Early Childhood Research Quarterly 32 (2015) 174–182
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Early Childhood Research Quarterly
Digital access to knowledge in the preschool classroom: Reports from Australia Karen Thorpe a,∗ , Julie Hansen a , Susan Danby b , Filzah Mohamed Zaki b , Sandra Grant b , Sandra Houen b , Christina Davidson c , Lisa M. Given d a
Queensland University of Technology, School of Psychology and Counselling, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, QLD 4059, Australia Queensland University of Technology, School of Early Childhood, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, QLD 4059, Australia c Charles Sturt University, School of Education & Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education, Australia d Charles Sturt University, School of Information Studies & Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education, Australia b
a r t i c l e
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Article history: Received 11 February 2014 Received in revised form 25 March 2015 Accepted 2 April 2015 Available online 15 April 2015 Keywords: Early childhood education Digital technology Web-searching Internet access Teacher beliefs Pedagogical practices
a b s t r a c t Australian preschool teachers’ use of Web-searching in their classroom practice was examined (N = 131). Availability of Internet-enabled digital technology and the contribution of teacher demographic characteristics, comfort with digital technologies and beliefs about their use were assessed. Internet-enabled technologies were available in 53% (n = 69) of classrooms. Within these classrooms, teacher age and beliefs predicted Web-searching practice. Although comfortable with digital access of knowledge in their everyday life, teachers reported less comfort with Web-searching in the context of their classroom practice. The findings identify the provision of Internet-enabled technologies and professional development as actions to support effective and confident inclusion of Web-searching in classrooms. Such actions are necessary to align with national policy documents that define acquisition of digital literacies as a goal and assert digital access to knowledge as an issue of equity. © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Introduction In 1996, and again in 2012, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) identified access to computer technology as an issue of equitable access to knowledge in early childhood education settings (NAEYC, 1996; NAEYC & the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College, 2012). Across that time, Internet-enabled digital technologies have become more mobile and, arguably, even more significant as a gateway to fast and current knowledge. In Australia in 2012, 96% of homes with children aged 0–14 years had Internet access, and in these homes, 81% accessed the Internet at home every day (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012). In the USA in the same year, 75% of families accessed the Internet at home (United States Census Bureau, 2014). Yet internationally, studies of children’s Internet use have focused predominantly on school-aged children (K-12) and access to digital technologies in the home (Danby et al., 2013; Marsh, 2004; Marsh et al., 2005; Yelland, 2008). This study asks how the pervasiveness of Internet access evident in the
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 7 31384707. E-mail address:
[email protected] (K. Thorpe). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.04.001 0885-2006/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
everyday life of young children transfers into the early education setting. A key issue, given the significance of the Internet in providing access to knowledge, is the inclusion of digital information searching into pedagogical practice. While most young children can acquire digital literacies and access current knowledge through the Internet in their homes, the minority of children who do not have access at home are dependent on public education and Internet access in their prior-to-school years. Aligning with the current literature on digital equity (Judge, Puckett, & Cabuk, 2004; Pegler, Kollewyn, & Crichton, 2010; Yelland, 2008; Yelland & Neal, 2013), the research questions investigated in the current study reflect three levels of gatekeeping for digital access to knowledge and support of digital literacy acquisition in early childhood classrooms: 1. Resource: What is the availability of access to Internet connection in early childhood classrooms? 2. Teacher knowledge and expertise: What is the relationship between teacher characteristics such as age, training, experience and comfort with digital access of knowledge and the inclusion of digital knowledge searching in the classroom? 3. Pedagogical beliefs: How do teachers’ beliefs about young children’s learning and use of digital technologies affect their reported digital access to knowledge in the classroom?
