Teachers’ Use of Technology in Elementary Reading Lessons

Abstract

Proponents claim technology will transform classroom teaching and improve children's engagement and learning. Opponents argue that such benefits are oversold because little evidence exists that technology improves teaching and learning. We examined how elementary teachers in an urban school that was well resourced with technology used it when teaching reading. After 25 hours of observation we found teachers used technology to display multimedia content, generate interactive learning activities, focus student attention, display texts for shared reading, and individualize children's learning activities. Primary-grade reading lessons were often more participatory and multimodal than those in the intermediate grades.