Technology in the Early Years

A new study from the Open University claims that many nursery staff and parents are not allowing preschool children to engage with ICT, believing that "new technologies might damage children's wellbeing, social interaction and learning." However, Dr Rosie Flewitt, the lead researcher for the project, argues that "If early years education continues to focus exclusively on traditional forms of literacy, then it will be failing to provide all children with the skills they will need at school and in their future lives."

More information about the research can be found at the website of Multimodal Literacies in the Early Years. The very latest output is available in the June 2011 issue of the Qualitative Research journal, which UCB students can access in full via the Sage Journals Online site in Athens.