Susan Danby Queensland University of Techn

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia COST/ECIL Conferences

Tallinn, Estonia

20th October 2015

ptake of digital technology in Australia

7.3 million (83 %) households in

2012-13 have internet access.

Mostly via broadband

Households with children under 15

years had 96% Internet access

Greater household

income=greater Internet acces

(>$120,000 - 98% access; <

connection(ABS, 2014) (no children=78%) (ABS, 2014) $40,000 – 57% access) (AB

2014)

igher educational qualifications

= higher usage 96% Bachelor;

75% <Year 12- (ABS, 2014)

90% children aged 5-14 years

accessed the Internet (ABS,

2013),mostly for educational

purposes

91% children lived in major citie and 88% lived in rural and remo

areas (ABS, 2013)

Internet access at home

Home (2.3 million children);

School (2.2 million) (ABS, 2013)

2% children aged 5-8 years

have a mobile phone,

22% for children aged 9-11 years,

73% for children aged 12-14 years

More likely to have a mobile

phone

if in one parent families (35%-28

or born overseas (35%-29%)

eb searching and young children

everyday uses of media use and web searching by young children (Islam, 2012; Marsh

al., 2005; Plowman et al, 2010; Livingstone & Haddon, 2009)

use of computer software use, apps and mobile devices (e.g. the iPad) (Dezuanni et al

2015) and interactive whiteboards (Smith et al., 2005).

many popular web sites relate to television programs (Marsh et al., 2005)

young children do use web technologies if they have the opportunity (Spink et al., 2010

Lauricella et al., 2009)

opportunities and risks of being online (Livingstone & Haddon, 2009)

transformative influences of technology for learning (Livingstone, 2012)

COPYRIGHTS

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED NO permission for publications

All rights reserved.

Susan Danby asserts her moral rights as the author of her material.

racting with knowledge, interacting with people: web searching in early childhood

Professor Susan Danby, Professor Karen Thorpe, Dr Christina Davidson

Access to technology: in young children’s

everyday educational

experiences

Equity of access: what technology resources are available and how are they used in the classroom

Policies about use of technology in preschool: National and state

curriculum imperatives e.g. Early Years Learning Framework; Building Waterfalls 2

ng technology to support

cultural and everyday experiences of home, school and community

information seeking, investigating and problem solving

home and school relationships

play based activities

Content Demographics

Phase 1 Survey of Teachers

Selection of schools

Comfort with technology

Class practices

Open-ended comment

Schools SES x teachers comfort with technology

Phase 2 School video observation and teacher logs

Phase 2 Home video and observation logs

Phase 3 Survey of Parents

ustralian Research Council

roject: Interacting with

Quantitative Analyses Descriptive analyses Scales: Comfort/attitude Cluster Analysis - Groups

Qualitative Analysis Content and thematic Ethnomethodology Conversation Analysis

nowledge, Interacting with People: Web Searching in Early Childhood

Danby, Thorpe & Davidson)

longitudinal study 3 years

ARC Future Fellowship - Project 2 (Dan

6 focus children (3.5 -5 years) in

preschool at beginning of

study

+ families + preschool/ prep/Year 1 classrooms

Longitudinal = “a continuum of

digital inclusion” (Livingstone & Helsper, 2007)

ploring Digital Technologies in Children’s Everyday Live

How digital technologies are used in mundane

How children participate and engage with others

through multimodal

How relationships ar constructed insitu and

and everyday activities across home and school

communication –

embodied action e.g. gesture

moment-by-momen interactions

How digital technologies offer affordances for the social organisation of talk

and embodied

action by the participants

How social interaction is accomplished as a joint production of members

How social interactio and highly supportiv emotional contexts construct relationshi

achers’ reports of their views and practices

The survey sought information

about:

131 early childhood educators (99% female)

age range from 23 - 65 years (mean 35 years, SD 10 years)

teachers had 1- 38 years of teaching experience.

majority (67%) held a 4 year university degree, 15% held a

Masters qualification and 11% held a diploma.

