Using screen time and digital technology for learning: Children and pre-teens

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 feel safe, secure, and supported (e.g., Children establish and maintain respectful, trusting relationships with other children and educators; Educators value and respond sensitively to children’s attempts to initiate interactions and conversations).

Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy, and respect (e.g., Children co-use and collaborate with others when using digital technologies).

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 cooperate with others and negotiate roles and relationships in play episodes and group experiences; Educators support and build children’s skills to participate and contribute to group play and projects).

Children respond to diversity with respect (e.g., Educators use digital technologies to find answers to questions and document discoveries).

Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing

Children become strong in their social, emotional, and mental wellbeing (e.g., Children increasingly cooperate and work collaboratively with others; Educators discuss and model appropriate use of digital technologies and discuss how to keep children safe online with children and families; Educators build upon and extend children’s ideas; Educators challenge and support children to engage in and persevere at tasks and play).

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 create responsive learning environments that promote shared sustained thinking; Educators model inquiry processes, including wonder, curiosity, and imagination, try new ideas and take on challenges).

Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, enquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching, and investigating (e.g., Children explore their environment through asking questions, experimenting, investigating, and using digital technologies; Educators model the use of digital technologies and media to assist children to investigate and document their findings; Educators intentionally scaffold children’s understandings, including description of strategies for approaching problems).

Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another (e.g., Educators encourage children to discuss their ideas and understandings; Educators encourage and enable children to reflect on and assess their learning, including progress and next steps towards their learning goals).

Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies, and natural and processed materials (e.g., Children use digital technologies and media to investigate, and problem solve; Educators provide opportunities and support for children to engage in meaningful relationships that provide positive learning opportunities).

Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators

Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes (e.g., Educators engage in sustained communication with children about ideas and experiences, and extend their vocabulary).

Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from these texts (e.g., Children view and listen to printed, visual, and multimedia texts and respond with relevant gestures, actions, comments, and/or questions; Educators join in children’s play and engage children in conversations about the meanings of images and print).

Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media (e.g., Children view, listen and respond to simple printed, visual, and multimedia texts or music and express how it makes them feel).

Children use digital technologies and media to access information, investigate ideas, and represent their thinking (e.g., Children use digital technologies to access images and information, explore diverse perspectives and make sense of their world; Children adopt collaborative approaches in their learning about and with digital technologies; Educators encourage collaborative learning about and through technologies between children, and children and educators; Educators research topics and search for information with children).

National Quality Standard (Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority, 2019)

Quality Area 1: Educational program and practice (e.g., Each child’s current knowledge, strengths, ideas, culture, abilities, and interests are the foundation of the program; 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 2: Children’s health and safety (e.g., Each child’s wellbeing and comfort is provided for, including appropriate opportunities to meet each child’s need for sleep, rest, and relaxation; At all times, reasonable precautions and adequate supervision ensure children are protected from harm and hazard).

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 4: Equity is upheld, and diverse needs respected in policy and practice.

Principle 5: People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.

Principle 8: Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed.

If these ideas are new to you, explore these related resources:

Enjoying digital content with children

This video presentation explores how educators, parents, and carers can support young children’s play and learning by viewing digital content together.

Everyday learning to build young children’s digital technology skills

This webinar explores how early childhood professionals can support children’s conceptual understandings of, and skill development with, digital technologies.

For more ideas, explore these related resources:

Using digital technology with children: Tips

This Raising Children Network video presentation (2.17 minutes duration) provides tips for parents and carers about using digital technologies in meaningful ways with children.

Developing a culture of consent

This video presentation explores how early childhood educators can embed a culture of consent in their service by requesting permission from children before taking and using digital images of children.

If you would like to read some research, explore these related resources:

Mertala, P. (2020). Young children’s perceptions of ubiquitous computing and the Internet of Things. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(1), 84–102. https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjet.12821 

Nolan, A., & Moore, D. (2024). Broadening the notion of peer-to-peer interactions when young children engage with digital technology. Early Childhood Education Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-024-01662-4