In order to explore more fully the role of classroom technology in a child's meaning-construction process, I have situated this discussion within a social-constructivist perspective of learning. Even in the period of “emergent literacy,” the very earliest stages of literacy development, young children's literacy concepts are not mere approximations of those of literate adults (Clay, 1966, 1967; Sulzby, 1985; Teale, 1987). Instead, early reading and writing concepts, behaviors, and attitudes are constructed as the child participates in a social environment.

Shulman and Carey (1984) describe social constructivism as a way of viewing the construction of meaning through the reciprocal influence and interaction of individual and context. During social exchanges within specific settings, individuals acquire the skills, knowledge, and dispositions that enable them to participate in their group or society. As a theory of cognitive development, social constructivism shifts us away from thinking about individuals who construct their own meanings through interaction within their environment to a view of a collectively constructed meaning. Language is central to this view, since human social activity reflects the role of speech to communicate and engage in dialogue with others (Bakhtin, 1986).

This social-constructivist perspective, then, underlies this article's discussion of two roles of classroom technology:

• providing opportunities for children to consider multiple symbolic perspectives in the meaning-construction process, and
• providing opportunities for children to reflect on language.

Although these roles are considered separately, it is critically important to emphasize the connection between them. In my view, this connection can best be illuminated by thinking of each of them as coming into view and fading out, as one might see on a computer or movie screen, in a sequence so quick that it is difficult to tell when one ends and the other begins.

As children learn to use language and to read and write, they are essentially making use of multiple sign systems in their quest to make sense of their worlds. Berghoff (1993) describes the concept of “aesthetic literacy,” a holistic understanding of literacy acquisition that comprises multiple systems of expression. She suggests that cultural beliefs and social conventions organize and regulate our use of symbols within these different systems, which Eisner (1978) discusses as follows:

Each symbol system -- mathematics, the sciences, art, music, literature, poetry, and the like -- allows us not only to conceptualize our ideas about reality but also to convey those ideas to others. Each symbol system sets parameters upon what we can conceive and what we can express. Thus, through painting we are able to know autumn in ways that only the visual arts make possible. Through poetry we can know autumn in ways that only poems can provide. Through botany we are able to know autumn in ways that only botanists can convey. How autumn is conceived and hence, what we know about it, depends upon the symbol system we use or choose to use.

Classroom technology and multiple sign systems. The ability to construct meaning from multiple symbolic representations is an important part of literacy development. In the social context of the classroom, children can use technology to access multidimensional texts (e.g., multimedia CD-ROMs, interactive software programs, or websites), from which they discover that signs and symbols take different forms and convey different meanings. They learn how to use different sign systems, and how to “transmediate“ content and expression from one system to another (Eco, 1976; Peirce, 1933, 1935).

Semiotics, the study of signs and sign systems, looks closely at the underlying processes involved in making meaning. It involves the analysis of how individuals within particular cultural contexts produce meaningful symbols, use them to communicate, interpret them, and organize them systematically into codes vital to social interaction (Eco, 1990; Gillan, 1982). Taking a semiotic perspective about literacy helps us extend out thinking beyond conventional texts to include multimedia computer-based compositions.

Labbo (1996), for example, looked at the way young children made and used symbols with KidPix 2 computer software (Broderbund Software; now available from The Learning Company). With this program, both drawing and word-processing tools are available. Labbo found that in using the software, children employed referential symbolism (labeling symbols with real-world referents), conceptual symbolism (labeling symbols as part of a conceptual class of objects), functional symbolism (using symbols in culturally identifiable ways, such as choosing a symbol of a chair and saying, “People use furniture to sit on”), and constructive symbolism (grouping symbols to make more complex objects). This study clearly illustrates the complex ways children use symbolism in the meaning-construction process, and how a cycle of cognitive work can be facilitated through the use of the computer.

Classroom technology can also be used to support the construction of meaning from multiple symbolic perspectives in children's writing. Dyson (1989) developed a theoretical framework that views writing as “evolving within and shaped by children's interactions with other symbolic media and other people, including their peers.” She also states that for children to develop as writers -- particularly as writers of imaginary worlds -- their written texts must become progressively more embedded in their social, affective, and intellectual lives. Creation of imaginary worlds provides a means for children to explore ways to move within their own “real” worlds while at the same time experimenting with social interaction.

