The purpose of this study is to examine how teachers in the early years of schooling describe the use of digital and traditional tools in reading and writing instruction, and how they perceive the significance of these tools for pupils’ motivation, participation, and learning. The study employs a qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews with five primary school teachers. The interviews were analyzed thematically, focusing on recurring patterns in relation to the research questions.  

The study is motivated by the increasing digitalization of schools, where students encounter both traditional and digital resources in their learning environments. From a sociocultural perspective, learning is understood as developing through interactions between individuals, tools, and social contexts. Multimodality is also used as an analytical concept to highlight how different modes of expression, such as text, images and sound interact in teaching and influence students’ understandning and engagement.  

The results show that teacher’s perceive both digital and traditional tools as valuable, but that they serve different functions in instruction. Digital tools are described as contributing to increased motivation, variation in teaching, multimodal learning opportunities, and possibilities for adaptation, while also presenting challenges such as potential distractions and superficial engagement. Traditional tools, on the other hand, are highligted as important for the development of basic skills, concentration, and structure. Teachers emphasize the importance of combining different tools depending on instructional goals and students’needs.  

The findnings also indicate that the teachers use a range of teaching approaches, such as handwriting practice, collaborative activities, and structured reading tasks, which are perceived as particularly supportive for pupil´s learning.  

The study also shows that teacher´s didactic considerations play a central role in the selection of tools. The use of tools is therefore not solely determined by access to techology, but by pedagogical and socioculturally grounded intentions. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of how teachers reason about the role of tools in teaching, including the opportunities and challenges they encounter, and illustrate the complexity of balancing digital and traditional approaches in early years reading and writing instruction.