Society has undergone major and revolutionary changes in a relatively short time, where the individual is surrounded by and has become increasingly dependent on digital technology and programmed objects. The availability of digital tools such as digital tablets (e.g. iPads) has increased significantly in the Swedish preschool, even though research in this area is limited. It is therefore of utmost importance to examine how teachers use digital tablets to support children's learning, both in general but also in relation to technology education, where the latter also includes computer programming. This thesis intends to contribute to such an examination in the form of two studies. In study 1, an online survey was used that consisted of 26 questions that were sent across Sweden and in which 327 respondents participated. Questions were posed about how teachers work with digital tablets together with preschool children. Specifically, the following research questions were raised: What educational activities with digital tablets do teachers engage in Swedish preschools? What are teachers’ views of the educational benefits and disadvantages of using digital tablets in teaching? and, What are teachers’ recommendations for using digital tablets in their teaching practice? In study 2, another online survey was developed based on the findings from study 1 and contained 16 questions that resulted in 199 responses from across Sweden. In study 1, teacher responses around programming proved prominent, which study 2 aimed to explore more deeply. Therefore, the survey questions adopted in the second study probed how preschool teachers implemented programming activities during preschool teaching. Results from the two studies showed that despite a lack of competence, equipment and support from school leadership, numerous teachers often develop and use their own initiative to integrate digital tablet and programming activities in preschool. Teachers communicated several advantages of programming activities with respect to children's learning, aspects that were linked to the notions of 21st century skills and computational thinking. When it comes to methods for designing and implementing activities in practice, several connections to Papert's constructionism were seen as meaningful for the children, where activities contained a large degree of project based work with room for promoting children's agency. The results of the research clearly indicates that solid teacher-initiated work with digital tools as pedagogical resources is underway in earnest across Swedish preschools. In order to realize the advantages of teachers’ development of digital tablet activities for learning, teachers must be provided with prerequisite support necessary for an optimal integration of digitization tools into preschool education. In this regard, teachers should be offered competence development, as well as time for effective implementation, planning and follow-up. Access to appropriate digital tools is also a proviso for realizing this mandate. Increased collaboration between school managers and teachers would also further steer such initiatives in a positive pedagogical direction.

I samband med påbörjad skolgång blir det allt vanligare att barn med neuropsykiatriska funktionsvariationer får svårigheter att vara delaktiga i klassrummet. Delaktigheten påverkas negativt på grund av barnens minskade förmåga att utföra skolaktiviteter. Kognitiva hjälpmedel kan främja delaktigheten eftersom det kan ge barn med neuropsykiatriska funktionsvariationer en möjlighet till att bli självständiga i skolan. Syftet: Syftet var att sammanställa befintlig litteratur angående möjligheterna och begränsningarna med användningen av kognitiva hjälpmedel i skolan för att främja delaktighet och kommunikation för barn med neuropsykiatriska funktionsvariationer. Metod: Den valda studiedesignen var en scoping review. Datainsamlingen genomfördes genom sökningar i databaserna Cinahl, Eric, Psycinfo. Totalt inkluderades 16 artiklar. Artiklarna publicerades mellan 2012–2023. Artiklarna analyserades genom en induktiv konventionell innehållsanalys.  Resultat: Resultatet visade att det fanns både möjligheter och begränsningar med användningen av kognitiva hjälpmedel i klassrummet. Det framkom fyra huvudkategorier, möjligheter med kognitiva hjälpmedel, kommunikationshjälpmedel, delaktighet i klassrummet och begränsningar med kognitiva hjälpmedel. Det gav även en insikt i hur många olika kognitiva hjälpmedel som fanns och hur de kan främja delaktigheten.  Slutsats: Kognitiva hjälpmedel kan bidra till att främja delaktigheten i klassrummet för barn med NPF diagnoser men att det finns en del begränsningar med användningen av kognitiva hjälpmedel.

