‘Once upon a time there was a mouse’: children's technology-mediated storytelling in preschool class

Abstract

With the current expansion of digital tools, the media used for narration is changing, challenging traditional literacies in educational settings. The present study explores what kind of activities emerge when six-year-old children in a preschool class write a digital story, using a word processor and speech-synthesised feedback computer software. Empirical material was collected in a primary school that participates in a larger community project on writing with digital technology. The focus of the study is on how the storytelling activity is mediated by the technologies and the participants (teacher and children). The results show that the digital tools used, in part, directed the children away from narrating, instead turning their attention to negotiations of division of labour and literate conventions. The latter were also at the forefront of the teacher's contributions to the children's activity. Despite these circumstances, the children succeed in accomplishing the instructed task of collaboratively composing a story.

Keywords:

• digital technology
• storytelling
• interaction
• mediation
• early childhood education

Acknowledgements

This research was conducted within the Swedish national research school for preschool teachers: Childhood, Learning, and Didactics (FoBa SM 729-2011-4652) and within the Linnaeus Centre for Research on Learning, Interaction and Mediated Communication in Contemporary Society (LinCS) funded by the Swedish Research Council. The authors wish to thank the teacher and children for participating in this study.

Notes on contributors

Ewa Skantz Åberg is a PhD student at the Swedish national research school for preschool teachers: Childhood, Learning, and Didactics. Her ongoing research concerns how digital technologies mediate children's story-making practices.

Annika Lantz-Andersson holds a post doc in the faculty of education at the University of Gothenburg. Her research is rooted in sociocultural traditions with a focus on social interaction, the use of digital technology and what that implies for learning and education. She is currently involved in research projects concerning young peoples' literacy and participation in new media ecologies.

Niklas Pramling is professor of education at the University of Gothenburg. He has a background in studies in literature history and psychology. In recent years he has been involved in several research projects on children's learning in the arts. In addition to learning in the arts, his main research interest concerns teacher–child communication.