Abstract
The paper aims to contribute to developing some educational mediation strategies, useful for those who educate in the family and at school, to support children in their first experiences with digital media and the net.Digital technologies are already present in the child's living environments and, just like them, are characterized by a very rapid development. The task of those who do research and those who educate is to know the styles of use, the experiences, the learning, the exploratory maneuvers of the world that very young children perform thanks to digital technology. It should also be considered that, at times, they may be a few clicks away from content and images unsuitable for their age.The paper, through the Systematic Review approach, reviews the most recent scientific literature on the subject and analyzes the results of some important international research projects on the subject.The intent of the work, obviously, is not to provide exhaustive answers, always valid criteria and easy generalizations.With regard to the relationship between childhood and digital media, the paper outlines shared tracks of educational work in the life contexts of the little ones (especially in the family and at school) and reasons to promote further, future investigations in this area.
Highlights
The research questions, which the paper intends to satisfy, are essentially two: can children be accompanied, in the family and in nursery school, in a fruition of digital devices that is advantageous for their particular evolutionary moment? If so, how?The consumption of digital technology by children in the early childhood phase continues to grow and that they access the net at an ever lower age.socio-educational policies seem to ignore this specific age group, directing their attention almost exclusively to older children, not wanting to recognize early childhood an active role in digital media use
The paper aims to contribute to developing some educational mediation strategies, useful for those who educate in the family and at school, to support children in their first experiences with digital media and the net
The same cannot be said about the domestic consumption of digital technology by very young children who has had, so far, little attention as an effective research topic
Summary
The research questions, which the paper intends to satisfy, are essentially two: can children be accompanied, in the family and in nursery school, in a fruition of digital devices that is advantageous for their particular evolutionary moment? If so, how?. The very young have become a considerable and loyal segment of consumers of digital technologies: they have the opportunity to connect to the internet through a variety of devices (tablets, smartphones, computers, touchscreen devices, etc.) and at the most varied times of their day The task of those who do research and those who educate at school and in the family cannot ignore the implementation of effective mediation practices in the relationship between the child and technology, considering that, at times, they can be a few clicks away from content and images unsuitable for their age. The consideration of the dimensions of risk and safety during use certainly represents a very important and essential theme, which already feeds many research projects and investigative interests of scholars These aspects should be accompanied by the reflection on the nature of digital knowledge, skills and competences that the young child develops in the pre-school segment as significant recreational and learning opportunities, far beyond the simple dimension of entertainment alone. To these dimensions it would be important to add the recognition of the validity, in the preschool age group, of certain experiences and as many learnings gained thanks to digital media, able to advantageously prepare the little ones to conveniently target the subsequent stages of development
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