Strengthening the Use of Social Media Tools Globally in Early Childhood Development
A special issue of Children (ISSN 2227-9067).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 October 2024 | Viewed by 170
Special Issue Editors
Interests: language and literacy in early years; developmental psychology; social media technology in early childhood education
Interests: teacher self-efficacy; specific learning disabilities; the systemic support that is in place for teachers and principals to manage and teach inclusively
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Social media tools have been widely used in the education of children. Various social media tools have been popular in early childhood as they are regarded as efficient tools for developing children’s cognitive skills during their lifespan (Hooft Graafland, 2018). In the twenty-first century, social media technologies have been accessed daily by teachers, parents, school principals, and young learners to communicate and complete a range of teaching and learning tasks.
Studies reveal that social media tools can assist young children with diverse backgrounds in the development of language and literacy skills (e.g., Bus, Neuman, & Roskos, 2020; Mol, Neuman, & Strouse, 2014), connected learning (Vartiainen, Leinonen, & Nissinen, 2019), and high-order thinking (Zawilinski, 2009). There are also negative views related to children’s health and emotional issues in terms of overexposure to social media technologies (e.g., Cheung, Bedford, Saez De Urabain, Karmiloff-Smith, & Smith, 2017; Cingel & Krcmar, 2013; National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2012; Piotrowski, Jordan, Bleakley, & Hennessy, 2015). There are also claims that digital devices are not sufficiently used in multilingual preschool environments, where children choose traditional print books for their reading lessons (Hofslundsengen et al., 2020).
Are social media tools suitable for all young learners, such as preschoolers and children in lower primary education? In which way and to what extent are they applicable? How effective are they? This Special Issue will examine how and to what extent social media tools should be used to assist children in a multicultural context. We invite contributions, such as empirical research findings from surveys, interviews, case studies, and evidence-informed reviews.
Dr. Jinjin Lu
Dr. Stuart Woodcock
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- social media tools
- early childhood education
- inclusion
- child development
