Book dossier

Shift to the Future

by Nicola Yelland

New technologies are dramatically changing early childhood education in the 21st century, as well as the of face childhood itself. Access to new technologies - in the western world at least-provide young children with a myriad of possible activities and explorations that were not possible even a few years ago. But how can we explain and understand the nature of these differences and explore their implication for education? And how are the broader personal and social experiences of young children affected by these new classroom technologies? Focusing on the range of technologies that are available to children and exploring what they think of them and how they use them, childhood expert Nicola Yelland considers research that illustrates the was in which learning and engagement with ideas is made possible by creative interaction and uses of information and communications technologies (ICT) and the ways in which these technologies have opened up the world so that young people are able to extend the boundaries of their social interaction.