Technology offers students and educators an uncharted digital landscape of possibilities. Some educators feel strongly that technology enhances the classroom; others feel that it doesn't necessarily improve traditional teaching methods, and some even feel that it is detrimental to students' ability to focus or engage in face-to-face conversations. My project focuses on critical dialogue as defined by various theorists, and explores whether or not secondary English classrooms that use iPads continue to use the dialogical methods as outlined by these theorists (most of which could not have foreseen today's technological advancements). By relying on these theorists and scholars to provide definitions and descriptions of dialogue and its benefits, I explain unique opportunities that the iPad offers students for dialogical learning in general. In particular, I describe ways educators can use iPads in the secondary English classroom that clearly overcome the potential disadvantages that concern some teachers.

Laws and legislation related to early childhood and special education have shaped the field and impacted the need for early intervention services, but the outcomes of those services both academically and socially at the forefront. Children with developmental delays today are eligible for school services beginning at birth across the country, the new challenging is determining the impact of services on the social and academic outcomes. Many children with developmental delays are served in inclusive early intervention classrooms. A need for developmentally appropriate quality mathematics instruction exists to prepare students to meet the demands of a global economy; students must demonstrate mastery of core subjects, such as mathematics, along with skills in information and communication technology (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2009). To promote mathematics achievement technology should be infused in instruction. Data were collected through a variety of sources including: student records review, TEMA-3 test scores, researcher‘s observation field notes, transcripts from student exit interviews, teacher interviews pre and post data collection, and parent questionnaires. The data were analyzed using Atlas-ti and was triangulated from the various data sources. Inter-observer agreement was obtained for all the results. Researcher observations occurred for 19 days in a pre-kindergarten inclusive classroom. The data were analyzed to identify themes for the four individual cases as well as two overarching themes as it related to the investigation of utilizing handheld technology for mathematics instruction in an early childhood education setting.

Individuals with developmental disabilities struggle to learn important life skills. This deficit impedes their ability to function in the community and live meaningful lives. Video prompting (VP) is an evidence-based practice that has been used to teach a wide variety of skills to individuals with disabilities. VP utilizes technology to create step-by-step videos to teach academic, social, vocational and other life skills This article extends the current literature on VP interventions to hygiene skills and investigates the efficacy, skill maintenance, social validity, and level of independence that can be achieved using VP to teach hygiene skills. Three participants with developmental disabilities were selected from a junior high school and were given a video prompting intervention on an iPad to improve hygiene skills. Hygiene skills that were taught included teeth brushing, teeth flossing, face washing and basic eye makeup application. All three participants reached and maintained mastery in each of their target skills. Social validity data indicated that using iPad delivered VP interventions was socially acceptable for teaching some hygiene skills. Not every participant was able to access the VP intervention completely independently. VP interventions are a viable option for teaching these crucial life skills to individuals with developmental disabilities.

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This essay is a study of the use of IT technology by teachers of English and History at a Swedish upper secondary school. It is based on four interviews and four observations. In my analysis of these I have made use of the theory of Social Shaping of technology, a theory which puts emphasis on a teacher´s purpose regarding the use of IT technology in order to empower the teaching process. As a researcher I aim to explore the reasoning on the part of the teacher and to that end I use the method of interviews and observations. This study shows different ways of using IT technology varying from one teacher to another. The use of laptops and Ipads by students is frequent, laptops being used for writing and information seeking and Ipads for taking pictures, the recording of students´ own performance before making presentations in class and for communication with teachers. In addition to the methods mentioned above, I have used - "Som-seende" and half-structured interviews.