Classroom technology may enhance children's ability to move across and between symbol systems. Further, by allowing the child to access a diverse range of multidimensional text worlds, technology can provide a rich means within which to engage in imaginative play and expression. Examples of such technology include multimedia encyclopedias on CD-ROM, numerous software programs (a review site such as SuperKids can provide descriptions), websites such as The Odyssey: World Trek for Service and Education, and e-mail.

Kinzer and Leu (1997) found that multimedia environments provided a powerful means of storing, revising, and presenting work over time. The students in their study, part of the Young Children's Literacy Project, constructed Internet home pages, read stories and wrote their own related ones, published them, and put them online in The Little Planet Times to be accessed by others. They added music and illustrations in their stories, thus working across multiple symbolic forms of expression.

Illustration, in fact, plays a central role in children's early literacy efforts. As very young children draw and scribble, they learn about the visual qualities of objects and the graphic properties of line, color, and shape (Smith, 1979). They also explore the creativity involved in expressing meaning.

Chia and Duthie (1994) studied children in a computer-based art program, working from the view that “computers are making unprecedented aesthetic experiences possible and revolutionizing the way art is conceived, created, perceived and taught.” Children in the study explored spatial relationships, compositional elements, and the technological capabilities of the software as they doodled on screen, using computers to support their creative experiments. They developed an awareness of artistic elements such as line, shape, color, perspective, and proportion. The Internet also provides resources where children can experiment with and explore artisitic expression, at sites such as Global Children's Art Gallery and The @rt Room.

Challenges. There is obvious value in guiding children to move among multiple sign systems and providing them with opportunities to experiment in doing so, but the tool of classroom technology itself will not foster the ability to consider multiple perspectives in the process of constructing meaning. What if, for example, the computer interferes with aesthetic expression? Using a mouse is removed from the tactile experience of drawing with crayons or painting with fingerpaints. It may allow a child to draw more sophisticated pictures, have neater writing, or import images from afar for inclusion in a story. Does having access to more finished products change the child's creative process?

Further, if our developing writers have access to new and sophisticated tools to express meaning in ways that cannot be done without a computer, their very conception of what writing is may change. But what if children do see this type of symbolic representation as simply normal? Are they not just using the tools available in their culture to make meaning? And isn't using the available tools a sensible and useful strategy in meaning making?

The second area of literacy development to be considered is the ability to reflect on language. Tunmer and Bowey (1984) describe this “metalinguistic awareness” at four levels: phonemic awareness, word awareness, form awareness, and pragmatic awareness. As children move from emergent to conventional literacy, they increasingly treat language as an object of thought that they can manipulate. In the process, they interact with print in different forms, including its graphic features, the alphabetic principle, spelling, and language structure. Ruddell and Ruddell (1994) describe children as actively constructing the rules of language; they are theory builders and hypothesis testers who discover various language features that allow them to switch registers in different situations. Throughout the process of language development, children adjust their hypotheses to reflect new knowledge, contexts, and experiences. These adjustments come about as they reflect on language.

In discussing development in writing, Dyson (1991) explains how, over time, children work harder to orchestrate the written language system as a whole. As they write, they try to match the meanings and graphic representations in a more precise manner, and they begin to experience the tensions that exist between intended meanings and those articulated through symbolic forms. As they try to understand the role of language in their own lives, they reflect on what they can do with their growing understanding.

As the child becomes involved in the creative process of personal meaning making and begins playing with different forms of symbolic representation, she reflects on these representations. She might invert a shape or a letter on a page, or move it to a different part of a computer screen. She might attempt to match what she is saying with what she scribbles with a pencil or types on the keyboard. As she explores the different options available to her, she may see other ways to express her meaning. Having access to different media can be a great benefit to students and teachers in these explorations. As Dyson (1993) states, “Young children from diverse backgrounds bring diverse experiences to symbol producing -- talking, drawing, playing, storytelling, and, in our society, some kind of experience with print, all of which are resources with which both teachers and children can build new possibilities.” Different children use different forms of expression, have different understandings of the relationships between letters and sounds, and use a variety of resources to solve problems as they try to figure out how written language works.

