Game 2 Engage: Using iPads to Mediate and Develop Social Relationships in College Learning

This paper describes a project which focused on two groups of post 16 college students working together using a range of iPad applications. The potential of digital technologies to engage students in the curriculum has been prolifically documented. Less is known about how technologies might help students engage with each other. In this paper, we suggest iPads can mediate and enhance new relationships between distinct cohorts of students and thus create new opportunities for social learning. This research reveals how the specifics of the design and materiality of iPads affect the nature of the relationships amongst research participants both within and beyond the literacy classroom, and how a range of applications can be used to perform ‘social networking’ both on and offline