About this Research Topic
Considerable attention is being paid to the role that digital technologies play in young children’s lives. As a result, a relatively emerging field called child-computer interactions (CCI) is becoming an area of great interest. In 2011, Read & Bekker, suggested that CCI includes the understanding of activities, behavior, and abilities surrounding children’s engagement with technologies. There is a growing need to examine how digital technologies impact young children’s, from birth to 5 years of age, learning and developmental outcomes.
We plan to use this Research Topic to increase our understanding of how digital technologies impact learning and development in children from birth to 5 years. By interactive digital technologies, we include mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, as well as other tangible technologies such as robotics. In particular, we are interested in understanding child-computer interactions (e.g., children’s interaction and use of digital technologies), integration of digital technologies in early childhood education, and importantly, the role it plays on learning and development. We especially welcome submissions focused on children from particular sub-populations including, but not limited to children from low-income households and children with exceptional needs and rights.
Areas that might be addressed include:
1) how technologies influence learning and impact developmental outcomes
2) how technologies shape social interactions including but not limited to parent-child, child-child, and educator-child
3) selection, integration and implementation of technologies in early childhood education classrooms, as defined before formal entry to kindergarten (i.e., preschool)
4) how children use digital technologies (i.e., child-technology/child-computer interactions)
5) how children transfer information learned with technology to another modality (i.e., outside the technology)
6) the role of digital media on platforms and devices on children’s learning
Papers may include, but are not limited to:
1) empirical studies that examine the effects of digital technologies on children’s learning
2) empirical studies on how early childhood educators integrate technologies in classroom settings
3) quantitative and/or qualitative studies that report and detail how young children use different kinds of digital technologies
We strongly encourage the submission of research articles and welcome reviews and brief commentaries or opinion pieces. Submissions of interdisciplinary work between developmental, early child education, media studies, child-computer interaction, informatics, and partnerships between researchers and practitioners are also welcome.
We plan to use this Research Topic to increase our understanding of how digital technologies impact learning and development in children from birth to 5 years. By interactive digital technologies, we include mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, as well as other tangible technologies such as robotics. In particular, we are interested in understanding child-computer interactions (e.g., children’s interaction and use of digital technologies), integration of digital technologies in early childhood education, and importantly, the role it plays on learning and development. We especially welcome submissions focused on children from particular sub-populations including, but not limited to children from low-income households and children with exceptional needs and rights.
Areas that might be addressed include:
1) how technologies influence learning and impact developmental outcomes
2) how technologies shape social interactions including but not limited to parent-child, child-child, and educator-child
3) selection, integration and implementation of technologies in early childhood education classrooms, as defined before formal entry to kindergarten (i.e., preschool)
4) how children use digital technologies (i.e., child-technology/child-computer interactions)
5) how children transfer information learned with technology to another modality (i.e., outside the technology)
6) the role of digital media on platforms and devices on children’s learning
Papers may include, but are not limited to:
1) empirical studies that examine the effects of digital technologies on children’s learning
2) empirical studies on how early childhood educators integrate technologies in classroom settings
3) quantitative and/or qualitative studies that report and detail how young children use different kinds of digital technologies
We strongly encourage the submission of research articles and welcome reviews and brief commentaries or opinion pieces. Submissions of interdisciplinary work between developmental, early child education, media studies, child-computer interaction, informatics, and partnerships between researchers and practitioners are also welcome.
Keywords: digital technology, child-computer interaction, digital media, early childhood education, child development
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
