How Children Engage with Provided Technologies in Early Childhood Settings

Abstract

With technologies becoming more and more common in children's lives, educators are attempting to navigate the choice of device and how to provide them in ways that support children's play and learning. Some educators are reluctant to incorporate technologies in their classroom, fearing negative consequences (Roberts-Holmes 2013). One often-cited criticism is that technologies reduce children's creativity and imaginative play (Smimova 2011). When an iPad is provided for children's use, educators turn to educational apps but find many are highly structured with no options for the child to be creative or deviate from the set script (Goodwin and Highfield 2012). When open-ended apps are provided, children control the device, displaying their agency and their enthusiasm and interest in technologies (Price and Kirkwood 2014). Open-ended apps encourage children's play and learning and move them from consumers of digital technologies to creators of digital technologies (Moore and Adair 2015). This study investigates technology provision from the children's point of view and explores how they accept or manipulate situations in order to meet their play needs. Current research and literature considers how the increase of technologies in children's lives impacts their play themes and requisite play props. Included in this scope are non-working technologies (Bird 2017), such as those devices that are broken or no longer working and which have been provided for children's imaginative play. In particular, how children engage with what is provided and then exhibit their imaginative abilities in order to achieve the kinds of play they want to engage in is contemplated. Play with these devices can assist children to become confident users of technologies, competent digital citizens, and children who expand the possibilities around technologies in early childhood.