Highlights Young children engage with technology in artistic play, socio-dramatic play and literacy/numeracy.  Everyday life information seeking (ELIS) way of life and mastery of life are modeled in children's activities.  Video data provide a glimpse into technology use by young children in their homes. AbstractResearch on how young children use information to orient themselves in daily life and to solve problems (known as everyday life information seeking or ELIS) has not been conducted, indepth, in information science. This exploratory observation study examines how 15 Australian preschool children (aged three to five) used information technologies in their homes to orient themselves in daily life and to solve problems. Children engaged in various ways with the digital technologies available to them and with parents and siblings during play activities. The results explore the value of artistic play, sociodramatic play, and early literacy and numeracy activities in shaping young children's 'way of life' and 'mastery of life' as outlined in Savolainen's (1995) ELIS model. Observed technology engagement provided an opportunity to explore children's social worlds and the ways that they gathered information during technology play that will inform future learning activities and support child development. By using ELIS theory as an analytic lens, the results demonstrate how children's developmental play with technology tools helps them to internalize social and cultural norms. The data also point to the type of capital available to children and how that capital contributes to children's emerging information practices.

While there has been much interest in children's use of different technologies, research is often done with school‐age children in their classrooms. This exploratory research study looks at fifteen preschool children (aged three to five) in Queensland, Australia and their use of different technologies in their own homes. This paper examines data from a checklist of technologies available in the home and video recording data of children's interactions with online technologies and other people captured by parents, which were analyzed using a modified ‘seating sweeps’ (Given & Leckie 2003) approach to gain a detailed, descriptive analysis of the home environment. A range of technologies are available to children, with the television and DVD player being most common in the home. Unlike desktop and laptop computers, which were restricted to adult use in half of homes, mobile computing devices (e.g., tablets and smartphones) were quite prevalent and generally available for children's use. In almost all cases children used devices designed for adults and often used them in common spaces in the home, such as the home office (38%) or living room (36%). Many children (45%) engaged independently with technology, able to accomplish activities and learn on their own. This study contributes to a growing body of literature about how young children connect to technology and the growing digital world around them. Examining children's interaction with technology and in the home environment allows researchers to better understand the role of technology in children's lives.

This article discusses the use of observational video recordings to document young children's use of technology in their homes. Although observational research practices have been used for decades, often with video-based techniques, the participant group in this study (i.e., very young children) and the setting (i.e., private homes) provide a rich space for exploring the benefits and limitations of qualitative observation. The data gathered in this study point to a number of key decisions and issues that researchers must face in designing observational research, particularly where nonresearchers (in this case, parents) act as surrogates for the researcher at the data collection stage. The involvement of parents and children as research videographers in the home resulted in very rich and detailed data about children's use of technology in their daily lives. However, limitations noted in the data set (e.g., image quality) provide important guidance for researchers developing projects using similar methods in future. The article provides recommendations for future observational designs in similar settings and/or with similar participant groups.

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ProblemThe issues addressed in this article are two‐fold. Firstly, education about ageing is predominantly textbook‐based. Secondly, many rural older people face social isolation which impacts their health. In addressing the first issue, we discovered that our project, Older Persons Teaching and Empowering Aged Care Students (OPTEACH), has the potential to have a positive impact on the second issue.DesignWe run university education sessions involving older people. Since such sessions present unique challenges, we obtained a grant to develop resources to assist educators and support rural older people to become “OPTEACHers.”SettingOPTEACH was undertaken in several rural communities in New South Wales and included staff and residents at residential aged care facilities and community‐dwelling rural older people.Key measures for improvementOur previous work had highlighted a need for educator resources that would facilitate “ageing” being taught in a way that both involved and respected older people. Our ethos centres on the “co‐creation” of knowledge, and having older peoples' unique contributions recognised and celebrated.Strategies for changeResources to assist with planning and being involved in OPTEACH education sessions are available at www.opteach.com.au. They will support a growing community of “OPTEACHers,” with beneficial flow‐on effects for rural older people.Effects of changeWe seek to provide practical support to both educators and older people to provide “real life” education on the experience of ageing.Next stepsFurther evaluation is needed, yet we anticipate a positive impact on self‐esteem, community “connectedness” and quality of life for older rural “OPTEACHers” as the approach gains momentum.