Prospect and Aspect Conference 2014

Jackie Marsh

University of Sheffield

Digital Childhoods: Transforming Early Years

Teaching in the Electronic Age

Structure of Talk

• What is ‘digital literacy’?

• The characteristics of children’s digital literacy practices in homes and communities

• Embedding these characteristics into early years settings and classrooms

Research questions

• What are the key characteristics of young children’s digital literacy practices in homes and communities?

• How can the characteristics of home uses of digital literacy be embedded effectively in curriculum and pedagogy?

Projects

• Digital Beginnings [survey of 1852 parents in England of children aged 0-6, interviews with 60 parents/ carers]

• Family Digital Literacy [4 case studies of children aged 2-4; parental videos and diaries; semi-structured interviews]

• Children’s engagement with stories on iPads [study of children aged between 11 and 30 months; video observations in 2 nurseries]

• Case study of a child beginning school [a 3 month study of a child aged 4.5]

Embedded in the

everyday Passion-driven

Intergenerational

Trans-modes/ mediaGlocal

Online/ offline blurred

Mobile - crossing time/

space

Shaped bypopular cultureNetworked

Digital literacy practices in the home

Playful

Lubna, aged 3 Farooq, aged 2

Grace, aged 4 Sohail, aged 2

Play, Creativity and Digital Cultures

• Singing, dancing, talking to/ in front of TV/ films on own or with friends and family

• Using an electronic toy on own or with siblings and parents (e.g. Arabic script toy, matching words and images)

• Using mobile phone to talk to imaginary person

• Using mobile phone to talk to family members - language play

• Using laptop on own or with siblings and family members to use programs or watch Youtube

• Using games console, generally with siblings

• Using digital camcorder and camera to record family activities

• Using CD/ MP3 player, dancing to music

• Using mobile phone to take photographs and videos

of family members

• Playing on phone apps

• Using mobile phone to engage in video calls

Play, Creativity and Digital Cultures

Farooq

• Daily living routines (e.g. maintaining the social organisation of the family, shopping, cooking, paying bills)

• Work (e.g. related to family employment)• Participating in ‘information networks’ (e.g. to find out what was

happening in areas of interest e.g. reading sports pages of newspapers)

• Religion (e.g. reading holy books)• Literacy for the sake of teaching/ learning literacy (e.g.phonics/

phonological awareness activities using books) • Interpersonal communication (e.g. letters, birthday cards)• Entertainment (e.g. reading books, comics) • Storybook time (adult-child reading of picture books)

(Teale, 1986)

Purposes for literacy in the home (Teale, 1986)

• Daily living routines (e.g. emails; ebay; online

supermarket sites)• Work (e.g. word processing; emails)• Participating in ‘information networks’ (e.g. chat forums;

Facebook)• Religion (e.g. online religious communities)• Literacy for the sake of teaching/ learning literacy (e.g.

tablet apps based on phonics). • Interpersonal communication (e.g. emails; text

messages; Skype)• Entertainment (e.g. console games; electronic books;

websites) • Storybook time (electronic books/ story apps)

Purposes for digital literacy in the home

Trans-modes/ media

Modes: writing, signs and symbols, sound,moving image, still image

Media: television, DVD, computer (PC and laptop), handheld computer, mobile phone, smartphone, tablet,

iPad, screens on artefacts such as

electronic toys, washing machines and other

domestic items

Tablets - UK

•28% of 3-4 year-olds use a tablet

•42% of 5-15 year-olds use a tablet

(OFCOM, 2013)

App Gap? (Common Sense Media, 2011)

47% v 14%

Embedded in the

everyday Passion-driven

Intergenerational

Trans-modes/ mediaGlocal

Online/ offline blurred

Mobile - crossing time/

space

Shaped bypopular culture

Networked

Digital literacy practices

in the home

Playful

Online/ offline blurred

Club Penguin

Genres of play

Fantasy play

Games with rules

‘Rough and tumble’ play

Socio-dramatic play

Reading postcards

Writing and reading public chat

Reading game instructions

Writing submissions to the in-world

newspaper

Reading in-world texts e.g. newspapers/

books/ catalogues

Reading in-world text e.g. signs,

challenges posed byproducers

Online/ Offline

Embedded in the

everyday Passion-driven

Intergenerational

Trans-modes/ mediaGlocal

Online/ offline blurred

Mobile - crossing time/

space

Shaped bypopular cultureNetworked

Digital literacy practices in the home

Playful

Intergenerational

Intergenerational Digital Literacy Practices in Homes

• Communicating via email, texting, Facebook, Skype etc.

