Constructing social participation around digital making: A Case study of multiliteracy learning in a Finnish day care centre

Authors

• Satu Valkonen University of Helsinki, Finland
• Reijo Kupiainen University of Tampere, Finland
• Michael Dezuanni Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Keywords:

multiliteracy, digital making, design process, social interaction

Abstract

In this article, we present a case study of digital making as an example for constructing social participation around multiliteracy learning in Finnish early years settings. Digital making is explored and evaluated through the practices and experiences from workshops conducted with four- to five-year-old children in one day care centre in the Helsinki metropolitan area in Finland. Reflections scrutinize children’s social interaction with digital technologies and aim to examine shared meaning-making in the design process. We explain how innovative technologies mediate and enable social interaction and what leads children to either collaborate or work individually while making meaning digitally. Our study indicates that although social participation can be intentionally achieved by children themselves, early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals and pedagogical practices play a pivotal role, especially when the cultural tools used in learning are new and unfamiliar to children, in this case tablet computers and smartphones.