Digital communication in a preschool classroom: Collaborative social interaction of children and teachers writing email

With young children engaging increasingly in a diverse range of digital contexts in early childhood classrooms, there is growing interest in examining how they acquire, produce and understand digital texts. In Australia, with 90 percent of children aged 5-14 years engaged with the Internet in the preceding 12 months (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012), and evidence that children younger than five years are also users in Internet-enabled technology (Davidson, 2009, 2010; Plowman, Stephen, & McPake, 2010). Early childhood policy and curriculum guidelines recommend the introduction of technology in meaningful ways into classrooms, such as using technology to support communication and engagement in the cultural and everyday experiences of home and community, and for information seeking (Australian Government Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments, 2009). While endorsed, there is little empirical evidence showing everyday practices in early childhood classrooms with technology.