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Resources: availability of digital technologies, access to the internet and early childhood education Internet-enabled digital technologies serve as sources of knowledge, social interaction and, jointly, learning. As these technologies become increasingly smaller and more mobile they offer increasing possibilities for use in early childhood education settings because they are a dynamic, social, visual, and tactile medium that facilitates flexible, immediate and responsive interactions with current knowledge among classroom members. Yet the uptake of digital technologies in early childhood settings and the effectiveness of their use in early education is only an emergent focus. Existing evidence suggests that children’s use of digital technologies is less prevalent inside the early childhood classroom than in everyday life outside this context (Arrow & Finch, 2013; Marsh et al., 2005; Wohlwend, 2010) and less well integrated into the daily programmes in early childhood classrooms than those in the later school years (Plowman & Stephen, 2003a, 2003b; Plowman, Stephen, & McPake, 2010). The reasons are not fully understood but may relate to educational discourses centred on the young child that relate to the assessed value of digital forms of learning against other curriculum and pedagogical demands (e.g. the belief that there are more valuable sources of learning that should be prioritised in early childhood) (Lentz, Seo, & Gruner, 2014; Plowman & McPake, 2013) and social discourses relating to safety (e.g., the belief that young children should not be exposed to the ‘dangers’ of the Internet or exposure to digital technology is not “healthy”) (Lentz et al., 2014; Livingstone, 2003; Livingstone, Haddon, Görzig, & Ólafsson, 2010; Plowman & McPake, 2013), child competence (e.g., a presumption that as emergent readers, young children cannot access information from the Internet) (Livingstone et al., 2010) and economic priority (e.g. the belief that older children are more likely to need and benefit from access to digital technologies) (Beale, 2014). Increasingly, these discourses are being challenged by the demands for equitable access to current knowledge (Australian Government, 2008; Livingstone & Helsper, 2007; NAEYC, 1996; Pegler et al., 2010; Yelland & Neal, 2013), the everyday visibility and the documentation of the digital competence of the very young (Davidson, 2009, 2011; Houen, 2012; Spink, Danby, Mallan, & Butler, 2010) and the growing economic and equity imperatives to direct educational investment to the very young (Heckman, Grunewald, & Reynolds, 2006; OECD, 2006; Thorpe, Cloney, & Tayler, 2010). Inclusion of digital access to knowledge into early childhood pedagogy is an imperative evident in international educational policy and curriculum specifications (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Australia (DEEWR), 2009a; Souter, 2010; UNESCO, 2014). Evidence suggests that children and teachers are increasingly exposed to digital technologies, and specifically the Internet, in their lives outside the classroom (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2009, 2011, 2012; Gutnick, Robb, Takuchi, & Kotler, 2010; Livingstone & Bober, 2005; NetRatings Australia Pty Ltd & Australian Broadcasting Authority, 2005). However, little is known about the Internet access experiences of teachers and children within the early childhood classroom. Digital technologies provide fast access to current knowledge. For this reason, acquisition of digital literacies are now specified as learning goals in curriculum documents such as the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (DEEWR, 2009a) and have been argued as an educational right and issue of social equity (Judge et al., 2004; Livingstone & Helsper, 2007; Pegler et al., 2010; Yelland & Neal, 2013). The argument for digital access as an educational and social right has advanced beyond academe to educational policy (DEEWR, 2009b) and philanthropic activity including Dell Youth Learning (2014) and the Smith Family’s Tech Pack Project (Neal, Yelland, Dakich, & Jones, 2010). In Australia,
