Digital play in the early years: a contextual response to the problem of integrating technologies and play-based pedagogies in the early childhood curriculum

Edwards, Susan

doi:10.1080/1350293x.2013.789190

Cited by 153 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Research into technological play either problematizes technologies as negatively impacting the quality of children's play (Singer & Singer, 2005;Smirnova, 2011) or works to identify newly emerging forms of play (Edwards, 2013;Goldstein, 2011;Marsh, 2010). Consideration of how children learn to use technologies through play has not been as evident.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Conversely, children's play with technologies has been associated with "play effects" that align with commonly valued aspects of play in early childhood pedagogy, such as intrinsic motivation, exploration, cause and effect, problematising, and social interaction (Verenikina & Kervin, 2011). There is also emerging evidence of hybrid (Edwards, 2013;Goldstein, 2011;Marsh, 2010). For example, O'Mara and Laidlaw (2011) describe a pretend tea party hosted by two young girls using a "tea party app" on an iPad™.…”

Section: Why Understand How Children Learn To Use Technologies Througmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Children learning to use technologies through play: A Digital Play Framework

Bird¹,

Edwards²

2014

Brit J Educational Tech

Self Cite

110

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Digital technologies are increasingly acknowledged as an important aspect of early childhood education. A significant problem for early childhood education has been how to understand the pedagogical use of technologies in a sector that values play-based learning. This paper presents a new framework to understand how children learn to use technologies through play. The Digital Play Framework is based on the sociocultural concept of tool mediation and Corrine Hutt's work regarding epistemic and ludic activity as basis for understanding play. The Digital Play Framework presents a series of indicators for how children learn to use technologies as cultural tools, first by exploring the functionality of technologies through epistemic activity, and second by generating new content through ludic activity. Practitioner NotesWhat is already known about this topic • Play-based learning is the basis for pedagogy in early childhood education. • Digital technologies are important aspect of early childhood education.• How children learn to use technologies through play is not fully understood.What this paper adds • With the increased use of digital technologies within early childhood education, an explanation of how children learn to use technologies through play. • The Digital Play Framework is presented in this paper to help teachers observe, plan for and integrate technologies with play-based learning.Implications for practice and/or policy • A new way for teachers to understand how children learn to use technologies through play. • A new way for teachers to observe, plan for and integrate technologies with play-based learning in early childhood education.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Why Understand How Children Learn To Use Technologies Througmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children learning to use technologies through play: A Digital Play Framework

Bird¹,

Edwards²

2014

Brit J Educational Tech

Self Cite

110

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Rather, these teachers need to find a way to understand children's engagement with digital technology as an object in its own right as a critical aspect of what it means to be a young child in the early twenty-first century. The field of multi-literacies (Kalantzis and Cope 2012) offers some clues about how such play-based curricula might be conceptualised in early childhood education (Edwards 2013a), but much work remains to be done. Our present focus is on the role professional development can play in promoting teacher development in response to children's contemporary circumstances, particularly children's experience of digital technologies.…”

Section: Contradictions and Affect In The Teachers' Discussion Of Chimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over time, contradictions or tensions within cultural practices arise when changes occur that are in dynamic relationship with those practices (Engeström 1993). In the present study, teachers' difficulty in adapting early childhood pedagogy in response to the rapid evolution of children's engagement with digital technologies is a classic example of such a contradiction (Edwards 2013a). Such contradictions are not necessarily unwelcome, since they hold within them the impetus for development (Roth 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

The role of motive objects in early childhood teacher development concerning children’s digital play and play-based learning in early childhood curricula

Nuttall

Edwards

Mantilla

et al. 2015

Professional Development in Education

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Digital technologies are increasingly accepted as a viable aspect of early childhood curriculum. However, teacher uptake of digital technologies in early childhood education and their use with young children in play-based approaches to learning have not been strong. Traditional approaches to the problem of teacher uptake of digital technologies in early childhood curricula argue that more professional development is needed to help teachers learn to use the technologies with children. However, by focusing on children's play instead of teacher knowledge about using technologies with young children, the 'problem' of teacher uptake of technologies in the early years may be re-phrased as a field-specific problem concerned with defining and understanding young children's digital play. This argument is illustrated here through a recent study of teacher perspectives on digital play in the early years. Our aim is to offer an alternative response to the problem of uptake of digital technologies, whereby teachers' motives for engaging in professional development are understood in relation to children's play-based learning.

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“…Adults in the classroom hoping to support digital art-making and its new potentials for meaning-making could benefit from actively engaging in children's collective motifs and metaphors, which move away from terminologies associated with paper. This would facilitate an imaginative approach to digital resources and facilitate links between digital technologies and playfulness (Edwards, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Evil Cats” and “Jelly Floods”: Young Children’s Collective Constructions of Digital Art Making in the Early Years Classroom

Sakr

Connelly

Wild

2015

Journal of Research in Childhood Education

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Digital technologies have the potential to offer new opportunities for children's expressive arts practices. While adult expectations surround and shape children's visual art-making on paper in the early years classroom, such expectations are not so established in relation to digital art-making. So how do children make sense of digital art-making when it is newly introduced into the classroom and adult input is minimal? Drawing on a social semiotic ethnographic perspective, this paper explores this question by examining instances of 4-5 year olds' spoken dialogue around the computer during a week in which digital artmaking was first introduced into the classroom. Analysis focused on interactions where children proposed, reinforced or challenged conceptions of digital artmaking. These interactions demonstrated that children's digital art-making was negotiated and constructed through particular processes. Three such processes are presented here: the use of collective motifs and metaphors; attributing 'expert' status; and polarizing conflicts. Understanding these processes offers a starting point for thinking about how a new activity like digital art-making can be integrated into the early years classroom and supported by practitioners. Young children's collective constructions of digital art-making

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Digital play in the early years: a contextual response to the problem of integrating technologies and play-based pedagogies in the early childhood curriculum

Cited by 153 publications

References 30 publications

Children learning to use technologies through play: A Digital Play Framework

Children learning to use technologies through play: A Digital Play Framework

The role of motive objects in early childhood teacher development concerning children’s digital play and play-based learning in early childhood curricula

“Evil Cats” and “Jelly Floods”: Young Children’s Collective Constructions of Digital Art Making in the Early Years Classroom

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