Curriculum making in online spaces
22nd September 2022
Liz Chesworth
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Digital devices are important tools for young children’s familial curriculum making practices. For example, research by Rosie Flewitt and Alison Clark shows how these technologies afford opportunities for children to ‘connect with distant family and friends, watch their favourite programmes, play games and find information’. This means that children’s participation in family and community life has become more expansive, enabling informal learning to stretch beyond the immediate places and spaces that constitute their homes and localities.
I recently discovered this video, published by the UK Literacy Association, in which Professor Rosie Flewitt talks about two recent projects that have explored young children’s digital lives. The presentation offers fascinating insights into how digital experiences are interwoven with other aspects of family life. These examples remind us that familial curriculum making involves complex practices that take place across a multitude of interconnected places and spaces. And these experiences add to the richness and diversity of interests and ideas that children bring into early years settings and classrooms.
I wonder what strategies early years educators use to help them to recognise, value and build upon children's curriculum making in online, digital spaces?
And what kinds of digital experiences are built into curriculum making in our schools and settings?
References and further reading
Flewitt, R. and Clark, A. (2020) Porous boundaries: Reconceptualising the home literacy environment as a digitally networked space for 0–3 year olds, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 20 (3), p447 - 471, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/1468798420938116
Gillen, J, Matsumoto, M, Aliagas, C, Bar Lev, Y, Clark, A, Flewitt, R, Jorge, A, Kumpulainen, K, Marsh, J Morgade, M, Pacheco, R, Poveda, D, Sairenen, H, Sandberg, H, Scott, F, Sjöberg, U, Sundin, E, Tigane, I and Tomé, V (2019) A day in the digital lives of children aged 0–3. Full report by DigiLitEY ISCH COST Action 1410, working group 1: digital literacy in homes and communities, March, pp. 74. ISBN: 978-0-902831-53-7.
For more information:
The digital literacy and multimodal practices of young children (DigiLitEY): Digital literacy in homes and communities
Do you have examples of curriculum making that resonate with our project?
Has something on the website inspired you to try a different approach?
If so, we’d love to hear from you.
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