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for example, the availability of laptops for school-aged children emerged as a focus between 2009 and 2013 (DEEWR, 2009b). The most prominent policy concern in this regard is the provision of resources to students in secondary education and includes philanthropic partnerships to provide laptops to those living in circumstances of disadvantage and Internet access to those living in remote areas. The aspirations identified by the Australian Government and other OECD governments include ensuring child access to Internet-enabled devices for school-aged children and provision of high-speed broadband connectivity (Australian Government, 2008; European Commission, 2010; New Zealand Ministry for Economic Development, 2010; OECD, 2008; Swedish Ministry of Enterprise Energy and Communications, 2009). In early childhood education, access to digital technologies and acquisition of digital literacies has also been documented as an education right and issue of social equity. This position is manifest in a range of documents (Australian Government, 2008) and position statements (NAEYC & the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College, 2012; Souter, 2010) UNESCO’s initiative Education for All prioritises inclusion and quality of digital technologies in education (UNESCO, 2014). Yet, internationally, public data on availability of Internetenabled digital technology in educational settings is scarce. In the early education space, there is a mismatch between curriculum documents that identify digital literacy as an educational aim and other policy documents where there is a notable absence of comment regarding the provision of Internet access in classrooms. In the non-compulsory early childhood sector, where there are often multiple providers that function both for-profit and not-for-profit, the absence of an explicit policy implies digital access is primarily the responsibility of individual providers and not a public responsibility. The first question addressed in the current study, therefore, directs attention to documentation of the range of available digital technologies and Internet-enabled access in preschool classrooms. Knowledge and expertise: digital knowledge and comfort as factors affecting practice in early childhood classrooms Availability of digital devices and Internet-connectivity are necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for equitable knowledge access and learning. Beyond the restraints of availability and Internetenabled access, the characteristics of the teacher, particularly their knowledge, skill and comfort, have been identified as factors that affect integration of digital technologies into classroom practice. Evidence from the schooling sector suggests teachers’ use of digital technologies to access knowledge is best described as being on a continuum (Mueller, Wood, Willoughby, Ross, & Specht, 2008). While some teachers do not use the Internet-enabled technologies available in their classrooms, others integrate these technologies into their everyday teaching interactions with children (Mueller et al., 2008). There is currently little evidence from early childhood classrooms that such integration happens daily. The available research indicates that digital access to knowledge in early childhood classrooms remains minimal with practices showing preference for print literacy formats (Arrow & Finch, 2013; Blackwell, Lauricella, Wartella, Robb, & Schomburg, 2013). Research approaches have been guided by two perspectives pertaining to the role of teacher characteristics in the uptake of digital technologies in the classroom. The first perspective suggests a divide centred on age and gender. The proposal of generational differences is an adaptation of Prensky’s conceptualisation of digital learners that asserts a dichotomy between “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” (Prensky, 2001). This conception would imply that younger teachers who have grown up with digital technologies in their everyday life are more receptive and intuitive in introducing digital technologies in their classrooms than older teachers for
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whom exposure to digital technology has come later in life which, therefore, translates into slower and less comfortable introduction of digital technology into their classrooms. There is some evidence for this hypothesis (Marsh et al., 2005). In addition, there is evidence for a gender divide in which male teachers are more likely than female teachers to employ digital technology in the classroom (Shapka & Ferrari, 2003; van Braak, Tondeur, & Valcke, 2004). Given that the overwhelming majority of teachers in early childhood are women, gender differences may contribute to uptake and integration of Internet-enabled technologies. The second perspective challenges the idea of a digital and gender divide and instead focuses on individual differences in teacher skill and comfort by directly questioning teachers about their experience and comfort in using digital technologies and assessing the association of these individual responses with classroom practice (Bennett, Maton, & Kervin, 2008; Sugar, Crawley, & Fine, 2004). While some studies provide evidence for group differences that relate to age or gender, this variability across groups is shown to be overly simplistic and increasingly less important than individual variability. A number of scholars have argued the pervasiveness of digital technologies in the lives of all people, regardless of age, renders Prensky’s conceptualisation