Our digital children

The power relationship between adults and children in the West is shifting. Factors of age and life experience are becoming counterbalanced by children’s affinity for burgeoning developments in digital technology, where skills developed in online gaming and social media provide a strong foundation for knowledge economy occupations. The implications for parenting, schooling and society are immense. This paper summarises the current debate on issues around children’s use of digital devices and social media. It argues that for many parents a lack of familiarity and understanding creates anxieties and impairs them from helping their children realise the opportunities for social, moral and economic development afforded by the new technologies. Schools have a leading role to play but are hampered by teachers’ technical skills and confidence to innovate. The paper concludes with recommendations for a proactive approach to yield benefits for both children and adults

Our digital children

The power relationship between adults and children in the West is shifting. Factors of age and life experience are becoming counterbalanced by children’s affinity for burgeoning developments in digital technology, where skills developed in online gaming and social media provide a strong foundation for knowledge economy occupations. The implications for parenting, schooling and society are immense. This paper summarises the current debate on issues around children’s use of digital devices and social media. It argues that for many parents a lack of familiarity and understanding creates anxieties and impairs them from helping their children realise the opportunities for social, moral and economic development afforded by the new technologies. Schools have a leading role to play but are hampered by teachers’ technical skills and confidence to innovate. The paper concludes with recommendations for a proactive approach to yield benefits for both children and adults

Writing and iPads in the Early Years: A Report for the Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South

This chapter sets out the rationale for the project and also sets out the policy context for literacy and digital technology in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Writing in a digital age: Beard (2000) argues that the ability to write, along with reading, is acclaimed as one of the twin peaks of literacy and one of the central gains from education. Writing is both a powerful form of expression and a vehicle for learning. It affords the learner the ability to reflect, think, compose, rearrange and respond (Andrews and Smith, 2011). However, writing is a complex and effortful activity and many children lose interest and motivation when asked to engage in writing. In a recent survey by the National Literacy Trust of pupils aged 8 to 18, just over 50% of children and young people said they enjoyed writing either very much or quite a lot. However, that leaves the other 50% who only enjoy writing a bit or not at all (Clark and Teravainen, 2017). Fewer children are engaging in daily writing outside of class but when they do write, it is technology based formats which dominate this writing (Clark, 2016). So whilst schools maintain what Yelland et al. (2008) refer to as a ‘heritage curriculum’ where value is attached to print texts, children themselves are appropriating and using digital technology for their own purposes in their daily lives. Indeed, McTavish (2014, p320) suggests that ‘for young children born into this technological epoch, there may be no choice, it is simply a way of being’. Many curriculum documents recognise and affirm the importance of communicating meaning through both traditional and digital texts yet print literacy continues to be privileged in classrooms (McKee and Heydon (2015). Therefore, this contradiction in rhetoric and reality is making it very difficult for educators to integrate new literacies and technologies within their classrooms (Wohlwend, 2009). Furthermore, where there is an emphasis on high-stakes testing, expanded views of literacy, beyond print-centric literacy practices, are difficult to achieve (Loerts and Heydon, 2017). With this apparent gap in what policy is advocating and what is happening in classrooms, it is important to look briefly at policy in the two jurisdictions for this study, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to set the context for the study

The use of touchscreen devices to support writing development of preschoolers

This review examines the use of touchscreen devices to support writing development of preschool children. Examination of the impact of touchscreen device writing on brain development of preschoolers is also included. Benefits and challenges of using touchscreen devices to support handwriting development are analyzed and reviewed along with recommendations for classroom implementation, future research, and educational policy

Text-Influenced Expressions of Understanding: Differences in Kindergartners’ Discourse and Written Retellings of Traditional and Digital Texts During Buddy Reading

