Abstract

Literacy acquisition by using computers and computer tablets is rapidly gaining ground in Swedish classrooms.
This article explores the hypothesis that computer-writing vitalizes the learning of literacy, in comparison with
approaches using books and pencils. The results of two separate studies in two different settings where
prewriting and writing were used to enhance literacy development will be described and discussed. The results of
a recent study of classrooms where computers were used will be compared with an older study where students
used pencils and paper for writing. The results indicated that the nature of the literacy practice was strongly
linked to the teacher’s conceptions of literacy and learning. The teachers’ choices of computers or pencils as
tools for writing do, however, not seem to influence the processes of writing in the classrooms. How writing was
enacted in the classrooms and the potential to further development of the literacy practices, were linked to
teacher knowledge and the teacher’s conception of literacy.

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