of digital divide a diminishing phenomenon (Bennett et al., 2008; Pegler et al., 2010). In the current study, our second question focused on the association of early childhood teachers’ classroom practices with demographic characteristics and individual reports of comfort in using a range of digital technologies in everyday life outside the classroom. Findings relating to demography might suggest a generational difference and identify specific target groups for professional development. In contrast those relating to individual difference would suggest more complex, individualised and organisational approaches as the target for promoting confident use of digital technologies. Beliefs and attitudes: understandings of children’s learning with digital technologies as factors affecting pedagogical practice in early childhood classrooms Young children’s competence in using digital technologies to conduct sophisticated open-ended learning tasks such as Web-searching are observable in everyday life and have been documented in detailed observational analyses (Davidson, 2011; Houen, 2012; Spink et al., 2010). Yet the ability of emergent readers to conduct such sophisticated tasks is not well understood and the value and appropriateness of such activities questioned (Lindahl & Folkesson, 2012a, 2012b; Livingstone, 2003). Further, against a background of many competing curriculum demands and pedagogical ideologies use of digital technologies in early childhood classrooms may not be a priority (Lentz et al., 2014). Epistemological beliefs and specific conceptualisation of the usage of digital technologies have been found to affect the degree to which digital information searching is included in classroom practice (Acker, Buuren, Kreijns, & Vermeulen, 2011; Blackwell et al., 2013; Lindahl & Folkesson, 2012b). Importantly, teachers’ beliefs have been shown to affect the quality of the learning experiences afforded young children (Brownlee & Berthelsen, 2006). Thus while teachers may employ digital technologies on a daily basis for the access of knowledge, their practices may be for personal use and knowledge transmission rather than as an interactive tools for individual and group inquiry (Lentz et al., 2014; Smerdon et al., 2000). The available data on child learning suggest that optimal and equitable outcomes are achieved through constructivist pedagogical practice in which digital technologies are employed in open-ended, interactive and responsive exchanges that allow social construction of knowledge (Andrew, 2007; Hermans, Tondeur, van Braak, & Valcke, 2008; Hillman & Moore, 2004; Lentz et al., 2014; O’Dwyer, Russell, & Bebell, 2004). The third question addressed by the current
study, therefore, directs attention to the association of belief systems about children’s learning and the role of digital technologies within teachers’ knowledge searching practices.
Method This paper reports on data from Kids and the Web (KWEB). KWEB is a study funded by the Australian Research Council that employs survey and video-recorded observation in the class and home to gain understanding of both when and how preschool children access the Internet. As preschool children are emergent readers, the focus extends beyond the content of Web-searches to consider the process by which these searches are undertaken in home and early education settings. Such searches are often achieved through social interaction with adults and other children. This paper reports on KWEB survey data to provide an overview of digital knowledge searching across an entire population of ECE teachers employed by the major provider of preschool in one Australian State. Observational data based on a subset of 9 classrooms and 18 homes are presented elsewhere (Danby, Davidson, Given, & Thorpe, in press; Danby et al., 2013; Davidson, Danby, Given, & Thorpe, 2014). The analyses of these data presented in the current report focus on preschool teachers as a gateway to digital knowledge access in the classroom. Respondents were 131 early childhood educators (99% female) participating in KWEB. All were teachers in the State of Queensland, Australia, and employed by the Crèche and Kindergarten Association (C&K), a not-for profit organisation that provides 92.9% of preschool education in Queensland (Dowling & O’Malley, 2009). The state of Queensland is Australia’s third most populous state (population 4.7 million) and second largest in area (1.7 million square kilometres). The population is largely urban, residing in cities and towns on the Eastern seaboard, with almost half of all residents living in the capital Brisbane (population 2.2 million) though some populations live in regional and remote locations supporting agricultural and mining industries. The social makeup of the population is broadly similar to other major states of Australia with the exception that it has a larger population