From digital competence to digital capacity: A socio-material perspective on digitalization in preschool

Abstract

In 2019 digital technology was included as a compulsory knowledge content and educational tool in the Swedish national preschool curriculum. This study was conducted to examine preschool practices challenged by that policy, by analysing socio-material intra-actions at a preschool between humans, digital tablets, and other artefacts. The data, consisting of 170 minutes of film, were collected by video observations. The aim of the study is to explore digital technologies embedded in preschool practices by answering two research questions: What affordances are made in the intra-actions of children, teachers and digital technology within preschool practices? How can digitalization in preschool practices be described and understood from a socio-material perspective? The findings show two significant affordances, identified as multimodalities and mobilities, further used to describe the practices. The findings reveal how the settings of digital systems prerequisites intra-actions of humans and the digital devices. The finding also indicates a need to challenge the hegemony of digital competence as something learners merely acquire as users of digital tools and applications. The concept of digital competence becomes insufficient to describe the potentialities created in the meeting between humans and technology.