Students with moderate/severe intellectual disabilities/autism have been underexposed to grade aligned ELA content. This session highlights research to guide participants practice in implementing meaningful grade aligned ELA content such as opinion writing, comprehension of fiction and nonfiction text, and student led research via technology for students with low incidence disabilities.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the recent past, the large-scale production and marketing of e-reading devices, such as Amazon’s Kindle, and tablet computers, such as Apple’s iPad, have allowed literary works to be presented in a digital reading space, both in the form of standard e-books and, more recently, as enhanced or “amplified” e-books. Much of the position-taking on the matter is polarised: technologists continue to imagine the myriad possibilities of multimodal online “stories”, focusing on opportunities for interactive engagement, while the guardians of literary tradition fear the digital reading space might well cause fluency disruptions and break the hermeneutic immersion necessary for strong reading, irrevocably altering a traditional, paper-based reading experience known to promote a state of deep attention and imaginatively engaged reading. This thesis looks realistically at the current literary climate in which the so-called “digital native” operates, scrutinises the “print” versus “electronic” debate, paying careful attention to how an online environment may well prevent hermeneutic immersion, and then discusses recent enhanced literary products, such as the transmedia fiction title, Chopsticks (Penguin Group USA 2012), and the nonfiction titles released by online publisher Atavist. Then, in an attempt to bridge the gap between the technologists and the print-book purists, and based on what might be considered to be literature’s original value, the thesis proposes a digital reading product in which a formalised set of conventions and a strategic instructional design, or interface, attempts to protect the qualities of traditional, paper-based reading, while at the same time taking advantage of on-screen, online environments to reconnect digital natives with the relevance of past literatures. More specifically, the product presented herein is an attempt to demonstrate 1) how a new aesthetic of literary presentation might stimulate renewed interest in the humanities and liberal arts; 2) how fiction might be reinstated as one of the central components in the education process; 3) how works of fiction that have become increasingly obscure over time or inaccessible to young people might be re-energised; and 4) how what one might call “local” literatures might be “de-parochialised” within an increasingly globalised reading environment. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die produksie en bemarking op groot skaal van e-lesers soos Amazon se Kindle en tabletvormige rekenaars soos Apple se iPad het dit moontlik gemaak om letterkunde in ’n digitale ruimte aan te bied, hetsy in die vorm van e-boeke, of (meer onlangs) in versterkte en “aangevulde” e-boek vorm. Meningsvorming rondom die letterkundige toepaslikheid van e-boeke is sterk gepolariseerd: tegnoloë sien net die magdom moontlikhede raak wat multi-modale aanlyn stories en interaktiewe betrokkenheid inhou, terwyl tradisionele literêre kurators vrese koester oor hoe die digitale leesruimte inbreuk sal maak op die vloei en hermeneutiese onderdompeling nodig vir ’n grondige leeservaring; dit, meen hulle, sal dan ook lei tot die onherroeplike verlies van diep en verbeeldingryke aandag, eienskappe wat lees op papier veronderstel is om mee te bring. Hierdie proefskrif werp ’n realistiese blik op die huidige literêre klimaat, veral die omstandighede waarin die sogenaamde “digital native” deesdae funksioneer. Die debat rondom gedrukte teenoor elektroniese boeke word noukeurig ondersoek, veral met betrekking tot die mate waarin aanlyn lees dalk wel hermeneutiese onderdompeling onderdruk. Verder word versterkte literêre produkte soos die transmedia fiksie titel, Chopsticks (Penguin Group USA 2012), en nie-fiksie titels deur aanlyn-uitgewer Atavist, noukeurig bekyk. Voorts, in ’n poging om die gaping tussen tegnoloë en gedrukte-boek puriste te oorbrug, en op grond van wat mens die oer-waarde van letterkunde dalk kan noem, stel hierdie proefskrif ’n digitale leesproduk voor met ’n geformaliseerde stel konvensies en ’n strategiese instruksionele ontwerp, of koppelvlak (‘interface’). Dit word gedoen in ’n poging om die eienskappe van tradisionele, ‘papier’ lees te behou, maar terselfdetyd voordeel te trek uit die aanlyn-omgewing, en om sodoende die ‘digitale inboorling’ te herenig met die relevansie van vervloë letterkunde. Hierdie voorgestelde produk, dan, is meer spesifiek ’n poging om te wys 1) hoe ’n nuwe literêr-digitale aanbiedingsestetika hernieude belangstelling in die geesteswetenskappe en liberale kunste kan werk; 2) hoe fiksie weer ingestel kan word as kern-komponent in die opvoedingsproses; 3) hoe nuwe energie verleen kan word aan fiksie wat toenemend onbekend of ontoeganklik vir jongmense word; en 4) hoe die Suid-Afrikaanse letterkunde opgehef kan word binne die opset van ’n toenemend-globale leesomgewing.