Young Children's Digital Play: Developing Online Resources to Support Parents and Professionals

• In Event: Young Children Learning With Mobile Devices: Research on Design and Implementation

Abstract

Purpose: Digital media and devices can provide opportunities to play, learn, communicate and be creative but we know that caregivers can get confused by mixed messages about their benefits and dangers. Families are hungry for guidance on their use of digital media. This project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) in 2017 to engage partners, including a play charity, a state health agency and a city council, in the design and delivery of resources on digital play. The objectives were to develop research-informed content for parents of children under six and those working with families so that they could feel confident about developing their own strategies for integrating digital media into family life. This paper reports on an evaluation of a pilot of the eight-week online course.

Perspectives: The course was based on an acknowledgement of the role of parental mediation in managing family use of digital media. Originally coined to describe the management of children’s television viewing (Clark 2011), the concept is now applied to digital media. The Digital Play course recognized parental concerns, but also introduced parents to the concept of guided interaction (Author, 2007) as a positive approach to enhancing digital play and learning.

Methods and data sources: All participants taking part in the pilot, except one, were female and included nurses (n=4), playworkers (n=5), childminders (n=4) and parents (n=5). Not all disclosed ethnicity, but two identified as Pakistani, one as Chinese, and others identified as White British or White Scottish.
In week 1, participants completed a Personal Learning Plan (PLP) in which they articulated what they wished to gain from doing the course. In week 8, they were asked to reflect on their PLP in a telephone interview (n=8) and to complete an online survey to provide feedback on course design, delivery and readability (n=11).

Results: Based on the interviews, all or most participants considered that their views on digital play had changed, they felt more confident and informed and were able to share their knowledge with others. Finding time to do the course was challenging but the content was interesting, enjoyable and accessible.
The survey revealed that all or most participants considered the course content interesting, attractive and useful, and that the core content and the additional resources were easy to understand, and the website was mainly easy to use. Although, there were some operational problems.

Significance: The partnership model for developing and delivering content was successful and could be emulated for other family-based learning projects. Participants reported changes in attitudes to digital play and subsequent shifts in family practices. The purpose of the funding was to make research findings accessible to non-academics, but retaining the nuance and integrity of research while making it user friendly. This was challenging so we would provide different pathways for the next iteration when the course is deployed on a wider scale. All participants stated that the course met their expectations in relation to learning about digital play and that they would recommend the course to others.

Author

• Lydia Plowman, University of Edinburgh