ABSTRACT
In contemporary post-industrial communities, young children’s encounters with digital technologies are increasingly considered to be a significant feature of their experiences at home and in their educational settings. Digital play and technologies generate strongly held and polarised positions among parents, practitioners, policy-makers and social commentators. Policy-makers are keen to capitalise on the apparent potential for developing new skills and the enhanced knowledge capacity which investment in educational digital technologies seems to offer. Research about children’s encounters with new technologies and digital play happens in the context of rapid expansion in the reach and range of digital resources. The term ‘special edition’ is an apt label for this focus on digital play and technologies. The level of interest that digital technologies generate is indeed special among research and practice areas in the years. Parents evaluate the opportunity for their children to engage with digital technologies positively and negatively.
