The Role of Cell Phones in Online Learning, Connectivity, and COVID

Introduction

The technological, pedagogical, content knowledge framework, also known as TPACK (Koehler & Mishra, 2005), is a well-documented conceptual framework that is now often used in teacher preparation programs (Chai, Ling Koh, & Tsai, 2010; Lehtinen, Neiminen, & Viiri, 2016). What it means to develop TPACK skills goes well beyond technological fluency, and speaks to the complexity of 21st century literacy skills. According to the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Beliefs for Integrating Technology into the English Language Arts classroom statement (2018), educational stakeholders like teachers and teacher educators should view 21st century literacy skills as the ability to view technology itself as a literacy rather than an add-on to the curriculum. [blinded for review] wrote of “digital literacies as a means for ELA ‘doing’ as opposed to supporting ELA doing,” (p. 592) a notion they underline as “deceptively complex” (p. 592). This complexity lies in the redefinition of what it means to be literate in a society where modes of communication occur in multiple streams through an individual personal learning network that varies from individual to individual (Oddone, Hughes, & Lupton, 2019), and which often promotes a gap in access between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ (Darling-Hammond, Zielezinski, & Goldman, 2014). NCTE’s Beliefs for Integrating Technology into the English Language Arts classroom statement (2018) explored this notion through the lens of a belief called ‘technologies and associated literacies are not neutral,’ which suggested perpetuation or even acceleration of discrimination of various forms. The additional two beliefs of NCTE’s Beliefs for Integrating Technology into the English Language Arts classroom include considering literacies prior to technologies as well as technologies as a way to consume and produce texts.

The belief statement referenced above is a clean document that neatly shelves and unravels these complexities in a way that provides a blueprint for teachers and teacher educators. However, in complex times, issues of access, neutrality, and practice of technology as a literacy and as a mode of communication conflate. As we write this chapter, the undergraduates at our college just finished their semester (May 2020), of which eight weeks were unintentionally online due to COVID 19. Across the nation, K-12 and higher education institutions shut down in March, sometimes within only a few days notice. K-12 educators and college instructors alike had to pivot to emergency remote instruction-- intentionally not called online learning-- and do so within two weeks or less. Teachers rose to the extraordinary challenge. Administrators of K-12 schools figured out ways of getting food out to those who qualified for free-and-reduced lunch. Colleges managed to vacate their entire campuses, sometimes in only a few days. The stories of adminstration and teachers stepping up to make sure education was still accessible to students were vast. The platforms of use for that access, however, were not necessarily discussed. Cell phones became primary sources for accessing work, both at the K-12 and higher education level. The cell phone as a means for educational purposes during the pandemic shed light on how the mobile device had already played a part in access to education.