Investigating the potential of touchscreen technology in early childhood education

This paper reports on a research project which investigated children’s use of touchscreens in early childhood and junior primary settings by introducing touchscreens in five classrooms in Melbourne. Several methods to obtain information about how children interacted with the touchscreens were used including observation, journals and field notes, and interviews. The research identified five key themes, relating to developmental issues, input device preference, technical issues, individual differences in children’s use of the touchscreen and issues of collaboration. This research was funded by touchscreen manufacturer MicroTouch Australia.