In recent years, digital fabrication, and especially its associated activities of 3D design and printing, have taken root in school education as curriculum-based and maker-oriented learning activities. This article explores the adoption of 3D design and printing for learning by fourth, fifth and sixth grade children (n=64) in multidisciplinary learning modules in elementary school education. School-coordinated 3D projects were not led by design experts, such as art and design teachers, designers, researchers or technical specialists, but run 'in the wild' by school teachers. The study was conducted by using an ethnographic research design, including field observations, non-formal interviews and a reflective questionnaire. The results indicate that, in the adoption of 3D printing activities, learning is centred on the technical skills and the usage of 3D tools. Hence, the elementary ABCs of 3D printing do not achieve the full design and creativity potential of digital fabrication that earlier research has suggested. However, the results do have implications for the potential of 3D printing projects to increase children's empowerment. In their current state, 3D design and printing are some of the learning tools, among others, and similar achievements can be achieved with other hands-on learning technologies. In order to enhance the learning of creativity and design thinking skills, 3D activities in school should be planned accordingly.

Current research has addressed children's involvement in codesign from several different perspectives such as empowerment, design thinking, participation, and learning. The literature presents many roles that children can have in participatory design (PD) e.g. as testers, informants, users, co-designers, and co-researchers. Both critical views and solutions to support children's genuine participation exist. The investigation was motivated by examining whether and how children's participation can be enhanced through PD practices. The study conducted a participatory design (PD) process in a kindergarten in Finland together with adults and children. The Grounded Theory analysis elicited different roles of the participants as prominent indicators of the interaction in and quality of participatory process. These roles were further elaborated as Zones of participation (ZoP) that constituted of the Zone of audience, Zone of whisperer, Zone of actor and Zone of director. The analysis shows that there are significant co-occurrences between participant groups accessing different zones. We suggest that the quality of participation in the design process can be investigated by identifying participants' access to different ZoP. Movement between the zones indicates that there is no onesided control over actions and dialogue between the participants is prominent.

Augmented Reality (AR) technology has provided a new technological platform for 'mirror worlds', where layers of information, meaning, and functions are integrated with a digital twin of the real world. To explore mirror worlds, we designed and developed +Andscape, an interactive AR sandbox. In this conceptual and empirical case study, we observed children's (5-6-year-old, N = 16) collaborative play and storytelling with +Andscape. The qualitative content analysis from observational video-based data allows us to infer how children's play with the AR sandbox engaged their questioning and reflections of both the real world events and the computational mirror worlds. The use of the tool triggered children's imagination and opened for them a story world for exploration of current media events in a unique way. We conclude that when introducing mirror worlds, the focus should be on creative play, participation and storytelling through which the children can construct their own story worlds.

Today, more than any other period in time, digital fluency is regarded as a necessary life skill for both children and adults. The potential of digital tools in early childhood learning has been recognized as helping to reinforce academic skills, as a way to communicate ideas and develop social skills, to support children to learn at their own pace, to learn how to learn and to make learning fun. This article contributes to the current research by conducting a participatory study in a kindergarten in Finland over the course of one year. The empirical data are analysed to (1) identify the characteristics of educational activities that make use of digital technology in early childhood education and (2) reveal the pedagogical approaches behind these activities. The findings of this study show that pedagogical activities entailing playful interaction with technology and the production of tangible artefacts, accompanied by visual documentation and reflection, support the effective use of technology in early childhood education. The educators’ open approach towards the use of technology also played a significant part in the positive outcomes experienced by teachers and students. We call this approach open design pedagogy and propose it as a model for using digital technologies in early childhood education.