Buddy reading a text is a collaborative act that typically generates discourse that provides researchers with a glimpse of the comprehending taking place. However, in recent years, the infusion of technology in classrooms has resulted in many traditional texts being replaced by digital versions. Thus, this qualitative case study examined the spoken and written discourse of 12 kindergartners (6 dyads) as they buddy read a traditional and digital text. Drawing upon two distinct lenses—sociocultural and comprehension signifier—video recordings, transcriptions, and written retellings were analyzed. Specifically, process coding and in vivo coding were used to construct categories and uncover sociocultural patterns in the discourse. Provisional coding was used to identify explicit (character, setting, initiating event, problem, outcome resolution), implicit (feelings, causal inference, dialogue, prediction), and reading strategy (repeats, questions, connects, dramatizes) comprehension signifiers. Findings indicate a mismatch between the kind of discourse that transpired and how it translated into the written retellings. When children engaged in conversation as they read the traditional storybook, the discussion exemplified high-frequency use of explicit and implicit comprehension signifiers. However, few of the written retellings utilized implicit comprehension signifiers. The discourse surrounding the digital texts consisted mostly of implicit comprehension signifiers and reading strategy signifiers. Conversely, the writing reflected a more extensive comprehension signifier use with many of the children’s retellings containing examples from two or more different subcategories

Young children and tablets: the views of parents and teachers

Touch screen tablets are now widely available and due to the increasing use of these technologies in homes and early years centres, it is important to consider parent and teacher views about their use. This paper reports on an interview study which explored the perspectives of four parents of children aged 20–36 months and their two teachers in one early learning centre in the north of England. Key findings were that parents and teachers had a positive perspective on young children’s use of tablets and viewed them as educationally valuable. They expressed that they did not wish children to be left behind in learning about new technologies and emphasized having a ‘balanced’ approach to tablets. However, there were also concerns voiced over the potential overuse and misuse of tablets at home suggesting more guidance for parents is needed to support young children’s experiences with tablets

Early years practitioner beliefs about digital media: from pedagogical incompatibility to new pedagogy

This dissertation reports research that investigated the integration of technology into early years pedagogy. The work contributes to knowledge about teaching and learning in the early years in the context of the pedagogical challenges practitioners face when integrating technology. The theoretical framework for the study combined theories of activity theory and learning ecologies. The methodology was framed by educational design research. Collaborative design was adopted by the researcher and a primary-school nursery teacher to develop and implement an intervention in her classroom, focussing on the integration of digital media in teacher-to-children, and peer-to-peer interactions. Ongoing reflective dialogue facilitated the collaborative nature of this study and supported the adoption of new practices. Research data included video observations of the children, the teacher and other practitioners. The data sets also included interviews and reflective discussions with the teacher, and scrutiny of classroom planning documents. Qualitative data analysis involved thematic analysis to identify key factors that were related to changes in teacher beliefs and pedagogy across the phases of the design research. Iterative cycles of the intervention were designed and implemented in collaboration with the teacher. This resulted in the development of teaching and learning strategies to integrate digital media into free-flow play and into directed teaching. The developments required the reconstruction of some practitioner beliefs about the value of digital technologies in early education. The study findings suggest professional development should address practitioner beliefs about digital media and early years pedagogy, and provide time and space for reflection. The research makes an original contribution to knowledge about the integration of digital media into early years classroom pedagogy, including in-depth understanding of the potential barriers and gateways between practitioner beliefs about new technologies and their uptake in the classroom, and the processes of bringing about change through appropriate intervention and reflection

How Can Digital Personal(ized) Books Enrich the Language Arts Curriculum?

Digital personal(ized) books are a relatively recent addition to the rich repertoire of literacy resources available to pre-K and elementary school teachers. This article summarizes the key ways in which personal(ized) books can enrich the language arts curriculum, drawing on a series of empirically based examples. The value of personalization in the digital stories is explained theoretically using the framework of five As: autonomy, authorship, authenticity, attachment, and aesthetics. The five As apply to personal(ized) stories created for, or by, young students and are used to generate some practical suggestions for future use of touchscreens in the classroom