A socio-technological assemblage when teaching with apps

Abstract

In this paper we consider how the integration of mobile technology apps into classroom practice can form an alternative pedagogical medium that influences the learning process in mathematics. We give an account of one aspect of a research project that examined the use of tablets and apps in primary-school mathematics programmes and report teacher and student perceptions on how they used the apps, in combination with other manipulatives, to solve problems. Through teacher and researcher co-inquiry, three themes emerged: multi-modal affordances, collaboration, and assemblages. We examined how the interplay between these themes evoked ranges of social, tangible, and digital entities resulting in different learning experiences. We draw on notions of collectives to articulate a socio-technological assemblage and suggest that the notion of an assemblage helps to understand how teachers can use educational technologies to support new learning experiences in their mathematics classrooms.