Educators and Children Perceiving Affordance with Working Technologies in Early Childhood Settings

Abstract

The range of digital technologies available in early childhood education (ECE) settings for children birth to 5 years has increased over the last decade. While somewhat limited literature exists across the ECE field, researchers have now begun to explore how children engage with technologies, rather than concentrate solely on the quantifying screen time exposure and impacts (Bird and Edwards 2015; Marsh et al. 2016). More specifically exploring how young children engage with provided technologies provided in ECE settings will increase the practitioner’s knowledge base and effectively promote children’s learning with technology devices. The types of technologies provided for children’s use are detailed below, along with professional learning, the perceived affordances with devices, how children respond to provided technologies, and a discussion on the effect of changing perceived affordances.