ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a number of frameworks for thinking about how use of apps can support learning with different literacy practices related to accessing information, reading, writing, speaking or listening, creating images or audio or videos, and reflecting on learning, practices relevant to learning in all subjects. The affordances of apps depend on how one design an activity in ways that exploit uses of an app for purposes unique to their activity. In coining the use of the concept of affordance, James Gibson argued that how an object presents itself in certain context and point in time influences what it affords. Instructional designers of apps, and, to a certain extent, teachers thinking like instructional designers, assume that the design of instruction, if carefully planned, can help them predict student learning and engagement outcomes. Ubiquitous access anytime or anyplace serves to alter how and where learning occurs. Teachers believe that uses of iOS, Android, Chrome OS apps can enhance student engagement.
