Parent Perspectives of Digital Media for Learning at Home

Abstract

Children use digital media for a range of different reasons, including communication, play and learning. For some children, learning with digital media might involve structured activities, but for others, learning might occur using digital media as part of everyday life. This paper presents a study investigating parents' perspectives of how their children learn with technologies in home environments and how children's digital media ecologies are constructed by parents, children and other actors. Three families located in Australian cities with children between the ages of 4–8 years were included in the study (4 adults and 3 children). We present insights from the families about the tensions of digital media use in the home, what constitutes ‘learning’ for those families and how the digital media ecologies are developed. We analysed a series of vignettes to detail children's digital media ecologies, drawing on a sociomaterial approach to de-centre children and acknowledge the multiplicity of ways digital media ecologies impact learning and media balance.