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ABSTRACT
This study analysed how students’ mobile phones and Snapchat are adapted to and participate in the classroom. Insights from the actor network theory were used to discuss the interconnections between students, mobile phones, Snapchat, desks, and plenary teaching. We applied video analysis to examine the minute details of unfolding sociomaterial practices. The data, which was produced in a Finnish upper secondary school in 2015–2016, is a composition of ethnographic classroom video material and screen-capture video recordings from students’ smartphones. In this study, we asked how the presence of mobile phones and Snapchat become possible in the relatively restricted pedagogical space of plenary teaching. The analysis yielded two important findings. First, students use effort to adapt Snapchat to the demands of the ongoing plenary teaching. Second, the analysis demonstrates the flexibility of the mobile phone–Snapchat entanglement that plays a crucial role in its adaptation.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 With plenary teaching, we refer to a pedagogical arrangement that leans on teacher-led instructions and teacher-led whole-class discussions (see, for example, Sahlström, Tanner, and Valasmo Citation2019).
3 At the time of the data production in 2015, Snapchat required the user to hold their finger on the screen to view a snap. After an application update later in 2015, users could view a snap with a single tap. This exemplifies how the embodied actions required by the application can change overnight, also affecting the embodied actions taking place in classrooms.