Teachers: at-home digital technology

and Internet use

Classrooms: computer and Internet access, digital educational practices;

Teachers’ beliefs: about digital technologies in

classrooms

Thorpe, K., Hansen, J., Danby, S., Davidson, C., Zaki, F. M., Grant, S., . . . Given, L. M. (2015). Teachers, Teaching and Digital Technologies: Reports from the Early Childhood Classroom. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 32, 174-`182. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.04.001

ccess and use: digital technologies and Internet (Thorpe et al., 2015)

3+ Facebook/Twitter

2 Skype

digital device no internet

Internet enabled digital 1

device

Email

0 Information searching

0 20 40 60 80 100

Percent of classrooms n=131

0 20 40 60 80 1

Percent of Teachers

Preschool teachers’ pedagogical practices

Teacher-led discussions about finding information

Child-led discussions about finding information

35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

Child-initiated discussion with the teacher about how to find out information

40%

35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

Whole class discussion led by you about how to find out information on the web

Every day Most days Some days Not weekly Never Every day Most days Some days Not weekly Never

This project is supported through the Australian Government’s Collaborative Research Networks (CRN) program.

Survey Findings and recommendations

1. High proportion of classrooms without Internet precludes classroom practice around the Web.

2.  For classrooms with Internet

access, the significant predictor was teachers’ beliefs about the usefulness/educational value of the Internet for young children.

3.  Little known about

classroom talk and action related to web activities

4.  Implications for resource

support in classrooms and supporting practices to highlight educational value.

Thorpe, K., Hansen, J., Danby, S., Davidson, C., Zaki, F. M., Grant, S., . . . Given, L. M. Teachers, Teaching and Digital Technologies: Reports from the Early Childhood Clas Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 32, 174-`182. doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.04.001

Digital technologies in home and school

Information seeking - at home – what

makes paper white - at school – examples

of phone handsets,

- at school - finding images of ticks

Building warm and positive social and emotional relationships - At home – the planets

- At home – where will I

be in 20 years time - At school – finding a

tick

Classroom sequence of activities

Experience from home – being bitten by a tick

Second stories by teacher and children

1-1 at computer conducting Web search for information about ticks and the life cycle of a tick

The product - printed sheets for the portfolio book at school and

to take home

Teacher : Well my horse, one of my horses the big big

horse called Dude and I don’t know where his

photos have gone he had two ticks in his

neck and I had to get them out on the

weekend so there are-there seem to be a lot of ticks around at the moment we might

have to have a look later and see what we

can find out about ticks.

Teacher: “You got ticks didn’t you Jaiden when you

were gardening in the reserve”

Jaiden:

I had 2 ticks and Jack had 1 tick

Teacher:

Now, Hanna, you can click on the blue

start

Teacher:

Do you want to pick out a couple of

pictures

Teacher:

Do you know what, I’m reading these

words and it says that ticks are around

during spring and summer. What time of

the year is it now?

Hanna:

Spring

Teacher:

Want to put them in your book? Shall I

print it again so you’ve got one to take

home?”

(Teacher prints a second copy)

Teacher:

Did you want to staple these ones

together or do any drawing or do

anything like that with them?

The problem of identifying the tick: web searching activities in

preschool classrooms

Ekberg, S., Danby, S., Davidson, C., & Thorpe, K. J. (in press, 2015). Identifying and addressing equivocal trouble in understanding

within classroom interaction. Discourse Studies.

he problem of identifying the tick: isunderstandings and equivocal trouble

The images on the screen bring about a potential misunderstanding in conversation.

This misunderstanding has implications for the conduct of the search for

the tick.

What becomes evident is that it is unclear whether:

•  the difficulty is because they haven’t yet found the image of the tick

•  Or there’s a problem in understanding how to make sense of the

screen (e.g. screen images vs. real objects)

Ekberg, S., Danby, S., Davidson, C., & Thorpe, K. J. (in press, 2015 Identifying and addressing equivocal trouble in understanding

within classroom interaction. Discourse Studies

he tick episode: the social organisation of talk

The teacher consistently offered opportunities for new information to find the right tick.

The teacher recognised the child’s capacity to identify the tick

BUT the teacher questioned the child’s specific ability to comprehend the scale of the images.

Young children’s competence is simultaneously assumed and denied (Mackay, 1974; Baker &Freebody, 1989).

