Play-based learning with a wooden internet
About this resource
This video presentation explores how early childhood educators can engage young children in play-based learning about the internet using wooden devices (e.g., phones, laptops, tablets, Wi-fi routers) for pretend play.
Age range for this resource
For educators, parents, and carers of children aged 3 to 5 years.
Goal of this resource
To support young children’s understanding of the internet as a network of devices.
To provide opportunities for young children to discuss online safety behaviours with their adults and peers.
How might educators use this resource?
Share this video presentation with your colleagues. Discuss how the educator describes children’s initial reactions to the wooden internet and how the devices were used by children during pretend play. Reflect on the educator’s commentary about feeling reassured that she could discuss online safety with young children without using the actual internet. Consider using non-working technologies to support children’s understanding about the internet (e.g., that internet-enabled devices are connected to each other) at your service.
How might families use this resource?
Watch this video presentation and think about how the educator described the way young children used wooden devices for pretend play. Consider supporting your child’s play-based learning about the internet using non-working devices at home.
How might organisations use this resource?
Provide a link to this video presentation in your communication with families and educators. Highlight how using non-working devices (e.g., a wooden internet) can help children understand that networked devices are connected to each other.
What learning might we see?
Educators, parents, and carers supporting young children’s understanding of the internet as a network of devices that send and receive data and information.
Young children becoming aware that internet-enabled devices need to be connected to Wi-Fi to send and receive data.
Practice
Pretending
Children participate in pretend play with and about the internet.
Area
Citizenship
Citizenship in digital contexts recognises that young children are active participants in their communities now and into the future. As citizens, young children respect their own rights and those of other people, and develop an appreciation for cultural, racial, gender, and religious diversity. Digital rights, digital privacy, online safety, and cyber-safety education provide a foundation for early citizenship in digital contexts.
Connection to relevant standards
Belonging, Being, and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia V2.0 (Australian Government Department of Education, 2022)
Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity
Children develop knowledgeable, confident self-identities and a positive sense of self-worth (e.g., Children explore different identities, roles, and points of view in pretend play).
Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy, and respect (e.g., Children engage in and contribute to shared play experiences).
Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world
Children develop a sense of connectedness to groups and communities and an understanding of their reciprocal rights and responsibilities as active and informed citizens (e.g., Children broaden their understanding of the world in which they live; Educators provide opportunities for children to investigate ideas, complex concepts, and ethical issues that are relevant to their lives and their local communities).
Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
Children become strong in their social, emotional, and mental wellbeing (e.g., Educators build upon and extend children’s ideas; Educators are playful and promote a sense of enjoyment; Educators discuss and model appropriate use of digital technologies and discuss how to keep children safe online with children and families; Educators update their own learning of digital and cyber safety for children).
Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners
Children develop a growth mindset and learning dispositions such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination, and reflexivity (e.g., Educators build on the funds of knowledge, languages, and understandings that children bring to their early childhood setting).
Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another (e.g., Children practice and imagine relationships and experiences in their daily lives through pretend or symbolic play; Educators scaffold children’s understandings of how skills and ideas can be transferred to other activities through conversation and questions).
Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies, and natural and processed materials (e.g., Children experience the benefits and pleasures of shared learning explorations, investigations, and imaginary play scenarios).
Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators
Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media (e.g., Children experiment with ways of expressing ideas and meaning using a range of media).
Children begin to understand how symbols and pattern systems work (e.g., Children use symbols in play to represent and make meaning).
Children use digital technologies and media to access information, investigate ideas, and represent their thinking (e.g., Children identify technologies and their use in everyday life; Children incorporate real or imaginary technologies as features of their play; Educators assist children to have a basic understanding that the internet is a network that people use to connect and source information).
National Quality Standard (Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority, 2019)
Quality Area 1: Educational program and practice (e.g., Educators are deliberate, purposeful, and thoughtful in their decisions and actions; Educators respond to children’s ideas and play and extend children’s learning through open-ended questions, interactions, and feedback; Each child’s agency is promoted, enabling them to make choices and decisions that influence events and their world).
Quality Area 3: Physical Environment (e.g., Resources, materials, and equipment allow for multiple uses, are sufficient in number, and enable every child to engage in play-based learning).
Quality Area 5: Relationships with children (e.g., Responsive and meaningful interactions build trusting relationships which engage and support each child to feel secure, confident, and included; Children are supported to collaborate, learn from, and help each other).
National Principles for Child Safe Organisations (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018)
Principle 1: Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance, and culture.
Principle 7: Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and awareness to keep children and young people safe through ongoing education and training.
Principle 8: Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed.
Explore More
For more information, explore these related resources:
This article describes how the use of wooden devices (e.g., phones, laptops, tablets, Wi-fi routers) in play-based learning can support children’s understanding of the internet and provide valuable opportunities for adults to model and discuss online safety with children.
Storytelling for a connected childhood
This article invites parents, carers, and educators to use stories to engage children and build their understanding about online safety.
If these ideas are new to you, explore these related resources:
What does your child understand about the internet?
This article supports parents and carers to engage in conversations with young children about the internet.
Swoosh, Glide and Rule Number 5
This picture book helps educators, parents, and carers to discuss online safety behaviours with children.
If you would like to read some research, explore these related resources:
Bird, J. (2020). “You need a phone and camera in your bag before you go out!”: Children’s play with imaginative technologies. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(1), 166–176. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12791
Vogt, F., & Hollenstein, L. (2021). Exploring digital transformation through pretend play in kindergarten. British Journal of Educational Technology, 52(6), 2130–2144. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13142