Digital disconnect or digital difference? A socio-ecological perspective on young children’s technology use in the home and the early childhood centre

“I cannot live without my [tablet]”: Children's experiences of using tablet technology within the home

“…In response to the Internet revolution, an additional dimension to the microsystem has been proposed -the ecological technosubsystem (Johnson & Puplampu, 2008). This subsystem focuses on the interaction between a child and different technologies within their environment (Johnson, 2010) which permits consideration of how technologies are being used within different contexts (Edwards, Henderson, Gronn, Scott, & Mirkhil, 2017). This highlights the importance of understanding more about how children engage with, and experience using, tablet technologies within contexts such as their home.…”

Multimodal interaction for science learning in preschool: Conceptual development with external tools across a science project

“…Reports from parents in Palaiologou's (2016) study describe that children are learning with digital tools from a young age. While digital tools in preschools might present opportunities, researchers such as Edwards et al (2017) remind us that the necessity of digital tools in preschool does not necessarily follow, and should not automatically be seen as a problematic 'disconnect' between children's home and preschool environments. Roseberry, Hirsh-Pasek, and Golinkoff (2014) note several findings in the developmental science literature that point to the ineffectiveness of passive learning from video, as compared to human interaction.…”

Wonder children and victimizing parents – preservice early childhood teachers’ beliefs about children and technology at home

“…As pointed out in the extract, early childhood education was understood to play an important affirmative role for children coming from less fortunate families. Bridging the "digital gap" between children from different socio-economic backgrounds is indeed highlighted by the proponents of technology integration (Edwards et al, 2016), yet due to the proliferation of affordable technologies, the `digital gap´, in terms of access to technology, should not be understood as a static condition of absolute inequalities between two distinct groups (vanDijk, 2006), as it was portrayed in the essays. For example, in a recent British report (Marsh, et al, 2015) there were no family income-based differences in terms of whether children could access tablet computers.…”

“…This is also the case for early childhood education, 2 and ICT has gradually found its way into early years' curricula in several countries (Edwards, 2013). One of the main arguments for equipping preschools with ICT has been that by doing so, the digital gap between children's informal learning environment, namely the home, and formal learning environment, namely preschool, can be bridged (Edwards, Henderson, Gronn, Scott, & Mirkhil, 2016 ).…”