Digital Landscapes

Inspired by the Municipal Schools of Reggio Emilia and their work, I have immersed myself in self-study on Light for Inquiry progression. I am particularly interested in how digital images can be pulled from the flat surfaces of screens (computers, tablets, and phones) and projected into a 3-D representation - a digital landscape. There are many strengths and concerns about how we offer these digital provocations and their impact on young children. I have been thinking about a theoretical framework for the digital environment, with one main question.

How do we ensure that the child is the protagonist of their learning in digital environments? 

In thinking about this question, I realized that I needed to go back to the beginning of how we, as early childhood educators, feel about young children and their connection to the world. I started thinking about my image of the child as the protagonist of their learning and the child's position in their ecological context. Suppose I could clearly articulate the relationship between the child as the protagonist of their learning, the teacher as a co-learner, and their shared relationship to the world around them (the ecological context) as fundamental to understanding. In that case, I could start to construct a framework for thinking about how digital landscapes exist in relationship with the child, teacher, and ecological context. 

Throughout the literature on dimensional digital landscapes, many concepts emerge. 

Ecology - We acknowledge through ecological thinking that relationships are a foundation of learning, and when a person separates from their relationships, it reduces education to almost nothing. 

Context - The acknowledgment that children form relations with the world around them that is locally focused.  

Multiplicity - There are multiple and simultaneous ways of seeing and thinking. 

Digital Tools -Through the lens of ecology, context, and multiplicity---can provide unique perspectives to support and make visible young children's complex thinking. The use of digital tools can foster sustained work on ideas over weeks and months. This sustained work supports children in going deeper into their thinking. We, as educators, can promote children's complex thinking by using these tools to record both our own and the children's experiences. We can use our reflections to add prompts, provocations, and questions to children's explorations. In this way, we fully embrace our role as co-learners with children.

Children use the languages of digital tools to communicate their perspective and their proficiency. This kind of communication is not readily available through other means for many young learners. So digital representations become a valuable tool providing the teacher with a window into the child's mind. When their vision is valued, their understanding of self grows, accordingly, as does their learning. 

As educators working in digital narratives, we (especially as technology evolves) will enter places of not knowing. It, therefore, becomes essential to become comfortable with these spaces, allowing them to breathe (and ourselves as well). As we enter the spirit of co-learning, we can trust in children's capability to help guide the way.