Theorizing digital literacy practices in early childhood

Abstract

There are many conceptualizations of digital literacies in early childhood that are theoretically rich and fruitful. However, the idea of a linear trajectory of historic developments is too simplistic. In the present day, we witness not a universally acknowledged sense of progress along a linear line of thinking, but rather a somewhat chaotic yet fruitful state of co-existence. We propose to explore some key points and tensions informing understandings of digital literacy practices in early childhood, by first introducing highly influential attitudes in defining literacy in early childhood leading up to the more diverse orientations during the last decade. Further, what we propose in this chapter is to structure the presentation around two loosely theoretical orientations; ‘digital literacy as multimodal meaning making’, and ‘digital literacies as embodied, material and socio-spatial’. Towards the end of this chapter we draw out some implications and issues of theorisations within the field of digital literacy practices in early childhood.