Media childhood today

Are digital media making their way into the kindergarten?

Media childhood today

It is not a new insight that childhood today is also a media childhood. Digital media permeate everyday family life in many ways. The miniKim Study 2014 and the KIM Study 2016 already depicted the trend four and two years ago, respectively: computers or laptops and cell phones/smartphones as well as access to the Internet are part of the basic equipment for almost all families (at least. 95% of those surveyed), regardless of how old the children living in the household are (sources: miniKIM 2014; KIM 2016). 

Mobile media and young children

In 2014, the miniKIM found that "among four- to five-year-olds, one in four (24%) has already had experience with computers, while computer use among two- to three-year-olds (6%) is the absolute exception. (...) According to the main educators, only seven percent of all children have had any experience at all with the Internet, while five percent use the Internet regularly. When they first used the Internet, the children were on average 3.8 years old." A tablet PC was in the household of 23% of respondents: alone, 25% of four- to five-year-olds already use tablet PCs, compared with just 12% of two- to three-year-olds. 

Tablet PCs and smartphones were still a relatively new phenomenon in 2014, so it can be assumed that mobile use of Internet content by younger children has increased in recent years. In addition to a wide variety of children's websites and apps specifically for children, the classic TV landscape has also changed in recent years. In addition to the traditional public and private TV stations with their children's programming, providers such as Netflix or Maxdome are expanding the offering. Children's programs can be watched on the Internet at any time and in any place. 

In addition to the independent use of media, "learning from the model" is a special aspect for younger children: parents, relatives and caregivers are role models - also in their media use.

Teaching media skills in daycare centers, kindergartens and after-school care centers

In addition to the parental home, nursery schools, kindergartens, schools and after-school care centers are also important socialization stages for children. Secondary schools and an increasing number of elementary schools are addressing digital media in their lessons. But has this development also reached daycare centers? What attitudes do educators and managers have toward digital media? And how are these social developments reflected in the concepts of the facilities? Is media literacy taught in everyday life, or are digital media still a taboo?

Answers to this question are provided by the partial study "Mobile Media and Internet in Childhood - Focus on Daycare Centers" published by the JFF - Institute for Media Education at the end of February. Employees of 33 daycare centers, kindergartens and after-school care centers in Bavaria were surveyed. 

The results show that the facilities surveyed are particularly heterogeneous in their concepts: Digital and mobile media are addressed in very different ways. Some facilities have not included digital media at all. While other concepts do not address how media competence is to be taught, others describe specifically how media education work is to be implemented. Digital and mobile media have found their way into daycare centers, but the spectrum ranges from organizational and communication tools for staff to educational toys, rather than tools for pedagogical work.  

This heterogeneity is further reflected within the personal attitudes of the pedagogical staff. The study divides into three groupings: "We'd rather do something else" to "digital media create diverse learning opportunities" to "we have to make friends with it". What is important for media educational action is how convincingly and persuasively the educational staff can represent their own attitudes, especially at management level. 

(Click) Tips for educational staff: Getting started with digital media for kindergarten and elementary school children

On the following pages, educators who want to use digital media in practice will find suggestions for a wide variety of projects that can be implemented in kindergarten and after-school programs, as well as children's offerings that have been evaluated in terms of media education. 

 

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