Michael Dezuanni & Karen Dooley 
iPads in the Early Years [PDF ebook] 
Developing literacy and creativity

Digital devices, such as smart phones and tablet computers, are becoming commonplace in young children’s lives for play, entertainment, learning and communication. Recently, there has been a great deal of focus on the educational potential of these devices in both formal and informal educational settings. There is now an abundance of educational ‘apps’ available to children, parents, and teachers, which claim to enhance children’s early literacy and numeracy development, but to date, there has been very little formal investigation of the educational potential of these devices. This book discusses the impact on children’s learning when i Pads were introduced in three very different early years settings in Brisbane, Australia. It outlines how researchers worked with pre-school teachers and parents to explore how i Pads can assist with letter and word recognition, the development of oral literacy and digital literacies and talk around play. Chapters consider the possibilities for using i Pads for creativity and arts education through photography, storytelling, drawing, music creation and audio recording, and critically examine the literacies enabled by educational software available on i Pads, and the relationship between digital play and literacy development. i Pads in the Early Years provides exciting insights into children’s digital culture and learning in the age of the i Pad. It will be key reading for researchers, research students and teacher educators focusing on the early years, as well as those with an interest in the role of ICTS, and particularly tablet computers, in education.