Applications: Strategies for choosing educational apps for tablets. This study explores digital tablets and how they are integrated in the Swedish preschool, with special interest in what strategies preschool teachers have when choosing educational apps for tablets. In order to gain deeper knowledge in the subject of matter, four qualitative interviews with four different preschool teachers from four different preschools were made. The study has a sociological perspective and will examine preschool teachers’ thoughts on, as well as experiences in, educational apps for tablets and how the teachers integrate them in the daily practice of Swedish preschools.Previous research in this department show children’s escalating use of ICT. Furthermore, the Swedish curriculum has incorporated ICT as one of the national objectives. However, there is an absence of instructions for teachers on how to integrate ICT in the curriculum. This study shows that many teachers feel they have not prioritized the integration of the digital technologies due to e.g. lack of time, knowledge, interest or experience in the subject. Moreover, studies show that more than often digital tablets are used as an implement to keep the children calm and quiet, or as a tool for documentation. However, the teachers who were interviewed all claimed that they have a purpose when choosing apps for activities. The teachers’ previous knowledge about ICT does therefore not seem to be the issue. This study aims to supplement teachers’ knowledge in how to integrate digital tablets in the preschool curriculum.

The main purpose of this study is to describe and increase the understanding of preschool teachers´ experiences regarding pedagogical documentation with digital tablets. The focus of the study was to reveal how the digital tablets are used for pedagogical documentation. Our hope is to give new meaning concerning ICT, information and communication technology, on a daily basis at preschools. The method that we used in this study is qualitative interviews to reach and get knowledge about preschool teachers´ experiences with digital tablets. In the results we have been able to conclude that the positive properties, such as digital tablets being a fast and simple way of creating pedagogical documentation, that the technique offered were bigger than the negative aspects, which resulted in a general positive outcome. / Uppsatsens övergripande syfte handlar om att beskriva och förstå hur pedagoger upplever arbetet med pedagogisk dokumentation med hjälp av den digitala pekplattan. Numera kan den pedagogiska dokumentationen i förskolan ske snabbt och enkelt genom digitala pekplattor. Det är till exempel enkelt att skicka iväg bilder eller information, direkt i stunden. Det kan givetvis vara mycket smidigt, men vår problematik som vi vill poängtera i detta examensarbete, är att teknikens snabba funktioner och processer kan möjligen minska eftertanken och utrymmet för egna reflektioner. Metoden som vi använder är kvalitativa intervjuer. Resultaten som vi kom fram till i studien var att de positiva egenskaper som tekniken möjliggör överväger de eventuella negativa aspekterna. Resultaten bekräftar att pedagoger i förskolan överlag upplever att deras dokumentationsarbete förenklas med hjälp av den digitala pekplattan. Problemen som vi upptäckte hänvisar alltså till teknikens snabba hantering som eventuellt kan minska möjligheterna för egna reflektioner.

This study explores young children's use of digital tablets in Swedish preschool environments, with special interest in how the use of digital tablets may affect children's agency. A multimodal, design theoretical approach was used, combined with sociology of childhood, to highlight the dynamics between children's agency and the affordances provided by the digital tablets. Two video ethnographic substudies were conducted within two separate preschool settings, including preschools where children use digital tablets to communicate in a minority language. In order to take into account as many modes of communication as possible, video recordings of children's use of the digital tablets was set side-by-side with screen recordings of the digital tablets. Major findings include how children's agency in digital tablet activities is intertwined with the different affordances, as emerging in the children's interaction with one another and the digital tablet. It was found that when affordances were built on visual, auditive and corporeal modes of communication, children's agency was enabled. Such affordances are in this study argued to be more, for the children, apt modes of communication for children to exert agency. Furthermore, it is argued that when children are given the possibility to communicate in their minority language, using for example Skype, this is a form of children's agency. The didactical implications and the societal potentials for children's use of digital tablets in preschools are discussed in relation to the creative skills individuals may need in an unknown future.

Society has undergone major and revolutionary changes in a relatively short time, where the individual is surrounded by and has become increasingly dependent on digital technology and programmed objects. The availability of digital tools such as digital tablets (e.g. iPads) has increased significantly in the Swedish preschool, even though research in this area is limited. It is therefore of utmost importance to examine how teachers use digital tablets to support children's learning, both in general but also in relation to technology education, where the latter also includes computer programming. This thesis intends to contribute to such an examination in the form of two studies. In study 1, an online survey was used that consisted of 26 questions that were sent across Sweden and in which 327 respondents participated. Questions were posed about how teachers work with digital tablets together with preschool children. Specifically, the following research questions were raised: What educational activities with digital tablets do teachers engage in Swedish preschools? What are teachers’ views of the educational benefits and disadvantages of using digital tablets in teaching? and, What are teachers’ recommendations for using digital tablets in their teaching practice? In study 2, another online survey was developed based on the findings from study 1 and contained 16 questions that resulted in 199 responses from across Sweden. In study 1, teacher responses around programming proved prominent, which study 2 aimed to explore more deeply. Therefore, the survey questions adopted in the second study probed how preschool teachers implemented programming activities during preschool teaching. Results from the two studies showed that despite a lack of competence, equipment and support from school leadership, numerous teachers often develop and use their own initiative to integrate digital tablet and programming activities in preschool. Teachers communicated several advantages of programming activities with respect to children's learning, aspects that were linked to the notions of 21st century skills and computational thinking. When it comes to methods for designing and implementing activities in practice, several connections to Papert's constructionism were seen as meaningful for the children, where activities contained a large degree of project based work with room for promoting children's agency. The results of the research clearly indicates that solid teacher-initiated work with digital tools as pedagogical resources is underway in earnest across Swedish preschools. In order to realize the advantages of teachers’ development of digital tablet activities for learning, teachers must be provided with prerequisite support necessary for an optimal integration of digitization tools into preschool education. In this regard, teachers should be offered competence development, as well as time for effective implementation, planning and follow-up. Access to appropriate digital tools is also a proviso for realizing this mandate. Increased collaboration between school managers and teachers would also further steer such initiatives in a positive pedagogical direction.

This study aims to explore the attitudes and practices of Swedish parents regarding the use of digital tablets for their toddlers' English language acquisition. The study focuses on the perceptions of parents regarding the role of tablets in supporting or hindering the development of English language skills in English language learners during early childhood. A qualitative research design was adopted, employing a thematic analysis approach to analyze the data collected from semi-structured interviews with six participating parents. The interviews aimed to investigate the ways in which parents perceive the impact of tablet usage on their children's English language learning. The study revealed that parents generally viewed the use of digital tablets as a positive tool for supporting their children's English language learning. The tablets facilitated early exposure to a foreign language and sparked their child's interest in language learning. However, concerns about potential drawbacks such as excessive screen time were also expressed. Parents reported various strategies and techniques to support their children's language learning, including parental controls, child-friendly language learning apps, and active participation in tablet-based activities. Overall, this study contributes to the growing body of research on technology use in early childhood education and provides valuable insights into the experiences and perceptions of Swedish parents regarding their toddlers' English language learning through digital tablets.