed light on themes such as mismatches between educators’ expectations and students’ home lives (Valdés, 1996), the roles that family members play (Katz, 2014), and ways that technology use can enhance learning. Using technology has been shown to help motivate English Learners (ELs) and can help them feel engaged at school (Bjørgen & Erstad, 2015). Many ELs are connecting to the Internet in numbers on par with, and sometimes surpassing, their counterparts (Common Sense Media, 2013; Fuller, Lizárraga, & Gray, 2015), yet relatively little is known about how and why the students and their families use such technology outside of school (Katz, 2010; Rideout & Katz, 2016).
The presentation will include an overview of an ongoing qualitative case study that seeks to explore how and why Spanish-speaking families use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at home, particularly their internet and smartphone technology. Behaviors, perceptions, and motivations are explored through interviews, and tasks in which the researcher asks family members to teach each other about ICT. The case study focuses on one family that speaks mostly Spanish at home, and has one child who receives EL services in a public school in a Midwestern state. The study presumes that important learning happens outside of school, that the home is an important place of learning, and that parents are the child’s first teachers.
The study’s methods and preliminary findings will be presented.
Presenters
Wyatt Brockbank
Doctoral Candidate
University of Iowa