“It is not always very cooperative” : Distributed agency in the use of spell check software in a lower secondary classroom

This study focuses on the distribution of agency in software-based spell checking in L1 (Language and Literature)teaching. Drawing on video-ethnographic data from a Swedish-medium school in Finland, the research shows thatbuilt-in spell checkers can both afford and constrain students’ digital writing. Through examining the micro-dynam-ics between human and material agency in use of spell checking, the analysis illustrates that the software does notalways work as expected from the user’s perspective, and hence becomes framed as a ‘trouble source’, assigned ‘lin-guistic authority’, and held accountable for not meeting human intentionality. We argue that technology’s inherentfunctions and properties play a central role in the co-constitution of agency in digital writing practices, and call for agreater awareness of generic spell checkers’ opportunities and limitations in teaching and learning.