Classroom technology and metalinguistic awareness. Multimedia software, websites, and the like enable children to interact with, manipulate, and explore different aspects of language and print. When we provide time for children to explore the capabilities and features of texts using technology, they gain information about how language works (Labbo, 1996). Further, classroom technology provides a means for children to receive feedback on their efforts to construct meaning.

In a study of first graders, Dickinson (1986) found that collaborative writing placed communicative demands on children. It brought about a new form of social organization in the classroom, because it required children to talk about their writing. The computer facilitated collaborative writing by presenting legible text that was accessible to all. When the children worked together on the computer, they had to articulate their plans and they reacted to what their partners were writing. In doing so, they became more aware of what they knew implicitly and had increased opportunities to develop metalinguistic awareness. Once again, however, access to technology does not guarantee its effective use.

Word-processing software is an example of classroom technology that develops metalinguistic awareness by enabling children to transform words as they revise their writing. Dauite (1988) describes how children can become absorbed in their writing, other people's perceptions of their writing, and the forms that their ideas take on the page or the computer screen. When a child is asked to revise, he often finds it difficult to do, as once it is written, it becomes a fixed object in his mind. Revising can be complex, involving additions, deletions, and moving text from one place to another, all of which children must do while keeping in mind different elements of writing, such as the overall structure, the audience, and the use of language. Word-processing programs makes these tasks easier than they are on paper, and children may be more likely to think about their writing and revise reflectively when this technology is available to them.

Word-processing software also allows children to create print in conventional form before they can produce it by hand. Phenix and Hannan (1984) describe how a printout from a word-processing program allowed children who had difficulty with letter formation to overcome the problem of not being able to read what they had written by hand. “The value of the printout is that the copy always looks perfect to the child,” the researchers state. “There is an equality here that the children normally cannot feel.” Phenix and Hannan found that when the children's writing was not limited by their ability to print and spell, the length, fluency, and literary quality of their pieces increased. As children saw more examples of correct letter formation on the screen and in their printouts, they developed increased facility in their own printing. Movement toward standard spelling was also seen.

Classroom technology can also provide the means for children to experience multisensory, nonlinear presentation of information. Many websites present pages in nonlinear fashion, inviting readers to chart their own course through the text. There has been considerable discussion about how best to approach and use this technology in the classroom. Anderson-Inman, Horney, Der-Thanq, and Lewin (1994) found that some students may not be ready to read and learn in hypertext environments. This kind of reading, they argue, requires development of traditional reading skills, computer skills, and special skills to navigate and read hypertext.

Similarly, Lewin (1996) outlines concerns over how children use talking picture books, software packages that essentially replicate paper books on screen, adding features such as audio narration, speech feedback, and animation. Children can choose whether to have the entire book read aloud to them, or they can select certain words to be read aloud. Some packages allow children to explore the text in many ways -- hearing music when they click on a particular part of an illustration, for example, or viewing animation when they select certain features. Lewin identified the following deficiencies with such programs:

• A child may begin to rely on the computer to decode unknown words and therefore not develop the ability to use alternate strategies
• A child may choose to have the entire book read aloud and not attempt to read him- or herself
• Interactivity can be minimal
• There is no mechanism for detecting or correcting errors if the child does not request help (as in the case of Samantha in the opening vignette)
• Talking book software does not always provide coaching in a variety of reading strategies

Once again, it is important to remember that technology is a tool that may, when well used, help children understand the way that written language works. Understanding how children make use of this tool in different contexts is critical. Availability of the technology on its own does not ensure reflectivity about its use.

In sum, I suggest that working in multiple sign systems through computer-based classroom technology provides children with opportunities to construct knowledge from multiple perspectives and enhances their reflection on language as they engage in the social construction of meaning. How this tool is used affects early literacy development in many ways. The next webpage focuses on the role of technology in the classroom.

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