Traditional and Technological Enrichment: Preschool Parents and Emerging Digital Products.

摘要

This study is an exploration of families and enrichment from both traditional and technological perspectives. Twelve upper-income educated parents of children ages 2-5 participated in this qualitative study. The data collection had two primary strands: (1) a parent interview and (2) three forms of corroborating evidence for the self-report data: an inventory, a parent-child observation, and a confirmation survey. Parents were interviewed about their beliefs and practices with traditional enrichment outside of school, including the use of museums and classes to teach their young children. Parents were also interviewed about beliefs and practices with emerging digital products, including digital toys, digital games, and apps. Inventories of the child's emerging digital products were conducted at the family homes, and a subset of the products was used in a guided observation. The results showed that the parents had similar patterns of traditional enrichment to one another, using a combination of classes, museum, library, and home enrichment. However, parents were divided in their personal philosophies and uses of technology as enrichment for young children, with anti-technology, pro-technology, and mixed-stance parents participating. This study found most parents in the study felt emerging digital products were more entertaining for their children than educational. Parents had different concerns and thoughts about imagination and technology, with some feeling emerging digital products guide the play too much, while others use technology as a springboard for creative projects. The results also showed that there is not a unified framework with which parents in this study are approaching technology and learning for preschoolers (including television, computers, tablets, smart phones, emerging digital products). In other words, a product rated very educational by one parent may be banned or disregarded by another. In the sample interviewed, parents were revealed to be somewhat isolated in decisions about emerging technology, not talking to parent peers about technology as a part of their parenting practices as they do with other issues such as sleep problems. In sum, while traditional enrichment practices are shared by the parents in this study, technological enrichment practices were quite divergent.