10.4225/03/58acf43a45412
Mirkhil, Moska
Moska
Mirkhil
A cultural-historical analysis of digital technologies in practice: a case study of early childhood settings in Melbourne, Australia
Monash University
2017
1959.1/1208406
thesis(doctorate)
Curriculum
Early childhood
ethesis-20150730-16499
Digital technology
2015
Restricted access
monash:160987
2017-05-15 05:50:51
Thesis
https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/thesis/A_cultural-historical_analysis_of_digital_technologies_in_practice_a_case_study_of_early_childhood_settings_in_Melbourne_Australia/4679626
Digital technologies have become ubiquitous in many young children’s everyday experiences in
the home and wider community. This study explores the use of digital technologies across five
distinct early childhood settings within a Melbourne municipality. The study explored 12
educators’ perspectives on the use of digital technologies in the early childhood classroom,
conducted classroom observations and collected documents from the settings. Through the
application of the cultural-historical theoretical lens, the study discovered that digital
technologies are most effectively used with young children when the use is integrated into the
early childhood classroom. However, in the participating early childhood settings, digital
technologies were not integrated—three of the classrooms treated them as an add-on to the
curriculum on a needs basis, and the two remaining settings embedded them in the classrooms.
Using digital technologies as pedagogical tools in the early childhood classroom is a complex
task that requires support and a joint effort from a range of stakeholders. The findings of this
study have led to the development of a transformative framework that provides practicing early
childhood educators with a starting point for employing digital technologies as an integral
element of the early childhood classroom curriculum.