Tracing the Development of Touchscreen Education

Abstract

After a brief introduction pointing up the technological origins of humankind, in the main body of this paper the authors bring three different levels of analysis to bear on 0-10-year-old children's appropriation of touchscreen technology (in the home, during informal exchanges with peers, and at preschool and primary school). First, they review the most recent literature on the topic, showing that the age of first access to this kind of technology has dropped significantly; this suggests the need to provide a critical education in technology from the early childhood education and preschool stages onwards. Indeed, the data and evidence that is accumulating from home and educational contexts prompts the authors – in the second part of the paper – to revisit Sherry Turkle's classical three-phase model (informed by the work of Papert and Piaget) of how children encounter and relate to “new” digital technologies. Furthermore, the uses that children make of digital devices and the relative cognitive patterns need to be interpreted in light of the epistemological requirements that have driven both the development of these technologies and changes in the dynamics of how they are appropriated. All these levels of analysis are prerequisite to designing educational models that are truly enhanced by the deployment of touchscreen technology. Finally, in the third section of the paper, the authors outline the key principles of their own proposed model – the Bayesian Classroom – based on the theoretical considerations previously outlined.