Digital technology has long been ubiquitous in many communities within Australia and internationally, thereby requiring suitable digital proficiencies. While a majority of Australian children experience digital literacies as part of their everyday lives, limitations in access disadvantage others. In educational settings, there is a clear need for…

Acceleration of digital communication has changed the nature of reading and young people today need to engage multimodal skills for reading success in the digital world. While historically there have been social justice issues for marginalised students in terms of reading, the digital age is creating new equity issues across the globe. This…

This paper reports on the perceptions early childhood teachers hold about digital technologies, children and childhood and how their perceptions influence their pedagogical decision-making. Symbolic interactionism was the theoretical lens used to give insights and meanings to the early childhood teachers views, experiences and ascribed meanings.…

This article investigates the complexities influencing students' access to ICT in order to affect a positive academic outcome. The digital divide metaphor (van Dijk, 2002) has re-entered common parlance in the wake of students being required to learn at home (Duffy, 2020; Nash & Eynon, 2020; Thomson, 2020). Exploration of the digital divide…

While early childhood educators' use of digital applications (apps) to document children's experiences and support parent communication is increasing, there is limited empirical research about the impact of these applications on children's experiences and educators' practices. This article provides a critical analysis of the findings from this…

The aim of this paper is to report on barriers to ICT integration in teaching practices from the perspective of early childhood teachers. Six early childhood teachers from a combined private school in Queensland participated in this study. Individual interviews explored the ICT tools used in early childhood programs and the barriers to integration…

This exploratory study investigated young children's beliefs and opinions about computers by actively involving children in the research project. Fifty two children, four to six years old, were asked a set of questions about their favourite activities and their opinions on computer use before and after a seven month computer intervention…

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become ubiquitous in our society. In particular, 10-12 year old (primary school aged) children report that they increasingly rely upon ICTs for social interaction and for learning (ACMA, 2013). In spite of the large number of students reporting high ICT use, research indicates that many…

PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) was inaugurated in 2001 as a follow-up to International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's 1991 Reading Literacy Study. Conducted every five years, PIRLS assesses the reading achievement of young students in their fourth year of schooling--an important transition…

This article describes a collaborative teacher-researcher project exploring how 4-8-year-old children understood and worked with new forms of literacy at home and at school. Twenty-five teacher-researchers investigated young children's home based multimodal funds of knowledge and then planned school or preschool curriculum based on these findings.…

This paper describes the use of robotics in an Early Years classroom as a tool to aid the development of technological skills in a creative environment rich with literacy and numeracy opportunities. The pilot project illustrates how a three-phase process can result in the development of: (1) emergent literacy and numeracy, (2) digital access for…

This paper reports on the outcomes of a survey implemented in a large regional community of Australia. The survey was completed by parents of children aged four-five years and attending local early childhood centres. The survey identified the types of access and use of computers by preschool children. It was found that the children of the…

In recent times discussion surrounding the use of computers in early childhood education has emphasised the role computers play in children's everyday lives. This realisation has replaced early debate regarding the appropriateness or otherwise of computer use for young children in early childhood education. An important component of computer use…

Computers have become an increasingly accepted learning tool in the early childhood classroom. Despite initial concerns regarding the effect of computers on children's development, past research has indicated that computer use by young children can support their learning and developmental outcomes (Siraj-Blatchford & Whitebread, 2003; Yelland,…