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

Abstract

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.

Detailing the digital experience: Parent reports of children's media use in the home learning environment

“…A significant proportion of the apps that parents indicated their children had learned from revealed a focus on consuming premade content, or engaging with rules-based games. These activities are contrary to Hirsh-Pasek and Golinkoff 's definition of play (2003) and align more closely with newer conceptions of play such as Edwards, Nuttall, Mantilla, Wood and Grieshaber's notion of "digital play" (2015) or Bird and Edwards (2015) concept of "hybrid play," where traditional play merges with digital activities in an integrated or "bidirectional" manner (p. 1115). In this way, play is not limited to the constraints of the app.…”

“…If children are going to be using these devices regardless of public policy, what are the best ways we can make screen time, playtime? A simple displacement hypothesis that claims time spent with screens is less valuable than traditional activities falls short because it fails to account for the potentially valuable play experiences that screen time can offer (Bird & Edwards, 2015). Arnott (2017) Parents, educators and practitioners can make the most of new technology such as touchscreens, by selecting high-quality, well-designed apps that encourage a variety of domains of play and by sharing in the media experience (Neumann & Neumann, 2015).…”

Play and creativity in young children's use of apps

“…First, Hughes's () taxonomy of play was utilised to identify aspects of play that emerged in the study. There are many taxonomies of play (eg, Bird & Edwards, ; Caillois, ; Hutt, ), but Hughes's was selected for this study because it identifies 16 different types of play, enabling a finely‐grained analysis. For example, fantasy and imaginative play differ in some games and online virtual worlds and Hughes's scheme allows for this distinction, unlike some other taxonomies.…”

Video art as digital play for young children

“…Since little is known about how digital tools are applied in children's play, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, our goal in this study was to investigate moving images, using the digital play framework of Bird et al (2014) and the extension of this work by Bird and Edwards (2015). In particular, this study aimed to investigate how children performed (a) epistemic play and (b) ludic play through the use of digital video recorders in a moving-image workshop in Hong Kong.…”