Just picking it up? Young children learning with technology at home

Abstract

We describe a two-year empirical investigation of three-and four-year-old children's uses of technology at home, based on a survey of 346 families and 24 case studies. Using a sociocultural approach, we discuss the range of technologies children encounter in the home, the different forms their learning takes, the roles of adults and other children, and how family practices support this learning. Many parents believed that they do not teach children how to use technology. We discuss parents' beliefs that their children 'pick up' their competences with technology and identify trial and error, copying and demonstration as typical modes of learning. Parents tend to consider that their children are mainly self-taught and underestimate their own role in supporting learning and the extent to which learning with technology is culturally transmitted within the family.

Implications of low or high media use among parents for young children’s media use

“…Thinking of Bandura's (1976) social cognitive theory, however, which postulates that children 'learn' from and imitate relevant role models, parental mediation also may entail unintentional behaviors that may affect children too. That is, without being aware of it, parents can also exemplify a role model for their children by means of the take up and location of certain media devices at home and creating the child's media-ecology, or by their own media attitudes and preferences and their own media consumption (Ito et al, 2010;Plowman et al, 2008). Lauricella and colleagues (2015) indeed noted that the parent's own use of different media devices predicted the time that their children aged 0 to 8 years spend on screen media, in particular television and computers, and to a smaller extent smartphones and tablets.…”

“…Parental engagement in children's media use is an important factor for fostering beneficial outcomes of children's media use and controlling negative effects (e.g., Connell, Lauricella, & Wartella, 2015;Nikken & De Haan, 2015;Plowman, McPake, & Stephen, 2008;Rasmussen et al, 2016). Parental involvement in young children's media use, however, varies among families, depending on factors such as children's and parent's demographic characteristics, parental attitudes about the role of media for children, and the parent's and child's familiarity with the use of media devices and applications (e.g., Cingel & Krcmar, 2013;Nevski & Siibak, 2016a;Nikken, 2017).…”

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

“…Children's concept of themselves and others as more or less competent has been shown to be important in the way various activities in the early years classroom unfold (Wang & Ching, 2003;Shin et al, 2004;Arnott, 2013). However, there may be particular relevance in considering this issue in relation to the introduction of new digital activities in the early years classroom because of the potential for children in the class to have had significantly varied experiences at home with digital technologies (Holloway & Valentine, 2001;Plowman et al, 2008). Influence in constructing activities like digital art-making will therefore not be distributed evenly across members of the class, and practitioners will need to take this into consideration when deciding how to support children in their potentially diverse forms of engagement with digital artmaking.…”

Enhancing Literacy Concepts: Digital Natives and Cultural Tools

“…Despite ICT being seen by governments and colleges as potentially improving the quality of education and standard of teaching in everyday classrooms (Plowman & Stephen, 2005), it would appear that this debate has become polarized between those highlighting computers as detrimental to health and learning and those supporting claims that ICT makes a key contribution to the holistic development of the "digital natives". Strongest evidence found in "Fool's Gold: A Critical Look at Computers in Childhood" (Alliance for Childhood, 2000) a conservative view, calling for the immediate cessation on the further introduction of computers in early years, with a notable exception for special needs and disability (Plowman, McPake, & Stephen, 2008); leaving one to wonder why special needs with no awareness of the benefits to every child. Alliance for Childhood (2000) recommend a refocusing on the "essentials of books and the hands on experience of the natural world" (as cited in Plowman & Stephen, 2003, p. 151); however, if the "natural world" has changed so much that books and hands-on experience are being replaced by "digital media" and ICT, should educators still be teaching using these primitive methods, or should education be looking at the "cultural changes" and applying them to the "cultural tools".…”