This year you might find yourself in a position where you are coaching early learning educators on their journey to use iPad in a play based curriculum. Or you may be an early childhood educator wanting to start using digital tools in your learning environment.
Whichever group you fall into, this discussion and companion book is here to guide your thinking!
Get Started!
- Download Digital Play - A free book and professional learning experience by Marc Faulder and Kristi Meeuwse.
Digital Play - available for free on Apple Books. - Follow Marc Faulder and Kristi Meeuwse on Twitter.
Discussion Point 1: Defining 'Play'
Before introducing anything new to teaching and learning it's important to share an understanding of where you and your team are right now. Let's start with creating a shared understanding of what you mean by 'play' and what it looks like in your setting.
Read pages 4- 8 of Digital Play and reflect on your own reading, research and experience by taking a screen shot of page 9. Share your thoughts on Twitter or in the comments below.
Discussion Point 2 - Benefits of Digital Play
This section of Digital Play unpacks 5 types of digital play. It covers topics like screen time, exploration, different media types, digital assistants and hybrid play. We invite you take time to use all of the technology resources your school or setting currently owns, this can include iPad too. Spend time playing with these tools and reflect on the features of play you are experiencing whilst using technology playfully.
Read pages 10 - 17 of Digital Play then screenshot page 18 to capture your thoughts and feelings. Tweet this to us or share your notes in the comments here.
Discussion Point 3 - Learning and Digital Play
This section of the book walks through you a wide variety of examples of digital play from our classrooms. We share activity ideas for Literacy, Mathematics, Art, Science, Social Learning and Communication. These activities come with our own reflections on how this learning relates to play theory too.
Read pages 19 - 75 of Digital Play and take time trying out an activity that excites you. Take a screenshot of page 75 to capture your next steps and future plans. Tweet it to us or comment below to share what you will try.
Using Digital Play for Professional Learning
Our book can be used in two ways:
- If you are a teacher looking to improve or introduce technology in your early learning setting then you can take yourself through the pages of this book to learn and reflect. Join the discussions on Twitter by sharing your notes or connect in the comments on this post.
- If you are a leader of teacher development and supporting early childhood educators to take new steps in using technology then you can use this book as slides for PD sessions. Share the book with your teachers too and let them reflect on the note pages and join in these discussions on Twitter or here in this post.
Please also rate and review Digital Play on Apple Books!
September 14, 2022
This is super timely! We are trying to set a standard of all iPad in K-2 across the 45 schools I work with. I will absolutely be sharing this book.
Thanks!
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