Playing and Learning with Technologies

Abstract

Playing was a central activity in the everyday lives of the 3-and 4-year-olds who took part in our research projects. They played at home, at nursery, went outside to play and were taken to play with friends. When their parents described how the children spent their time they often talked about them as either playing with ‘things' or with other people. We will return to what the children played with later but first I want to consider what we mean by playing and how play is related to learning.