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Research topic/aim

Digitalisation in education has been studied in terms of how it affects multimodality, literacy, and learning in the classroom (Jewitt, 2002; Bezemer & Kress, 2016; Jewitt & Kress, 2003).

The Covid 19 pandemic highlighted the need for greater knowledge about digitalisation in education in Swedish schools. The change from face-to-face teaching to virtual teaching put a critical spotlight on teacher’s knowledge of didactic choices (Hodges et al., 2020).

Here are presented preliminary results from ongoing practice-based research project ‘Digital resources in teaching’. 13 teachers at upper secondary school, together with a researcher, collaborated to make use of teacher knowledge of digital resources acquired during the pandemic. Challenges and opportunities were identified for scaffold language and scaffold learning (Gibbons, 2006). This presentation aims at discussing the use of digital breakout rooms in teaching, its implications for teachers and their pupils, with special focus on participation and engagement.

Theoretical framework

This study takes a multimodal approach to learning as its theoretical point of departure. Based on the notion of multimodal literacy (Jewitt & Kress, 2003), the study analyses how digital resources in a range of modes contribute to the shaping of knowledge and what it means to be a teacher in the virtual classroom. In accordance with Jewitt and Kress (2003), four aspects for representing meaning are considered: materiality, framing, design, and production.

Methodology/research design

Data were collected in 2020-2022 and consist of five videorecorded interviews with the same focus group involving three teachers. Additionally, audio-recorded observations of 16 lessons in virtual classrooms involving three different classes were collected. 

Expected results/findings

Preliminary findings show virtual teaching corresponds to a big change for both pupils and teachers, despite previous exposure to working with digital screens. The virtual group rooms, ‘breakout rooms’, were valuable in teaching, learning and interaction. Teachers noted breakout rooms contributed to more pupil engagement and participation. The usage of breakout rooms meant teachers started looking for ways to integrate reading, conversation and writing of different modalities. Teachers emphasise how virtual teaching put importance on language use and written text in meaning making. Written text and text composition becomes prioritised when teaching becomes virtual.

Relevance to Nordic educational research

This novel data contributes to greater understanding of how virtual teaching caused by the global pandemic has impacted teaching in Swedish upper secondary schools.