Of Platforms and Profits

Beyond Apps: Digital Literacies in a Platform Society by T. Philip Nichols, Robert Jean LeBlanc
The Reading Teacher Vol. 74 No. 1 pp. 103-109, January 01, 2020

In 2021, we "stand" on various platforms, both concrete and abstract. Digital platforms facilitate a vast number of our operations, providing the connective web powering the many applications we can no longer live, learn, or work without. In their fascinating article, "Beyond Apps: Digital Literacies in a Platform Society," professors T. Philip Nichols and Robert Jean LeBlanc integrate the emergent field of platform studies into their research on teacher use of educational apps such as FlipGrid, Kahoot, ClassDojo, Socrative, and Seesaw. In the process, they strengthen our collective understanding of the digital literacies needed to teach and learn today. Like their creators, platforms operate in relation to one another – for example, the iPhone is a platform for the App Store, and so on – and have social, technical, and economic dimensions. When choosing apps to use in their classrooms, educators should consider, "What is the platform and how does it work? What does it allow users to do? Who profits?" All three questions, but especially the last one, help teachers to evaluate their choices and adopt the best and safest apps for learning. "Platforms exert competing pressures on educators" that can be counterbalanced, say Nichols and LeBlanc, through digital literacies that go "beyond using software to access, create or interpret digital content [to] one that involves exploring, analyzing, and intervening in platform dynamics." Perhaps most important, the article will stimulate teachers to help their students to strengthen their own digital literacies by asking them to engage with inquiry and reflection on the uses and functions of digital platforms.