Apps, adults and young children: researching digital literacy practices in context

The widespread availability of portable digital devices, such as the iPad, has led to the tablet outstripping earlier technologies in terms of its impact on early childhood. In many households, iPads have become the device of choice for family entertainment being used, amongst other things, for on-demand TV, games and interactive stories. Early literacy practices have fallen under the sway of the iPad, which appeals to young children because of its size, weight, portability and intuitive touch-screen interface (Merchant, 2014). As a result of this, and a whole host of other environmental factors, literacy development for many children born in the 21st Century has come to be infused with digital technology. This raises important issues for parents, carers and educators. For a start the commercial and economic stakes are high. But also there are some crucially important questions about learning and development that educators are only just beginning to consider. Indeed, early childhood literacy is beginning to look rather different than it did in the past, and since various forms of semiotic representation and patterns of interaction are distinctive to new media, there may well be a need to re-draw our maps of literacy development