From Plato to iPads: Dialogical Opportunities in Twenty-First Century Secondary English Classrooms

• Main Author: Ensign, Emily
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2013
• Subjects: Dialogue; Dialogical learning; iPads; Kenneth Burke; Secondary English classrooms; Plato; Wayne Booth; English Language and Literature
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3618; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4617&context=etd

Technology offers students and educators an uncharted digital landscape of possibilities. Some educators feel strongly that technology enhances the classroom; others feel that it doesn't necessarily improve traditional teaching methods, and some even feel that it is detrimental to students' ability to focus or engage in face-to-face conversations. My project focuses on critical dialogue as defined by various theorists, and explores whether or not secondary English classrooms that use iPads continue to use the dialogical methods as outlined by these theorists (most of which could not have foreseen today's technological advancements). By relying on these theorists and scholars to provide definitions and descriptions of dialogue and its benefits, I explain unique opportunities that the iPad offers students for dialogical learning in general. In particular, I describe ways educators can use iPads in the secondary English classroom that clearly overcome the potential disadvantages that concern some teachers.