How to best understand digital play in preschool now?
Michael Hilkemeijer
Technology integration in Early Childhood Education & Primary Education membership
Digital play in the early years is just as important as play without digital technology today. There are many types and in the article you will learn from these excerpts of our play based learning professional development key early childhood pedagogies that you can apply now.
Previously, the importance of learning through play in the early years was discussed in an earlier article and here you will take a deeper look at what pedagogies exists and particularly at the best time to begin digital play-baed learning in early childhood education.
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Types of digital play based learning
There are lots of different digital play-based learning in early childhood education. Below, you can read all about the different types of play-based learning that there is, including some resources that you can use.
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Socio-dramatic Play (Role Play)
Socio-dramatic play with the use of digital technology provides contexts for children to share representations and articulate their thinking, bringing to consciousness ideas that they are still only beginning to grasp and intuitively.
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Good quality role play gives children the opportunity to make sense of the technological world in which they live. It also provides them with the opportunity to handle digital tools that they see in the world around them, experiment and take control of them.
Some ideal props are real technologies, toy technologies, and hand-made technologies.
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Physical play
There is some literature that argues that creating digital play experiences that are active is not enough to counter the problem of unhealthy lifestyles among children. However, there is now a wide variety of digital technologies that involve children’s physically active engagement.
One of the simplest approaches to digital play involves using digital technologies that are easily accessible such as the use of digital photography, or engagement with story-making apps that enable children to take photographs and make audio and video recordings.
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Exploratory play
We need to provide activities that encourage children to explore the technological affordances of a variety of digital technologies and to encourage them to apply them – playfully in the early years – for a range of different purposes.
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Outdoor play
There is an argument that children are less likely to go outside because the digital play has such an important role in their leisure time, that parents encourage their children to stay indoors and play. However, there are two overriding reasons that I would argue compel us to incorporate digital technology into outdoor play. The outdoors is where come children learn best and digital technology can offer motivating, captivating and new ways to that learning.
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When should children start to engage in digital play?
There are a number of factors that you need to consider in relation when determining if a young child can interact with digital technology in early childhood education. According to sources, they are to do with the development of physical, cognitive, linguistic and social, and emotional competencies.
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Some important facts that you need to remember include:
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As young children get older, for example at around 2 and a half, their developmental needs change and it is important that they develop their fine motor skills that can be used for the precise movements involved in using a mouse or trackpad.
Even scrolling through pages, pressing buttons or remote controls and phones can aid in the development of fine motor skills. Later, both-hands coordination is needed to operate game consoles.
In relation to cognitive, socio-emotional and physical development this varies for each individual child and for some young children, additional support is needed.
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The key points to consider here is:
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How to incorporate digital play based in the early years
So what exactly should a digital play based learning environment look like? As with the traditional play, there is no set of rules or definitions for what makes a successful digital play-based area. However, adults are encouraged to co-play with young children as with normal play without digital technologies. So ensure that you have plenty of child-led digital play activities and continuous provisions that encourage a versatile range of learning.
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This might look like a classroom with specific areas that are designed and differentiated for digital play-based learning, such as:
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Planning and implementing learning through play
While digital play-based learning in early childhood education should be child-led and open-ended where possible, adult-led play is highly beneficial when it comes to planning ahead and targeting specific early learning outcomes.
The key to effective planning and implementing learning through play is to outline a solid approach, with defined EYLF/EYFS learning outcomes and goals.
This can be achieved through a detailed plan that outlines what the digital play based learning will look like and what it will achieve.
A good plan for play based learning in early childhood education will include all the following information:
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You will learn how to support play based learning digital technology that will respond to a child's digital capabilities and learning needs by taking the steps to begin applying strategies that are linked to educational theory and that are evidenced-based.
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