Warm welcome to the next Learning, Culture and Interventions (LECI) expert group research seminar.
Dr Julia Gillen (Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, UK) and Professor Kristiina Kumpulainen (Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki) will give a talk on Wednesday 21st of November, from 14:00 to 16:00, at Siltavuorenpenger 5A, (Minerva building, room K108). The title of the talk is: “We never teach her….but she knows”: Young children’s engagement with digital media in homes in the UK and Finland
Abstract: This paper focuses on research aimed at generating evidence about young children’s use of digital technologies in the home. First, we conducted a review of research published between 2005 and 2015. We identified three leading themes: Parental mediation of children’s digital literacy practices in homes; Children’s media engagement and literacy learning in homes; and Home-school knowledge exchange of children’s digital literacy practices. Second, we reviewed research on the same topic published 2016 and 2017. We found that while interest in these topics had increased further, attention to a relatively limited range of topics and approaches still dominates. In particular, our review work revealed that there are few studies that have focused their attention on the very young children and their engagement with digital technologies and media in homes. In responding to this need, we will share our ongoing European level research on “A day in the digital lives of children aged 0-3”. We explain how the research design is tailored to investigate the nuances of very young children’s engagement with digital media as it evolves over the day in the social context of their homes and share some findings from our studies in the UK and Finland.
Bio: Dr Julia Gillen is Reader in Digital Literacies and Director of the Lancaster Literacy Research Centre in the Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, UK. She currently co-chairs, with Prof. Kristiina Kumpulainen, Working Group 1 “Digital Literacies in Homes and Communities” of COST Action IS 1410 DigiLitEY, The digital literacy and multimodal practices of young children. Julia’s first book was “The Language of Children” a school text book (2003, Routledge) and her recent publications include “Digital Literacies” (2014, Routledge). She is a co-editor of the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy.
Sources for further information:
Kumpulainen, K. & Gillen, J. (in preparation) Young children’s digital literacy practices in homes: Past, present and future research directions. In The Routledge Handbook of Digital Literacies in Early Childhood, (eds) R. Flewitt, Ola Erstad, Bettina Kuemmerling-Meibauer and Iris Pereira. London: Routledge.
Email: j.gillen@lancaster.ac.uk kristiina.kumpulainen@helsinki.fi
Everyone interested is very welcome to join the seminar!