of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples (6% vs 3% of the National population of 4 year olds) (Queensland Government Statics Office, 2014). The study was confined to Queensland where the researchers are located because of the demands of the observational component of the study, however, as all Australian states work to a National early childhood curriculum and Nationally prescribed standards of teacher training (Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACEQUA), 2014) the findings are, at least in these significant respects, applicable beyond Queensland. The participating teachers ranged in age from 23 to 65 years (M = 35 years, SD = 10 years) and had between 1 and 38 years of teaching experience. The highest levels of education attained were 3-year diploma (11%), 4-year university degree in Education (67%), or a Masters qualification (15%). These levels are representative of the population of kindergarten teachers in Queensland (DETE, 2014) and Australia (ACEQUA, 2014). The social diversity of communities in which the teachers worked at the time of this study is representative of the population of children 3–4 year-olds attending early education programmes in Queensland (Queensland Government Statics Office, 2014). The classes studied are the equivalent of Pre-kindergarten (Pre-K) in the USA and nursery school in Britain. They provide 15 h per week of educational programme across a minimum of 40 weeks per year. The classes typically have one accredited teacher and an assistant for class groups of 22 children, aged 3.5–4.5 years. Comparison with nursery programmes in Britain and Pre-K programmes in the USA using standard observations (ECERS, CLASS) identify similar levels of structural, emotional,
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organisational and instructional quality (Tayler, Ishimine, Cloney, Cleveland, & Thorpe, 2013). Initial recruitment was through the C&K newsletter and an email to each C&K centre explaining the purpose of the study, inviting teachers to participate, and providing the website link for teachers to complete the questionnaire online. All 350 C&K early childhood centres have Internet access. Surveys were distributed via the C&K centres intranet to the centre director. While we were able to confirm delivery of the surveys to each centre, follow-up indicated that some centres had not distributed surveys to teachers within centres. While our inability to verify teacher receipt limited response rate calculations, the known lower bound of response rate was 38%. Measures An online survey was constructed using Key Survey software. The survey was developed with reference to prior studies and included, with permission, items from the British study of Marsh and colleagues published in 2005 (Marsh et al., 2005) to allow comparability across time. New questions were developed by the research team with reference to studies conducted in early childhood (Plowman et al., 2010) and other available items from studies conducted within the school and home setting (Moursund & Bielefeldt, 1999; Pew Internet in American Life Project, 2000). Our aim was to increase focus on digital knowledge searching. A hard copy was produced from the online form to allow offline completion, thereby avoiding the confounding of method of delivery with the substantive focus of the study. A copy of the survey is provided in Appendix 1, in the online supplementary materials. The survey sought information in three broad areas: 1. Classrooms: including computer and Internet access in classrooms, computer-based activities and educational practices (including frequency and type of use); 2. Teachers: teachers’ demographic information, their at-home digital technology and Internet use (including hardware, software and types of Internet access), and their comfort with digital technologies and Internet access; 3. Teachers’ beliefs: about use of digital technologies and Internet access in early childhood classrooms. The key variables are outlined below. Teacher everyday technology use Teachers provided details on the number of digital devices in their homes, including computers (desktop, laptops, netbooks, tablets), televisions, game consoles and smart phones. They also provided details of their Internet use, including whether they had internet access at home, whether they used cloud computing, how often they used the Internet in a typical week at home and at work, and which search engines they used. Classroom Internet-access Teachers provided details on the availability of different types of computers in the classroom, including desktop computers, laptops, netbooks, tablets, TV and electronic whiteboards, and indicated whether these devices were Internet-enabled. Demographic information Data were collected on teachers’ gender, age, educational qualifications, and years of teaching experience with children.
