Digital practices in the early years
Photo: St Mary MacKillop Early Learning Centres, Townsville Catholic Diocese Young children and infants are increasingly using digital technologies, which is why digital education in early learning is critical, writes Professor Susan Edwards.
It is now well accepted that very young children, including infants, toddlers and preschoolers, use digital technologies. The range and scope of technologies used by young children reflects the way technologies are used by their families, educators and communities in their daily lives.
Young children observe family members using mobile phones for video-conferencing, text-messaging, making appointments online and viewing digital content. They are likely to have access to a tablet device, on which they will enjoy streamed content, play games and perhaps interact with other children in virtual worlds.
In their early education settings young children may have access to digital cameras for recording and documenting their own learning or play with robotic or coding toys designed to foster early understandings about computational thinking. Out and about in their communities, young children will see digital technologies used at the supermarket for scanning items and paying for food. More recently, seeing families using phones to scan QR codes as they go from place-to-place or activity-to-activity over the course of their day as part of being COVID-safe.
As technologies are increasingly recognised to be part of life for young children, research and practice is seeking to better understand the digital practices that comprise how and why technologies are used by young children, their families and educators.
This focus on practices is important because it shifts the focus of attention away from trying to manage technologies in terms of ‘screen time’ or allowable time with technology towards understanding what and how people use technologies in the best interests of their relationships, health and wellbeing, digital citizenship (i.e. online safety) and learning. This means paying attention to all the ways in which children observe adults using technologies and how children themselves use technologies.
For example, children might observe family members or caregivers being distracted by social media when they are asking them to play with them or push them on a swing. As a digital practice, engaging with social media during this interaction distracts the adult from an important opportunity to connect with the child. Instead of being concerned about how much screen time the child has over the course of a day, adults can reflect on how their own digital practices influence children’s experiences.
In another example, two preschool-aged children might participate in a popular virtual world game, playing with each other via avatars. Digital play of this type is recognised as providing children with opportunities for collaboration, problem solving and teamwork.
Families and educators can foster these opportunities by ensuring the game world is safe and appropriate for young children. In this example, the digital practices are about the collaborative activity experienced by the children and the effort on behalf of adults to ensure the game meets the online safety needs of children (i.e. the children know each other, the account is set to private, the devices are being used by children in a physical space where adults are supervising and can provide help if required).
An important guide to understanding digital practices in early childhood is Early Childhood Australia’s Statement on Young Children and Digital Technologies.
The ECA statement was produced by a leading group of national organisations with expertise in early childhood education, young children’s health and wellbeing, relationships, play and pedagogy, online safety and digital technologies.
The ECA statement provides information for adult caregivers and educators about technology use in the best interest of young children in four main areas.
These are:
- relationships
- health and wellbeing
- citizenship and play
- pedagogy
Each area is supported by a series of recommended practices for engaging children, families and educators in technology use in the best interest of the child.
There is also a summary document of the ECA statement that promotes the practice advice in an accessible format.
Most recently a new nationwide research project, Young children in digital society: An online tool for service provision, based on the ECA statement has commenced with funding from the Australian Research Council and Industry Partners. I am one of the research investigators on this project, working alongside a number academics from various universities around Australia.
The project will research how children, families and educators can use the advice in their daily lives and will generate rich examples of how this advice translates to digital practices in the best interests of young children. These examples will help adults make decisions about technology use that support children to live safely and productively with technologies over the course of their lives.
Prof Susan Edwards is the director of the Early Childhood Futures research program in the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education at the Australian Catholic University. Her group investigates the role of play-based learning in the early childhood curriculum for the 21st century.
Photo: Professor Susan Edwards, Australian Catholic University