Abstract
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of young children using digital media. Children are regularly using the internet to play, communicate, and explore. Educators and researchers are beginning to examine the social and cognitive implications of children’s use of interactive media and the internet. Socio-cultural and ecological systems theories offer a perspective that can support our understanding of internet use and young children’s cognitive development. This chapter examines three popular internet applications: virtual worlds, virtual field trips, and tele-collaborative projects. Drawing on the ecological systems and socio-cultural theories, implications for children’s development are considered.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human behavior: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Burnett, C., & Wilkinson, J. (2005). Holy lemons! Learning from children’ uses of the internet in out-of-school contexts. Literacy, 39, 158–165.
Common Sense Media. (2011). Zero to eight: Children’s media use in America. New York, NY: Common Sense Media.
Cordes, C., & Miller, E. (1999). Fool’s gold: A critical look at computers in childhood. New York: Alliance for Childhood.
Cox, E. S., & Su, T. (2004). Integrating student learning with practitioner experience via virtual field trips. Journal of Educational Media, 29, 113–123.
DeBell, M., & Chapman, C. (2006). Computer and internet use by students in 2003 (NCES 2006–065). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
Fish, A. M., Li, X., McCarrick, K., Butler, S. T., Stanton, B., & Brumitt, G. A. (2008). Early childhood computer experience and cognitive development among urban low-income preschoolers. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 38, 97–113.
Greenfield, P., & Yan, Z. (2006). Children, adolescents, and the internet: A new field of inquiry in developmental psychology. Developmental Psychology, 42, 291–394.
Gutnick, A. L., Robb, M., Takeuchi, L., & Kotler, J. (2011). Always connected: The new digital media habits of young children. New York, NY: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.
Harris, J. (1998). Virtual architecture: Designing and directing curriculum-based telecollaboration. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.
Hew, K. F., & Cheung, W. S. (2010). Use of three-dimensional (3-D) immersive virtual worlds in K-12 and higher education settings: A review of the research. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41, 33–55.
Hisrich, K., & Blanchard, J. (2009). Digital media and emergent literacy. Computers in the Schools, 26, 240.
Jackson, L. A., Von Eye, A., Biocca, F. A., Barbatsis, G., Zhao, Y., & Fitzgerald, H. E. (2006). Does home internet use influence the academic performance of low income children? Developmental Psychology, 42, 429–435.
Johnson, G. M. (2006). Internet use and cognitive development: A theoretical framework. E-learning, 4, 433–441.
Johnson, G. M. (2010). Internet use and child development: Validation of the ecological techno-subsystem. Educational Technology and Society, 13, 176–185.
Johnson, G. (2012). The ecology of internet use during middle childhood: Physical, social, emotional and cognitive development. In T. Amiel & B. Wilson (Eds.), Proceedings of world conference on educational multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications (pp. 1311–1316). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Johnson, G. M., & Puplampu, P. (2008). A conceptual framework for understanding the effects of the internet on child development: The ecological techno-subsystem. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 34, 19–28.
Kirkorian, H. L., & Anderson, D. R. (2009) Learning from educational media. In S. L. Calvert & B. J. Wilson (Eds.), The handbook of children, media, and development (pp. 188–213). Oxford, UK: Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9781444302752.ch9.
Leu, D. J., Kinzer, C. K., Coiro, J., & McCammock, D. W. (2004). Toward a theory of new literacies emerging from the internet and other information and communication technologies. Paper presented at the International Reading Conference, Reno, NV.
Li, X., & Atkins, M. S. (2004). Early childhood computer experience and cognitive and motor development. Pediatrics, 113, 1715–1722.
Livingstone, S. (2009). Children and the internet. Malden, MA: Polity Press.
Marsh, J. (2010). Young children’s play in online virtual worlds. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 8, 23–39.
Meyers, E. M. (2009). Virtual worlds, real learning. School Library Monthly, 3, 50–52.
NAEYC. (2012). Joint position statement of the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College: Technology as tools in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. Washington, DC: NAEYC.
Ofcom. (2007). Ofcom’s submission to the Byron Review. Annex 5: The evidence base. The views of children, young people, and parents. London, UK: Office of Communications.
Primary National Strategy. (2004). Learning and teaching using ICT. London, UK: DfES Publications.
Rushton, S., & Larkin, E. (2001). Shaping the learning environment: Connecting developmentally appropriate practices to brain research. Early Childhood Education Journal, 29, 25–33.
Simon, F. S., & Memeth, K. (2012). Digital decisions: Choosing technology tools for early childhood. Lewisville, NC: Gryphon.
Snyder, I. (2002). Communication, imagination, critique-literacy communication for the electronic age. In I. Snyder (Ed.), Silicon literacies: Communication innovation and education in the electronic age (pp. 173–183). London, UK: Routledge (Falmer Press).
Strasburger, V. C., Jordan, A. B., & Donnerstein, E. (2011). Health effects of media and television on children and adolescents. Pediatrics, 125, 756–767.
Tudge, J., & Rogoff, B. (1989). Peer influences on cognitive development: Piagetian and Vygotskian perspectives. In M. H. Bornstein & J. S. Bruner (Eds.), Interaction in human development: Crosscurrents in contemporary psychology (pp. 17–40). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society. The development of higher mental processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wertsch, J., Hagstrom, F., & Kikas, E. (1995). Voices of thinking and speaking. In L. Martin, K. Nelson, & E. Tobach (Eds.), Sociocultural psychology: Theory and practice of doing and knowing (pp. 276–290). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Yan, Z. (2006). What influences children’s and adolescents’ understanding of the complexity of the internet? Developmental Psychology, 42(3), 418–428. doi:10.1037/0012–1649.42.3.418.
Young, K. (2007). Toward a model for the study of children’s internet use. Computers in Human Behavior, 24, 173–184.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jones, I., Park, Y. (2015). Virtual Worlds: Young Children Using the Internet. In: Heider, K., Renck Jalongo, M. (eds) Young Children and Families in the Information Age. Educating the Young Child, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9184-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9184-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9183-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9184-7
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)