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Teacher personal comfort with digital technology Teachers’ comfort with digital technology was assessed using a 14-item self-report scale. Teachers were asked to respond to the question ‘How comfortable are you in using the following?’ with respect to a range of different digital technologies, using a 6-point scale from 0 don’t use to 5 very comfortable. The digital technologies included software applications such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Paint and Photo Story, editing digital photos, adding computer software, adding programmes to mobile phones, using DVD players, computer games, searching online, using email, Skype and social networking sites (such as Facebook and Twitter), and explaining technology to children. Responses to these questions were aggregated to derive a total comfort score (Cronbach’s ˛ = .84). Classroom computer-based activities Teachers were asked to nominate how frequently they and the children in their classrooms used educational games, Web searching, word processing, and drawing programmes. The response scale ranged from every day to never/do not have in classroom. Classroom Web-searching Teachers were asked about the frequency of a range of practices using the Internet in their classrooms using 10 items with responses on a 5-point scale from never to every day. These practices included whole-class or small group discussions about how to find information on the Web, intentional teaching of Web searching skills, child-initiated discussions with classmates or the teacher about how to use technology, and children’s computer and Web-searching activities working individually or with an adult. Preliminary investigation using Horn’s parallel analysis indicated that this scale was unidimensional. A classroom Web searching practice score was derived through averaging scores on the items, so that the summary score reflected the original scale from 1 never to 5 everyday. Teacher beliefs about digital technologies and children’s learning Teachers were asked to indicate their level of agreement with a series of 20 statements about the role of digital technologies and the Internet in early childhood classrooms. Responses were on a 5-point scale (from strongly disagree to strongly agree). A principal components analysis was used to summarise these data for regression analyses. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy suggested good factorability (KMO = .82), and Horn’s parallel analysis identified two components with eigenvalues above chance values (upper 95% CI = 1.79). A two-component, orthogonal solution accounted for 42.5% of total variance. The first component, relating to the Value of digital technologies for young children’s learning, accounted for 32.2% of total variance. The 14 questions loading on the Values component had high internal consistency (Cronbach’s ˛ = .90). Questions relating to value included Having one of more computers in the classroom is an essential part of learning and Giving children access to the Internet is a priority for me. The second component was comprised of five questions relating to Concerns and Constraints, including Safety concerns stop me using the Internet in the classroom and Young children do not have the literacy skills necessary for Web searching. The Concerns and Constraints component, accounting for only 10.3% of the variance, had low reliability (Cronbach’s ˛ = .49) that could not be appreciably improved by deleting items. One item did not load on any component. The two scales, based on Factor 1, Valuing of digital technology, and Factor 2, Constraints to using digital technology, were calculated by averaging scores on the items related to each component, so that
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summary scores reflect the original 5-point scales (from strongly disagree to strongly agree). Procedure Teachers were provided with the options of online and hard copy completion to ensure that our method did not exclude any teacher less comfortable with digital communication. The majority of teachers responded through online survey although 18 (14%) took the option of completion by hard copy. Using both comparison of mean and of distribution, we examined whether there was any difference between those who did and did not respond by hard copy on classroom centre (SES of centre location, number of computers) and respondent (age, teaching experience, qualification, with digital technology, beliefs and teaching practice) characteristics. One significant difference emerged. Those responding by hardcopy on average had higher scores for Web-searching practice in their classroom [t(125) = 4.575, p < .001]. The finding is counterintuitive and possibly a statistical artefact of multiple comparisons though the significance is strong and remains significant after Bonferroni adjustment of alpha levels. Full results of comparisons are presented in the Appendix 2 online supplementary materials. The first page of the survey contained study information and sought participant consent in line with approved ethics procedures. The questions were presented using the Key Survey programme. Participants were requested, but not required, to answer all questions. Upon completion, participants were given the opportunity to provide personal details so that they could enter a prize draw for an iPod Touch. Analytic strategy Descriptive statistics were examined to assess the distribution of levels of computer access and Internet access. Distributions and bivariate relationships between all variables were explored. Multiple regression analyses