Abstract:

In 2015, INDIRE (Istituto Nazionale di Documentazione, Innovazione e Ricerca Educativa) collected some perceptions and beliefs about children and technologies of a group of 20 preschool Italian teachers.

According those teachers, the majority of children lived in media rich families despite their social background, were involved in the use of digital devices for a considerable amount of time a day and mostly left alone in front of the screen. Though all the teachers expressed a positive attitude and had experienced in the use of digital technologies in their classroom, they were also worried about the effects of this exposure to screen and they related it to difficulties in language development, gross and fine motor skills and behavioural issues. They were persuaded that this kind of “passive” use was related to a lack of interest towards direct experience and manipulation of materials.

They also shared the opinion that technologies were used by parents mostly a way to “turn the children off”, describing some case of serious neglect. INDIRE engaged the teachers in a research that started with the validation of their beliefs. Children were involved in a series of circle times, lead by the teachers themselves, to discuss various aspects of their experience with technologies. Parents were asked to answer a questionnaire aimed to understand the availability of digital technologies in family environments, children habits and parental mediation styles. More than 400 parents responded to this questionnaire. In our contribution we will provide the analysis of the data collected.

Keywords:

Media education, young children and technologies.