Laptops meet schools, one-one draw: M-learning for secondary students with literacy difficulties

Mobile technology-enhanced literacy initiatives have become a focus of efforts to support learning for students with literacy difficulties. The Laptops Initiative for Post-Primary Students with Dyslexia or other Reading/Writing Difficulties offers insights into and addresses questions about ICT policy making regarding m-learning technologies for students with literacy difficulties. Thirty-one schools participated in this initiative. Adopting an intepretive perspective, research and data analysis centred on four school case studies and involved classroom observations, teacher, student and principal interviews as well as a survey of teachers in other participating schools. Findings are presented under three headings: laptop deployment models (fixed, floating and fostered), constraints and supports for teacher and student agency, and technology-enhanced literacy pedagogy. We conclude by noting the increasing appeal of m-learning to support literacy and how schools mediate access to laptops and associated literacy learning.