Danby, S., Davidson, C., Ekberg, S., Breathnach & Thorpe, K. (in press, 2016). "Let's see if you ca see me": Making connections with Google Eart a preschool classroom. Children's Geographies

ung children’s practices through engagement with Google Earth™

nctions as a virtual globe of the world

hows location information, natural geographic rmations formations constructed through human

ctivity

oogle Earth™ works best when connected live to e Internet

ost studies oriented to practitioner concerns, such s how to Google Earth™ achieves specific

urricular learning outcomes (e.g. Almquist et al., 2012;

am, 2012; Horton et al, 2013; Hughes & De Silva, 2013; Kirkwood et

, 2014)

ur interest in Google Earth: place

osely linked to concept of commonsense eographies and notion of place

hat experiences people bring to geographic sites, nd how members may locate themselves within ese places

hildren negotiating the reality of their local places, ch as classrooms and community, through a lens at brings the ‘virtual’ into the classroom

e children’s talk and multimodal actions

me-School Relationships

The tooth

Sunday morning

•  Family members engaged through talk and gaze

•  Children shifted between conversations and their individual use of the mobile devices

•  Father’s use of questions – known answer- often used by teachers – designed to prompt displays of knowledge

•  Father calibrated his talk according to displayed language competence of child

•  Produced information and knowledge

•  Overwhelmingly a highly emotional and warm interaction = family relationships

Danby, S., Davidson, C., Theobald, M., Scriven, B., Cobb- Moore, C., Houen, S., . . . Thorpe, K. (2013). Talk in activity during young children’s use of digital technologies at home. Australian Journal of Communication, 40(2), 83-9

Family times

“The significance … lies not in what an artifact

‘is’, nor in what it specifically does, but in what it

enables or affords as it mediates the relationship

between its user and other individuals. Thus, the

important question is not ‘what is the impact of

technology use on childhood? …but, rather, how

is the complex of relations brought about …

consequential for our understanding both of

children themselves and of technological

forms?” (Hutchby & Moran-Ellis, 2001, p. 3).

aming of studies

Users of technology draw on everyday knowledges, practices, habits, knowledge, to make sense of everyday social worlds (what they see, hear etc) - technology does not just ‘meet’

users

Technology part of everyday life – taken-for- granted – omnipresence

(AyaB, 2012)

(AyaB, 2012)

Boundary dissolution (AyaB, 2012) –temporal, spatial, social - the fabric of social life

Devices minitiaturised and mobilised

The social organisation of talk

understanding how

actions are done

and how activities

are organised,

activities that

involve talk

and

multimodal

activities.

Investigating digital technologies without

taking into account the human and cultural dimensions of social

interactions and social relationships is only ever an incomplete

project.

To understand what goes on in homes and

classrooms using digital technologies

requires

understanding the organisation of talk in

practice.

cknowledgements

110104227and FT120100731 were funded by the Australian Research Council

e QUT EIG grant was funded by QUT and in partnership with Let’s Talk.

studies have ethical approval by Queensland University of Technology’s University

man Research Ethics Committee.

hank the teachers, clinical speech therapists, children and families of the Crèche and

dergarten Association and Let’s Talk (CHI.L.D.) for their participation in this study.

ank you also to the research teams involved in these studies.

aphic design Pam Koger – Marketing and Communication, QUT.

esearch Team and Acknowledgements fessor Susan Danby, Professor Karen Thorpe, Dr Christina Davidson

eensland University of Technology

Professor Susan Danby (CI)

Professor Karen Thorpe (CI), Professor Amanda Spink

A/Professor Julie Hansen

Dr Maryanne Theobald, Dr Charlotte Cobb-Moore, Dr Stuart Ekberg

Sandra Grant, Sandy Houen (PhD candidates)

Filzah Zahila Mahomed Zaki (M. Ed candidate)

Pip Linton, Amanda Levido, Amanda McFadden, Irene McCarthy, Helen Breathnach (RAs)

arles Sturt University (NSW)

Dr Christina Davidson (CI)

Professor Lisa Given

Brooke Scriven (PhD candidate)

Denise Winkler (RA)

DP110104227 was funded by the Australian Research Council. We thank the teachers, children and families of the Crèche and Kindergarten Association for their participation in this study.

thank you