39 - Toddlers and Technology

In this episode of the podcast, we hear from Dr. Lorna Arnott and her research on lived experiences of children's play, specifically in technology and digital play before the age of 5.

Lorna Arnott is a Reader of Early Childhood Education and former Director of Early Years at the University of Strathclyde. Her work sits close to practice around three inter-related themes: children’s lifeworlds and experiences in early childhood settings and home cultures; pedagogic innovation in Early Childhood Education; and children’s digital play.  The first two themes are brought together in her conceptualization of how the dynamics of context shape children’s experiences (see selected publications: Pedagogic Cultures). Dr Arnott’s high standing in this field led to her inclusion in the Scottish Government Strategic Approach to Participation, serving on the Children’s Rights and Participation Team. Dr Arnott is an internationally recognized expert in children’s digital play, as evidenced in her role as editor of the 2017 SAGE book Digital Technologies and Learning in the Early Years and co-editor of three special issues on this topic in the British Journal of Educational Technology, Global Studies of Childhood and The European Early Childhood Educational Research Journal. She is founder and co-convener of the EECERA Digital Childhoods, STEM and Multimodality Special Interest Group.  She is Deputy Editor for the International Journal of Early Years Education and Assistant Editor for the Journal of Early Childhood Research.  Methodologically, Dr Arnott specializes in children’s voice and creative methods for children’s participation and has co-edited two books aimed at both research and practice audiences: Research Through Play: Participatory Methods in Early Childhood (SAGE, 2021) and Theory and Practice of Voice: A Guide for the Early Years (Routledge, 2022). Underpinning all of this work is an interest in children’s experiences of learning through play.