Amber Sage

TL 445 Section 1
02/17/2015

Touch Screen Tablets and Emergent Literacy

Bringing technology into the classroom can be a challenge. There are
many opinions floating around society now and finding the most relevant
information can be puzzling as well. This article done by Michelle and David
Neumann gives data regarding technology being used for emergent literacy.
The whole study is regarding the use of tablets for enhancing emergent
literacy skills. The authors used a lot of statistics and examples to prove
their theory to be a correct one. They have suggested that by using these,
childrens alphabet knowledge, print concepts, and emergent writing skills
are greatly affected (Neumann, 2014). Over many years of childhood, the
results show how much it affects childrens literacy.
The purpose of this article was to show the connections between
emergent literacy and the use of tablets. This also includes the
incorporation of technology into early learning classrooms and at homes. It
helps with tablet use practice while expanding their knowledge and
provides understanding of app features that are needed to use these
correctly. This study mainly looked at ages zero to eight. Between those
ages, 52% of the children had access to technology. 10% of ages zero to
one, 39% of ages two to four, and 52% of ages five to eight had used
touchscreen devices in general (Neumann, 2014). The instant feedback that
is provided from technology like this is a great way for children to learn.
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When they play games or do activities on the tablets, they are stimulating
visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic sensory systems. At the age of two,
children are able to do simple task relating to matching and counting.
Between two and three children can do such things as; target, press, drag,
swipe, and tap. By ages four and five, they advance all of those abilities. At
ages six to eight children are quickly learning the skills needs for each
game and have explicit tasks mastered (Neumann, 2014). This not only
helps with emergent literacy, but it also works on fine motor skills.
Children also decide for themselves what symbols mean. When they
were asked what the home button was on the tablet, they said it was
back or stop. Without knowing what the home button actually is on the
tablet, they were able to figure out what the use was. In games, the
triangular play button was understood as start or go back. Also, many
children associated orange writing with games. They assumed that if the
app had orange writing in it, it was a game for them to play. The e symbol
that associates with internet explorer was understood as being just that,
even though they did not know or understand what the internet really is
(Neumann, 2014). This study was done on twelve preschool aged children,
three to six years old.
The article also discussed the importance of scaffolding. They listed
three different types. Type one was cognitive scaffolding. An example of this
would be an adult reading to a child and asking them questions about word
meanings as they read along. The second type was affective scaffolding.
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This would be an adult providing positive feedback or encouraging children

to say letter sounds. Technical scaffolding was the last type. This would be
the technology features and how well children understand how to use them.
This also provides immediate feedback (Neumann, 2014). These three types
of scaffolding help build literacy skills.
Another important topic covered in this article was the importance of
knowing what features are appropriate for apps. They need to be age
appropriate. This is needed because if they are not, children using the apps
are not likely gaining much. They also need to have high levels of
interaction to keep children interested. Apps should build on previous
knowledge (Neumann, 2014). The apps they are using should help them
grow, not be in stand still. Creativity and problem solving should to be
encouraged. The instructions should be clear and easy to find. If they are
unclear, children are likely to become frustrated and not want to
participate. Partner work is another feature that should be incorporated
into the apps (Neumann, 2014). Peer collaborations skills are important and
should be worked on in the classroom. The app also needs to give
immediate feedback and guide performance. The immediate feedback tells
children what they are doing right or wrong (Neumann, 2014). All of these
features being used together create a learning environment that builds on
literacy as well as other important skills.
There are limitations to this learning style according to the article.
One issue is the newness of tablets. They are still advancing technology and
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there can be some faults in the design. A lot of research is computer based,
not tablet based which leads to problems as well. The resistance of
educators to integrating technology into the classroom is a big issue as well.
Also, when trying to find apps with all of the important key features, it can
be difficult to find many good ones.
This article provided a massive amount of helpful insight into useful
apps. I believe that this is a great way to get students involved in literacy
skills. The amount of gains that can come from integrating these games into
the classroom is amazing. This type of learning often gets students excited
and involved. Finding ways to keep first graders focused can be difficult. I
would use tablets to enhance their literacy skills by offering them as
rewards. I do not believe that having tablet games be the primary part of
my teaching will be an option. Setting a goal for the class to reach every day
or so, would be a good way to get them engaged in other classroom
activities too.
I found it interesting how many children have not had the chance to
use touch screens. This article is from 2014 and we seem to have touch
screens everywhere. That is why I believe it is very important to get tablets
into classrooms, the students that do not already have access to these types
of devices need to have that chance. These apps are helping with literacy
skills and can absolutely be used to get students excited to learn.
The scaffolding aspect of this connection between technology and
education is also something I find very important. By understanding the
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three different types, I can integrate these into the classroom. Knowing how
cognitive scaffolding helps conceptual and procedural understanding along
with strategies for doing that will help guide classroom time. Affective will
help me as a teacher find ways to encourage students with positive
feedback. This pushes them to exceed to higher levels of learning. Technical
scaffolding would be important to get them involved in the tablet world.
This will give them the knowledge they need to do these types of tasks. It is
really upsetting to me that some teachers are not integrating technology
into their classes. The article said that some teachers do not want to bring
technology into their classes. Technology is growing and has already
become very prominent in the classroom. I plan to find ways to integrate it
in to a lot of my own lesson plans in the near future.
The thing I enjoyed most about this article though were the future
directions. This was a list of different things to think about for your
learners futures. The most important to me was the paragraph dedicated to
the U.S. National Association for education of Young Children (Neumann,
2014). This discussed the importance of using tablets for children birth to
eight years old. It emphasizes the age appropriate educational apps and
supports literacy development. This is very important in childrens
development because emergent literacy can be in a stand still if not
prepared correctly.
On top of all of these things covered in the article, collaborations
skills were also talked about. I know how important being able to talk with
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peers is in life. We cannot expect students to simply know how to

collaborate with each other. This is a growing process. The apps provided
were said to not have a lot of these skills in them though. That was one of
the major problems with these learning apps. Although they help greatly
with emergent literacy, they are lacking the highly needed collaborating
skills. This was a very well written article though and I learned a lot about
how you can incorporate these apps. I would have to find ways to bring in
collaborating as well though.

References
Neumann, M., & Neumann, D. (2014). Touch screen tablets and emergent
literacy. Early
Childhood Education Journal, 42(4), 231-239.

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