Back to search

FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren

DigiHand - The emergence of handwriting skills in the digital classrooms

Alternative title: DigiHand - Handskriftsutvikling i digitale klasserom

Awarded: NOK 9.0 mill.

DigiHand is a research project that investigate how the use of different writing tools influence teachers practice and 585 1.st grade students' handwriting and language development over 2 years. There is a large variation in how letters and handwriting are explicitly taught and trained in schools in Norway. Some schools have dismissed pen and paper until the second grade for the benefit of writing applications with advanced text/letter-to-speech synthesis on digital tablets, while others are teaching handwriting from first grade in combination with digital tablets, or in combination with other digital tools. Research on the gains and pitfalls of these new practices is lacking, but it seems that the development of handwriting occurs in all conditions. Our aim is therefore twofold. First, we investigate the pupils' writing skills and practices under various conditions and what characterizes the quality of such teaching practices in 33 classrooms over 2 years. Results show that there are some differences according to teachers' use of digital tools, letter progression and feedback practices. Overall, results show that neither modality or handwriting instruction does substantially affect 1st grade students' written composition from from the beginning to the end of 1st grade.

Resultat av ulike studiar i DigiHand viser at eit tidlegare anten- eller syn på nettbrett i denne studien blir moderert til eit «både- og», noko som kan ha konsekvensar for korleis lærarar nyttar nettbrett i skriveopplæringa si (Kobberstad m.fl, 2020; Spilling m.fl, 2021).Vidare viser resultat at elevar allereie i byrjinga av første klasse i utvalet har bokstavkunnskap og er i stand til å skrive samanhengande tekstar med meining, om oppgåvene er tilpassa elevgruppa (Rogne m.fl, 2021; Spilling, 2021). Det kjem også fram at kvaliteten på lærar- og elevinteraksjonar er lik i ulike vilkår, men viser likevel at det er noko lågare kvalitet mellom kategoriane positivt klima i klasseromet, omsyn til elevperspektivet og språkmodellering i undervisning for elevar med nettbrett, i forhold til elevar utan nettbrett (Øvereng & Gamlem, 2022).

The Norwegian curriculum requires teachers of early grade classrooms to involve digital tools in literacy instruction, without any specification of how and to what extent digital tools should be used. As a consequence, Norwegian classrooms display a large variation in how letters and handwriting are explicitly taught and trained. Over recent years, teacher training institutions have faced a new phenomenon; elementary schools dismissing pen and paper until the second grade for the benefit of writing applications with advanced text/letter-to-speech synthesis on digital tablets. Research on the gains and pitfalls of these new practices is lacking. There is a need for knowledge and understanding on how these practices give implications for different groups of disadvantaged students as well as for general learning outcome. DigiHand is a longitudinal natural experiment investigating how the use of different writing tools influence teachers' practice and students’ handwriting and letter knowledge, word reading, spelling, and student’s text writing competence from 1st to 2nd grade (students 6 yrs in 1st grade).The mainstay of the design is a logging handwriting supplemented with systematic video observation using classroom assessment scoring system (CLASS) combined with qualitative case-studies. 33 schools (n=585 students) were recruited from three actually occurring conditions. Students in these conditions either: 1) learn to write on a tablet while postponing handwriting, 2) learn both to handwrite and write on a tablet, 3) learn to handwrite. This design allows us to investigate the effects of the use of different writing tools in beginning writing instruction. Effect analyses will be conducted on three main domains of measures i) Students’ letter knowledge, spelling competence and word reading competence, ii) Students’ handwriting fluency, and iii) Students’ text writing competence. This protocol describes background, design, pre- and outcome measures for the study. DigiHand is a joint effort of Volda University College (VUC) and the University of Stavanger (UIS). In addition to the innovative initiative to current societal changes inherent in DigiHand, the formal competency building at VUC is a central goal of the project. This approach has the potential of providing a comprehensive knowledge base for early literacy instruction and a new research base to investigate the ongoing keyboard/pen controversy.

Publications from Cristin

No publications found

Funding scheme:

FINNUT-Forskning og innovasjon i utdanningssektoren