were employed to model teacher-reported integration of digital technology into their pedagogical practice in those classrooms where there was Internet access (and therefore the full possibility of integrated practice). Predictor variables included in the model were number of Internet-enabled devices, teacher age, teacher personal comfort with digital technology, and teacher beliefs (Values and Constraints). Prior to data analysis, distributions of variables were checked for normality, outliers, linearity and homoscedasticity in bivariate relationships. Issues regarding breaches of assumptions are reported, where relevant, as part of the analyses below. Considering the large number of statistical tests carried out, a Type I error rate of .01 was adopted for all analyses. Results Descriptive Statistics Table 1 presents a summary of teachers’ responses to questionnaire items regarding access, use, comfort and beliefs about use of digital technologies, and specific items about Internet access both in their home and work context. Work context included both classroom and non-classroom access. While all centres and 98% of teachers had access to the Internet this was not necessarily in their classrooms. In 82% of classrooms, there was access to at least one desktop or laptop computer, however, only 53% (n = 69) of classrooms were Internet-enabled. The majority of classrooms had a single digital device. The range was 0–4 devices. All teachers reported regular use of digital technologies and the Internet at home or at work or both; 83% accessed the Internet at home, and
82% accessed the Internet at work every, or most days, although access at work was not necessarily within the classroom. Most teachers reported being comfortable or very comfortable using a range of programmes. All teachers reported being comfortable searching online, and all but one were comfortable using Two-thirds reported being comfortable using communication programmes such as Skype and social networking programmes such as Facebook and Twitter. Overall, teachers reported positive beliefs about the relevance and usefulness of the Internet in their early childhood classrooms. More than 80% of teachers agreed that it was of value to: use Websearching to build on the interests children bring to the classroom (81.5%); build upon children’s existing experiences with technology (86.6%); have young children learn literacy skills through use of computers (85.4%); and facilitate young children’s’ experiences with the computer at home (82.7%). The majority of teachers also agreed that: using technology in the classroom is an everyday part of learning (63.6%); and computers enable learning opportunities for children to interact with each other (69%). In contrast, few teachers identified concerns about risk (17.2%), with greatest impediment to Internet use being lack of access (53%). Association and Independent Contribution of Internet Access and Teacher Demographics, Comfort and Beliefs Table 2 shows inter-correlations among key variables in the survey: teachers’ age; years of teaching experience; teachers’ comfort with technology; beliefs about the relevance of digital technologies and the Internet in children’s learning; potential impediments; and the frequency of digital technologies and Internet-related classroom practice; the number of Internet-enabled devices in the classroom. Because absence of Internet in the classroom precludes the employment of digital searching within the range of pedagogical practices, these correlations are presented for the full sample (below diagonal) and for the subsample (n = 69) of teachers with Internet access in their classrooms (above diagonal). Inspection of the correlations among comfort and belief variables identifies differences in values but not direction of association. For example, comfort with technology and teacher’s age is −.34 for the total sample but −.36 for those with Internet enabled classrooms. In contrast, comparison of correlations between teacher age, teaching experience and availability of digital devices and practice evidences higher values among the sample with Internet-enabled classrooms compared with the total sample. In Internet-enabled classrooms practice was more strongly associated with demographic variables (age −0.21 vs −0.06; years of teaching −0.14 vs −0.06). This suggests that in Internet-enabled classrooms, younger and more recently trained teachers are more likely to utilise digital technologies. Table 3 presents the results of the multiple-regression modelling for classroom practice in Internet-enabled classrooms (n = 69). All predictors, except Concerns and Constraints about using the Internet, were bivariately correlated with classroom practice. When all predictors were considered together, the model explained 40% of the variability in reported classroom practice. The significant predictors were beliefs about advantage in use of the Internet, which uniquely explained 19% of the variance, and teachers’ age, which explained 4.7% of variance. Although correlated with classroom practice, teachers’ comfort with technology did not independently predict practice. Discussion Digital technologies are a significant part of the everyday life of the majority of people, including the very young. These
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K. Thorpe et al. / Early Childhood Research Quarterly 32 (2015) 174–182 Table 1 Percentage of teacher access, use, comfort, beliefs about digital technology and impediments to use (n = 131). Home
Work %
n Access Computer Internet Computer – classroom Internet – classroom Internet use By teacher: daily Most days
