We've got the iPods, but where do we start? The story of two grade 4 teachers

This paper explores the process of introducing iPods into the context of two primary classrooms. In particular we focus on how two teachers planned to incorporate these tools to support student learning within the mandated curriculum requirements. Further we explore the affordances of the tool identified by the teachers to support literacy learning. In this research, the teachers identified a focus on teaching talking and listening strategies as a meaningful starting point for the use of the technology. They acknowledge that analysis of classroom talk and oral texts are complex and often identified as a more difficult component of literacy to teach. The incorporation of iPods gives rise to myriad possibilities, as does the teacher who incorporates these within meaningful classroom experiences. However, the planning and incorporation of these in class contexts is a challenging process. It involves a complex set of transactions among the teacher and the instructional plan at hand, children as literacy learners with their various angles of interpretation, and the actual technology that may evoke many possibilities for participants. This paper explores this planning process and the implications it presents to the incorporation of the technology within the classroom context.