Secret Lives of Children in the Digital Age

"Teachers and parents frequently express concern about children’s use of technology both in schools and at home. They raise questions about the amount of time children should spend in front of screens, what constitutes appropriate use of digital devices, and whether children are safe when they are online. Laidlaw (Univ. of Alberta, Canada), O’Mara (Deaking Univ., Australia), and Wong (Univ. of Alberta, Canada) show readers how digital devices such as iPads have disrupted stale, more traditional forms of teaching, learning, and engagement that take place in schools and homes today. Through myriad research studies, they demonstrate the positive impact that digital devices have on children’s critical thinking, learning, and growth, even among children with disabilities. The authors address important questions that educators and parents have in terms of what constitutes appropriate technology use; what it means to be literate in today’s digital world; teachers' and parents' roles in this endeavor; and perhaps most importantly, children’s agency as producers and users of digitally mediated knowledge. Rich in research and anecdotes from the authors and teachers, this significant book challenges conventional thinking and practice regarding children’s technology use. It should be widely read."

C. B. Freville, Dominican University for CHOICE, May 2023, Vol. 60, No. 9

“This is a unique book. It makes the personal social and the social personal through reflection on lived digital experience and the findings of more than a decade of research in and about the learning spaces of homes, classrooms, and communities. Rich in data, adventurous in theory, and imaginative in conclusion, this book is a well-selected mix of new and re-printed pieces. It sparks insights about the lives of children born into digital worlds and about parenting and schooling by adults grappling with technological revolution. At once retrospective and prospective, it charts emergent ways of digital being and invites action for fairer futures for all young people. It is a book for re-reading.”

Karen Dooley, Ph.D., Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology

“The Secret Lives of Children in the Digital Age by Linda Laidlaw, Joanne O’Mara, and Suzanna Wong uncovers the lived, felt, and tacit ways that children move through digital spaces without much fuss, rather with energy, enthusiasm, even passion. Focusing in on Lego robotics kits and story play videos, the authors string together a series of small stories that collectively paint a vivid and vibrant picture of children’s rich daily digital encounters. It is a book that you can sit with and linger over and it is an absolute pleasure to read.”

Jennifer Rowsell, Professor of Literacies and Social Innovation, Co-Deputy Head of School, School of Education, University of Bristol

“In The Secret Lives of Children in the Digital Age: Disruptive Devices and Resourceful Learners, Laidlaw, O’Mara, and Wong masterfully weave together over a decade of data from four research studies that occurred across two continents. Integrating the voices of youth, teachers, parents, caregivers, researchers, and other educational stakeholders, the authors trace the role of technology in youth meaning-making experiences in and beyond school, providing readers with multiple perspectives of the complex nature and transformative possibilities of youth digital practices.”

Sandra Schamroth Abrams, Ph.D., Professor, St. John’s University, USA

Acknowledgments

Foreword
Dennis Sumara

Chapter 1:
Introduction

Chapter 2:
Living in the iWorld: Two Literacy Researchers Reflect on the Changing Texts and Literacy Practices of Childhood

Chapter 3:
Early Literacy Instruction and Complexity

Chapter 4:
Rethinking Difference in the iWorld

Chapter 5:
Parents and Teachers, Disrupted

Chapter 6:
Locking Up the iPads: Administrative Controls and Resourceful Teachers

Chapter 7:
Big Brother, Little Sister: Digital Surveillance at Home and at School

Chapter 8:
Secret Lives, Private Spaces, and Social Media

Chapter 9:
A Conclusion: Stumbling Toward the Digital Future

Afterword
Jill Blackmore

About the Authors

Index

Linda Laidlaw

Linda Laidlaw is a Professor working in the area of early literacy in Language and Literacy Education at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Alberta. She teaches courses at the graduate and undergraduate level in early literacy, drama education, writing, literacy for the elementary years, and research methods. Formerly a classroom teacher, her research focuses on digital and mobile technologies in primary education, diversity, and the relationships between children’s digital practices at home and their experiences at school. Her research takes up case study, auto-ethnographic and microethnographic methods and is informed by complexity thinking and frames from literacy theory. Her latest projects are two international collaborative studies: Reimagining Literacy Education: Being Literate in the Twenty First Century, which aims to develop new frames and strategies for literacy education in a changing world; and Making Literacy Through Maker Literacies: Building Learning Opportunities in Early Childhood, which investigates ‘making’ strategies and pedagogical frames through working with teachers, parents and children.

Joanne O'Mara

Joanne O’Mara is an Associate Professor of Language and Literature Education and Chair of English teaching method at Deakin University. An experienced secondary English and Drama teacher, she has continued to work with young people and schools through her university research. She particularly values the opportunity to work with students to develop their confidence and self-belief. She considers herself extremely lucky to have the opportunity to work with wonderful colleagues on a series of projects that are valuable. This research includes reading for pleasure, literacies and new textual practices; digital play and games; literacy pedagogies and gratitude and secondary English and drama pedagogy.

Suzanna Wong

Suzanna So Har Wong has two primary research areas. One is understanding young children’s home digital literacy practices. The other is the connections between literacy learning and makerspaces in elementary classrooms. In addition, she is interested in studying children’s engagement with critical literacy, equity, and social justice in- and out-of-school settings. She has worked with researchers in Canada, Australia and United Kingdom during her Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Alberta from 2017 to 2019. Currently, she is an adjunct professor and assistant lecturer in Elementary Education, Language and Literacy, at the University of Alberta.