Exploring children’s use of working and non-working technologies in imaginative play

A School of Education seminar presented on November 2nd, 2016 by Jo Bird

This is pretend. We are just playing – exploring children’s use of working and non-working technologies in imaginative play and the educators’ provision of these devices in early childhood settings

In this seminar, I will present my Doctoral research that explored children’s use of working and non-working technologies in their imaginative play and identified the influences on educators’ provision of these devices.

The findings showed the two participant groups perceived the affordances of technologies differently. The children’s perception of the technologies, displayed through their engagement with what was provided, clearly showed they perceived their affordance.

On the other hand, the educators perceived the working technologies did not afford imaginative play and this was demonstrated through the rules and restrictions they placed on the provision of these devices. The findings are illustrated in the Imaginative Affordances, Imaginative Constraints Framework, that leads to the goal for technology provision in early childhood settings.

Presentation