Issues and Tasks in Digital Literacy Education for Young Children

The purpose of this study is to discuss issues and tasks in digital literacy education for young children. Since the spread of tablets, the accessibility of digital literacy education for young children has improved as devices can be used more easily with finger movements compared to mice or keyboards. However, there is still a lack of information in the educational field on how to support digital literacy for them. Accordingly, as a result of analyzing recent studies in digital literacy education for young children, it is found that young children’s use of digital devices requires their teacher’s digital scaffolding. As young children create meaning multimodally by combining sounds, images, and text through digital platforms, it is necessary to include multimodal texts in early childhood education curriculum. Also, educational paradigm and developmental appropriateness needs to be considered for young children’s digital literacy. These results imply that either the digital device or environment itself does not guarantee educational changes; instead, it is a key to consider pedagogical strategies to support young children’s digital literacy based on their developmental appropriateness.