This article aims to explore how the interactive whiteboard is situated in the social and material conditions of an early years free-flow learning environment. It examines how the affordances of the interactive whiteboard and the expectations of the surrounding classroom impact how activity involving the interactive whiteboard unfolds. It achieves this through an analysis of observations, documented through video, of how children enter into and exit from activities involving the interactive whiteboard during free-flow activity time. We share the different types of entrance and exit observed and what these suggest about the social and material conditions in which interactive whiteboard is situated. Based on these findings, we suggest opportunities for the disruption of existing patterns of integration of the interactive whiteboard into the learning environment, so as to explore the potential for more collaborative and creative engagement with the technology. Specifically, we argue that the emphasis on turn-taking that characterises the early years learning environment – an emphasis reinforced by the inability of the interactive whiteboard to support simultaneous engagement by multiple users – is prompting children to engage individually with the resources and miss opportunities to create and play together.
BezemerJKressG (2015) Multimodality, Learning and Communication: A Social Semiotic Frame. London: Routledge.
2.
BezemerJMaversD (2011) Multimodal transcription as academic practice: a social semiotic perspective. International Journal of Social Research Methodology14(3): 191–206.
3.
BraunVClarkeV (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology3(2): 77–101.
4.
BurnettC (2014) Investigating pupils’ interactions around digital texts: a spatial perspective on the ‘classroom-ness’ of digital literacy practices in schools. Educational Review66(2): 192–209.
5.
BurnettCMerchantGPahlK, et al. (2014) The (im)materiality of literacy: the significance of subjectivity to new literacies research. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education35(1): 90–103.
6.
ByronT (2008) Safer Children in a Digital World: the Report of the Byron Review: Be Safe, Be Aware, Have Fun. London: Department for Children, Schools and Families.
7.
CraftAWegerifR (2006) Founding editors’ editorial – thinking skills and creativity. Thinking Skills and Creativity1(1): 1–2.
8.
CraftACreminTHayP, et al. (2014) Creative primary schools: developing and maintaining pedagogy for creativity. Ethnography and Education9(1): 16–34.
9.
CreminTBurnardPCraftA (2006) Pedagogy and possibility thinking in the early years. Thinking Skills and Creativity1(2): 108–119.
10.
DueragerALivingstoneS (2012) How Can Parents Support Children’s Internet Safety?London: EU Kids Online.
11.
DunnJGrayCMoffettP, et al. (2018) ‘It’s more funner than doing work’: children’s perspectives on using tablet computers in the early years of school. Early Child Development and Care188(6): 819–831.
12.
EdwardsS (2013) Digital play in the early years: a contextual response to the problem of integrating technologies and play-based pedagogies in the early childhood curriculum. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal21(2): 199–212.
13.
EdwardsS (2016) New concepts of play and the problem of technology, digital media and popular-culture integration with play-based learning in early childhood education. Technology, Pedagogy and Education25(4): 513–532.
14.
FlewittR (2005) Conducting research with young children: some ethical considerations. Early Child Development and Care175(6): 553–565.
15.
FlewittRKucirkovaNMesserD (2014) Touching the virtual, touching the real: iPads and enabling literacy for students experiencing disability. Australian Journal of Language & Literacy37(2): 107–116.
HodgeRHodgeRIVKressGR (1988) Social Semiotics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
18.
JewittCKressGR (eds) (2003) Multimodal Literacy. New York: Peter Lang.
19.
JewittCMossGCardiniA (2007) Pace, interactivity and multimodality in teachers’ design of texts for interactive whiteboards in the secondary school classroom. Learning, Media and Technology32(3): 303–317.
20.
KressG (2009) Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. London: Routledge.
21.
KucirkovaNSakrM (2015) Child–father creative text-making at home with crayons, iPad collage & PC. Thinking Skills and Creativity17: 59–73.
22.
KucirkovaNMesserDSheehyK, et al. (2014) Children’s engagement with educational iPad apps: insights from a Spanish classroom. Computers & Education71: 175–184.
23.
LabboLD (1996) A semiotic analysis of young children’s symbol making in a classroom computer center. Reading Research Quarterly31(4): 356–385.
24.
LemertCBranamanA (Eds) (1997) The Goffman Reader. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell.
25.
MacRaeC (2011) Making Payton’s rocket: heterotopia and lines of flight. International Journal of Art & Design Education30(1): 102–112.
26.
MarshJ (2010) Young children’s play in online virtual worlds. Journal of Early Childhood Research8(1): 23–39.
27.
MarshJPlowmanLYamada-RiceD, et al. (2016) Digital play: a new classification. Early Years36(3): 242–253.
28.
McInnesKHowardJMilesG, et al. (2011) Differences in practitioners’ understanding of play and how this influences pedagogy and children’s perceptions of play. Early Years31(2): 121–133.
29.
MercerNWarwickPKershnerR, et al. (2010) Can the interactive whiteboard help to provide ‘dialogic space’ for children’s collaborative activity?Language and Education24(5): 367–384.
Pacini-KetchabawV (2012) Acting with the clock: clocking practices in early childhood. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood13(2): 154–160.
32.
Pacini-KetchabawV (2013) Politicizing transitions in early childhood. Global Studies of Childhood3(3): 221–229.
33.
PalaiologouI (2016) Children under five and digital technologies: implications for early years pedagogy. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal24(1): 5–24.
34.
PartenMB (1932) Social participation among pre-school children. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology27(3): 243.
35.
PlowmanLStephenC (2005) Children, play, and computers in pre-school education. British Journal of Educational Technology36(2): 145–157.
36.
PlowmanLStephenCMcPakeJ (2010b) Supporting young children’s learning with technology at home and in preschool. Research Papers in Education25(1): 93–113.
37.
PlowmanLStephenCMcPakeJ (2010a) Growing Up with Technology: Young Children Learning in a Digital World. London: Routledge.
38.
Rojas-DrummondSMAlbarránCDLittletonKS (2008) Collaboration, creativity and the co-construction of oral and written texts. Thinking Skills and Creativity3(3): 177–191.
39.
RoseSWhittyP (2010) ‘Where do we find the time to do this?’ Struggling against the tyranny of time. Alberta Journal of Educational Research56(3): 257.
40.
SakrM (2017) Digital technologies in early childhood art: Enabling playful experiences. London: Bloomsbury.
41.
SakrMConnellyVWildM (2016) ‘Evil Cats’ and ‘Jelly Floods’: young children’s collective constructions of digital art making in the early years classroom. Journal of Research in Childhood Education30(1): 128–141.
42.
SellersM (2013) Young Children Becoming Curriculum: Deleuze, Te Whāriki and Curricular Understandings. London: Routledge.
43.
StephenC (2010) Pedagogy: the silent partner in early years learning. Early Years30(1): 15–28.
44.
Trafi-PratsL (2019) Thinking childhood art with care in an ecology of practices. In: SakrMOsgoodJ (eds) Postdevelopmental Approaches to Childhood Art. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 191–210.
45.
Van LeeuwenT (2005) Introducing Social Semiotics. London: Psychology Press.
