ERIC Number: EJ1235253
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0952-3987
EISSN: N/A
Connected Learning with Media Tools in Kindergarten: An Illustrative Case
Vartiainen, Henriikka; Leinonen, Teemu; Nissinen, Saara
Educational Media International, v56 n3 p233-249 2019
Connected learning is claimed to support children to connect their formal learning with wider social network and media tools in an interest-driven and inquiry-oriented manner. In a formal context there are few successful implementations of connected learning. This study explores how a kindergarten community of 8 adults and 42 children, equipped with digital media tools, organized connected learning as sociocultural phenomena and inquiry learning. With an ethnographic approach, unstructured interviews and multimedia portfolios provided data for deductive content analysis. The results indicate that meaningful objects of inquiry were found though the children's own discoveries with media tools used in forest trips. The social capital and the children's own funds of knowledge were harnessed with iPads and a trail camera, installed to capture wildlife. Precisely, the trail camera use and the resulting images mediated connections with parents and grandparents, outside experts, and peers. Children were actively naming, classifying, and categorizing the trail camera data, and also searching, evaluating, and applying new information. Children were also creating, sharing, and openly publishing their own insights that drew on a unique mix of meaning-making resources and media tools. The results can be used in the learning design of early-childhood education and care.
Descriptors: Kindergarten, Social Networks, Social Media, Sociocultural Patterns, Multimedia Materials, Portfolios (Background Materials), Content Analysis, Forestry, Social Capital, Field Trips, Handheld Devices, Photography, Technology Uses in Education, Wildlife, Cultural Background, Parent Child Relationship, Grandparents, Classification, Preschool Education, Child Care, Educational Technology, Inquiry, Learning Processes, Peer Relationship, Teaching Methods, Foreign Countries
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education; Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Finland
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A