Research area 11: ECE-Tech - Early Childhood Education and Technology

The aim of this package is to explore, develop and contribute to the understanding of professional digital competence, attitudes towards and use of digital technology in different pedagogical contexts. We aim to create knowledge of how digital technology in different ways can serve as an artefact for pedagogical activities, children's play and child-centred exploration. The projects are based on both qualitative and quantitative methods. 

DigiCross 

We have ongoing projects with an extended international network with Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Turkey, Portugal, England, Jordan, Ukraine and Russia. Based on previous studies of professional digital competence, use of digital technology and attitudes towards technology in pedagogical contexts we are currently working on a larger international study to develop an understanding on the global development between cultures and frameworks. This contributes to a deeper understand of what it is that drives, affects and limits professional use of digital technology in kindergartens. 

Kindergarten practitioners as technology mentors: A kindergarten-university research partnership from Norway (PUST) 

This project will attempt to develop a sustainable practice for kindergarten practitioners’ professional digital competence, developed through workshop-style conversations. The project is in collaboration with the University of Stavanger and will potentially include the University of Eastern Norway and the University of Oslo as well. The aim of the research partnership project is to foster professional learning through workshop-based practitioner-university collaborations. The approach rests on the establishment and support of a practitioner-researcher professional community. The participating practitioners are encouraged to reflect on their practice and engage in discussions with each other and the researchers. Both researchers and practitioners act as one community of learners. This approach follows collaborative inquiry embedded in practitioner study groups, expanded to researchers’ active engagement. The design is a qualitative case study involving research teams from two universities and two groups of practitioners with ca. 20 practitioners in each university group. Researchers will act as participant-observers in the group meetings. Data sources include audio-recorded interviews with all group members (if ethical permission granted), field notes of each workshop session and artefacts produced by the participants during the sessions. Practitioners will be interviewed about their attitudes towards digital technologies at the beginning of the first workshop session and at the end of the fourth workshop session. The analysis will follow analytic induction with triangulation and identification of main themes. 

Internet of Toys 

This study explores children’s play with the Internet of Toys - internet-connected toys – and partitioners’ perspectives and attitudes towards children’s play with IoToys. The study explores children’s ecological worlds. and their everyday experiences. The project is a collaborative project between four countries (Norway, UK, Australia and Greece). 

Research Questions: 

- What are parents and practitioners' dispositions towards children ages 3-7 years engaging with internet-enabled toys? 

- What are the ecological factors that shape young children’s experiences with internet-enabled toys? 

- What are the characteristics of children’s play with internet-enabled toys in home and early childcare? 

A cross-cultural exploration of the use of touchscreen technologies with children under 3 years of age 

The purpose of the study is to investigate the ways in which 0-3-year-old children are using touchscreen technology such as smartphones, ipads and similar both in Norway and in other countries. The first stage of the project involved collecting data from parents via an on-line survey named. The second stage of the project involved early childhood educators’ views, perspectives and practices. Methods include both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (focus group interviews) (Fotakopoulou et al. 2020, Dardanou et al. 2020). The next stage of the study will focus on children’s own experiences with use of touchscreen technologies in early childhood settings.  Research aims to highlight different cultural and context perspectives and experiences with their 0-3s use of this technology, to compare experiences and exchange good practices between the different countries. 

Research questions: 

1. What are the beliefs and experiences of early childhood educators of the three countries around the use of touchscreen technologies with children under 3 years of age? 
2. Are there significant similarities and/or differences in educators’ beliefs and experiences around the use of touchscreen technologies with children from under 3 years of age between the three countries? 
3. What are the parental views about 0-3 year old children’s use of touchscreen devices in the three different cultural contexts at home? 
4. In what way are dominant cultural discourses related to the perceptions and concerns of parents regarding the use of touchscreen devices by their 0-3 year old children?