|
This project is associated with the Phase II project ‘InterActive
Education: Teaching and Learning in the Information Age’.
It has been developed in collaboration with Learning and Teaching
Scotland, a government-funded agency which develops the curriculum
and the role of information and communications technologies (ICT)
in promoting learning in Scotland.
The purpose of Interplay is to identify ways of enhancing young
children’s experiences with ICT through guided interaction
with practitioners, peers and parents. Although there are many
manifestations of ICT in nurseries and playgroups, the focus hitherto
has been mainly on desktop computers. Using ICT has been seen as
a free play activity in which children decide for themselves when
and how to use the computer. The culture of pre-school settings
values learning through play and child-initiated activities but,
in the context of ICT, our previous research showed that this approach
can lead to unproductive interactions. Interplay will investigate
ways of balancing both child-initiated and adult-led activities
to enhance the value of encounters with ICT.
We will work with a total of sixteen practitioners in four pre-school
settings in each of two local authorities (West Lothian and Stirling)
in a process of guided enquiry. Our enquiries will be supplemented
by using a survey of 100 homes and case studies of eight individual
children to explore the interplay between home and pre-school experiences.
This will enable us to establish ways of building on children’s
experiences at home and to address the needs of children who have
limited access to ICT. Researchers and practitioners will share
observations based on video recordings and photographs of children
using ICT and identify ways in which practitioners can provide
support within the busy environment of a pre-school setting at
the same time as ensuring that children’s use of ICT is enjoyable
and rewarding. This collaborative approach will entail identifying:
- how to create opportunities for learning with ICT
- how to identify and record interactions with ICT that support
learning
- how to evaluate that learning
- how to use that information for future planning.
The process of guided enquiry will lead to a practitioner-generated
cycle of planning, action and review. We will identify the characteristics
of guided interaction and describe a range of tested strategies
to enhance learning with and through ICT that are rooted in the
dynamics and constraints of the playroom settings and can be adopted
more widely.
|