Early Learning in the Digital Age

Digital practices are forging ahead in leaps and bounds. Examining digital practices in early childhood education, this book seeks to inform the discussion on how digital technologies are best integrated into play-based pedagogy, and demonstrates effective practices that enhance children’s learning and development. With a range of international contributors, perspectives, and case studies, the fusion of play and portable technology is explored through contemporary research.

Table of Contents:
Introduction - Colette Gray & Ioanna Palaiologou Part I: Play and Learning in a Digital Age Chapter 1: Children′s playful encounters with iPads - Aderonke Folorunsho & Ioanna Palaiologou Chapter 2: Open-world-games: An exploration of creative play - Lorna Arnott, John Levine & Gillian Shanks Chapter 3: From play to media: a physical approach to digital media - Grete Skjeggestad Meyer & Ingvard Bråten Chapter 4: Playing with technology outdoors - Michelle Rogers Part II: Multimodel Spaces, Opportunities and Agency Chapter 5: It is not only about the tools! Professional digital competence - Maria Dardanou & Trine Kofoed Chapter 6: Parents′ perspectives on the use of touchscreen technology by 0-3 year olds - Jane O′Connor, Olga Fotakopoulou, Maria Hatzigianni & Marie Fridberg Chapter 7: Integrating technology to support children′s agency and transitions to school - Kelly Johnston, Kate Highfield & Fay Hadley Chapter 8: The digital divide: access, skills, use and ideological barriers - Aderonke Folorunsho & Ioanna Palaiologou Chapter 9: Digital inequality, access and provision: The experience of Irish Medium Schools in Northern Ireland - Colette Gray, Jill Dunn, Pamela Moffett & Denise Mitchell Chapter 10: Digital citizens: How preschool teachers and children can communicate in a global world - Klaus Thestrup Part III: Digitally enabled learning in the 21st Century Chapter 11: An education-centred approach to digital media education - Saara Salomaa & Pekka Mertala Chapter 12: Teachers′ digital practices in the classroom - Debra Harwood, Dane Marco Di Cesare & Karen Julien Chapter 13: Multimodel media production: Children′s meaning making when producing film in a play-based pedagogy - Mari-Ann Letnes Chapter 14: Mobile learning and the outdoors - Gary Beauchamp, Nick Young & Ruby Price Chapter 15: Digital manipulatives and mathematics - Zoi Nikiforidou

About the Author :
Dr Colette Gray is a Chartered Developmental Psychologist at Stranmillis University College, a College of The Queen’s University of Belfast. She is a Principal Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies, was until very recently the Head of Research Development and a Visiting Professor (Child Development & Education) to the University of St Marks & St John’s Plymouth. She has studied and taught a range of undergraduate and post graduate degree modules to students for more than 20 years. Editor of the International Journal of Early Years Education, she continues to develop her research interests in the field of participatory research which children and marginalised groups, the impact of special needs on children’s learning, and the ethical implications of research involving vulnerable groups. Married for 40 years, she is the proud grandmother of three pre-schoolers Jacob (3 yrs 6mths), Isabelle (20 months) and Isaac (15 mths).  Ioanna Palaiologou is an Associate Professor at the School of Education (Psychology in Education), University of Bristol. She is also a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society with specialism in child development and learning theories. Her research interests focus on ethics, child development, the role of digital technologies and implications on pedagogy.