Nursery World - Digital research

The news story 'Staff "need digital guidance" for supporting literacy' last week reported incorrectly that research by Rosie Flewitt at the Open University found that some children do not have access to learning with new technologies because they come from less affluent families.

This over-simplifies a complex set of factors identified by theresearch, which found that parent and practitioner beliefs about therole of new technologies in children's lives shaped their opportunitiesfor engaging with digital media. Some children from highly educated,affluent families had very little exposure to new technologies, whereassome children from less affluent families were given excellent supportat home to develop their literacy skills through new technologies. Someparents were fearful of potential harm to 'childhood' from digital mediaBut, says Ms Flewitt, 'The children we observed who were the mostcomputer savvy, were also the ones who took part in the greatest rangeof indoor and outdoor activities, and led extremely diverse lives. Whatmatters most is the quality of support they receive from adults andpeers.'

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