The demands and motives afforded through digital play in early childhood activity settings

In drawing upon cultural-historical concepts this paper examines the demands that children meet when digital tablet technology is introduced during free play in early childhood settings. In particular, this paper reveals how an iPad and movie making program create new demands on children that afford a new relation between play and learning. Through analyses of video observations of children in one child care center in Australia it was found that how children respond to the new demands depends upon their motive orientation as they engage with tablet technology. The concept of flickering is introduced to capture how the microgenetic movement between collective and individual imagining in an activity occurs, between being in and out of an imaginary situation, and between concrete objects and virtual representations. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.