• Accessing the internet together on PCs, smartphones and tablets

• Sharing e-books

• Playing online/ tablet games together, or using Console games (e.g. Wii)

Embedded in the

everyday Passion-driven

Intergenerational

Trans-modes/ mediaGlocal

Online/ offline blurred

Mobile - crossing time/

space

Shaped bypopular cultureNetworked

Digital literacy practices in the home

Playful

Digital literacyin engaged classrooms

Research question

• How can the characteristics of home uses of digital literacy be embedded effectively in ‘engaged classrooms’?

Embedded in the

everyday Passion-driven

Intergenerational

Trans-modes/ mediaGlocal

Online/ offline blurred

Mobile - crossing time/

space

Shaped bypopular cultureNetworked

Digital literacy in

engaged classrooms

Playful

Trans-mode/media

Sharrow Nursery

MONTENEY PRIMARY SCHOOL

My monster likes to eat chicken nuggetsOn Sundays my monster is very dirty, but some days he is very cleanNever tell my monster he is dirty, or he will bite youSometimes my monster is very naughty, but sometimes he’s very well behavedToday is my monster’s birthday, so he’s having a zombie duck partyEveryone wants to come to my monster’s party because he’s very coolRob the zombie duck can’t decide what type of cake to have for his birthday party, but I think he will have chocolate cake this time

TRANS-MODE/ MEDIA:KEY PRINCIPLES

•Reading and writing of alphabetic texts embedded in the digital practices - seamless interface

•Children engaged in a wide range of multimodal design activities that enable them to understand and reflect on the affordances of modes

• Skills involved learning coding - important for developing agency in relation to digital texts

Embedded in the

everyday Passion-driven

Intergenerational

Trans-modes/ mediaGlocal

Online/ offline blurred

Mobile - crossing time/

space

Shaped bypopular culture

Digital literacy in

engaged classrooms

PlayfulNetworked

MUNDELLA PRIMARY SCHOOL

DAVID HOCKNEY - A BIGGER SPLASH

Blog

INTERGENERATIONAL PRACTICES:KEY PRINCIPLES

• Children engaging with older (and younger) generations outside of the classroom in ‘authentic’ digital literacy practices (through the exhibition, blog, Twitter stream)

• Children in role as experts (when teaching parents)

Embedded in the

everyday Passion-driven

Intergenerational

Trans-modes/ mediaGlocal

Online/ offline blurred

Mobile - crossing time/

space

Shaped bypopular cultureNetworked

Digital literacyin engaged classrooms

Playful

Online/ offline blurred: Halfway Primary School

ONLINE/ OFFLINE PRACTICES:KEY PRINCIPLES

• Online texts related seamlessly to offline in ways that replicate out-of-school life

• Meaningful engagement with communities outside the classroom - local parks and museums (Teacher- pupils were, “Learning to write for a real audience rather than for an invented one”)

Embedded in the

everyday Passion-driven

Intergenerational

Trans-modes/ mediaGlocal

Online/ offline blurred

Mobile - crossing time/

space

Shaped bypopular cultureNetworked

Digital literacy in

engaged classrooms:

TABLETS

Playful

Criteria - all books

•Is the story well told, according to literary standards?

•Is the language of the text skilfully crafted?

•Are illustrations artistically skilful, and do they work well with the text to illuminate, extend and/ or co-create the story as a whole?

Yokota and Teale, 2014

Criteria - all books

•Is the story appropriately presented in digital format?•Does the story take appropriate advantage of features the digital world allows beyond what is possible in print? •Do the interactive features maintain the integrity of the main story?•Do any supplementary features align with the main story?•Do the features make sense in terms of how children learn to read and learn in general?

Yokota and Teale, 2014

iMotionHD

Embedded in the

everyday Passion-driven

Intergenerational

Trans-modes/ mediaGlocal

Online/ offline blurred

Mobile - crossing time/

space

Shaped bypopular cultureNetworked

Digital literacy in homes/communities

ANDengaged classrooms

Playful

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Engaged pedagogies do not have to replicate exactly home experiences, but should draw on some of the main characteristics in early years settings and classroom in ways that are meaningful and authentic.

• We should recognise that children’s home experiences will be very different and not assume all have digital literacy skills.

• We need to look to the future - the potential for fostering play and creativity in the early years is enormous...

http://www.digitalfutures.org/

http://www.digitalfutures.org/

http://www.digitalfutures.org/