Technology and literacy in early childhood educational settings: A review of research

Abstract

This literature review provides an overview of research into technology and literacy for children aged 0—8 in educational settings from 2003—2009. The article begins by exploring the different assumptions about the role of digital texts that underpin the studies considered, identifying three loose categories of studies which position technology as: deliverer of literacy; site for interaction around texts; and medium for meaning-making. Following this, aspects of actor-network theory (Latour, 2005) are used to consider other ways that technology and children may be ‘acting upon’ literacy in educational settings through recontexualizing meanings from other domains. The article concludes by arguing that there is a need for more extensive exploratory research in this field, which considers how digital practices within educational settings relate to other dimensions of children’s literacy learning, in order to better understand how new technologies are and could be contributing to children’s literacy within educational settings. It suggests that actor-network theory may offer a way of conceptualizing young children’s engagement with digital texts in new ways.