Abstract
The rapid changes in digital tools and innovations require increased and different literacy skills (Carrington & Marsh, 2008; Knobel & Lankshear, 2010; Lankshear & Knobel, 2003a, 2003b; Merchant, 2007; Pahl & Rowsell, 2012; Schleicher, 2012). Portable electronic touch screen devices, tablets, and other digital tools are occupying a growing space in contemporary childhood experience, with young children interacting with various devices and technologies in their daily lives and as a part of play (Marsh, 2011; O’Mara and Laidlaw, 2011). Screen-based communication and new digital tools are more accessible to very young children than previous technologies and these children have integrated the technologies into their everyday lives. For example, some children may be using video chat media (e.g., Skype, Face Time, video text messaging) to communicate with faraway relatives from the time they are toddlers, viewing movies on a parent’s smartphone, or using a variety of game applications, including those designed for increasingly younger children.
Three year old Thomas scrolls through his song playlist on his iPad, taps on his favorite and begins to sing along. Next, he touches the YouTube icon, searches and locates the music video version. (Wong, Research Transcript, 2012)
The authors acknowledge the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their support of the research described in this chapter, in the project, Literacy learning in playful spaces: Using multimodal strategies to develop narrative with young learners.
Joanne O’Mara acknowledges the support of the Australian Research Council for their support of the project referred to in this chapter, Serious play: Using digital games to promote literacy and learning in the twenty-first century.
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© 2015 Jeanne Marie Iorio and Will Parnell
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Laidlaw, L., O’Mara, J., Wong, S. (2015). “Daddy, Look At the Video I Made on My iPad!”: Reconceptualizing “Readiness” in the Digital Age. In: Iorio, J.M., Parnell, W. (eds) Rethinking Readiness in Early Childhood Education. Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137485120_5
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