Mary Rose G.

Genova
Summary of Academic Journal

Leung, S. K. Y., Choi, K. W. Y., & Yuen, M. (2019). Video art as digital play for young children.
British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(2), 531–554. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12877

In the digital age, technology is part of the lives of young children. However, the digital play has
received conflicting remarks from various sources. Previous studies have argued that it has a negative
impact on health and wellness, brain development, and cultural competencies. In educational settings,
scholars claimed that digital devices could support learning.

Leung, Choi, and Yuen (2019) explored the role of video art by using digital devices to investigate
how children perform epistemic and ludic play. Epistemic play happens when children engage in
exploratory activities, while ludic play happens when children use the object to create imaginative play
(Bird et al., 2014). To see the possibilities of digital play in early childhood education, they adopted the
digital play framework (Bird et al., 2014), the taxonomy of play (Hutt et al., 1989), and the socio-cultural
concept of tool mediation (Vygotsky,1997) in their study. The nine children who participated came from
primary schools in Hong Kong and were part of a summer program in creativity and development. One of
them was a boy, and eight of them were girls whose ages ranged from five to eight. At the end of the
program, they were expected to demonstrate shooting and editing skills, synthesize thoughts and
viewpoints into symbolic moving objects, and use film language in their videos. The two-day workshop
provided them with technical skills, video concepts, and narrative skills. Children learned the cinematic
language, how to use the video camera, and make storyboard drawings. The children shot video footage
for their storyboard and recorded voice clips. They used film to create short videos to introduce their
favorite toys. Children acted as film directors, teaching assistants played as production aides, and
professional editors helped in footage editing. During the video production process, children made
decisions and displayed their artistry. While children performed ludic and epistemic play through
videomaking, their behaviors and dialogues were recorded and analyzed. The content analysis based on
the digital play framework of Bird et al. (2014), revealed that children learned to explore pieces of
equipment, developed creativity, and innovated using the digital device to create video works. Moreover,
the researchers uncovered that teachers' competence in digital play affects the children's performance.

Leung, Choi, and Yuen (2019) concluded that digital technologies are necessary for childhood
teaching and learning. The result of the study emphasized the importance of play-based learning and digital
technologies in early childhood education. Through digital devices, children made video artworks that
reflect their daily life. That proves that digital tools may be beneficial for integrating digital technologies
into children's play in the early childhood curriculum. Since there were few studies on the use of technology
in kindergartens, they noted that it is necessary to examine the potentials of open-ended digital devices in
early visual arts classrooms. The researchers suggested that future studies on play-based learning can
involve a larger sample of participants and more types of digital media so that a broader list of behavioral
indicators can be derived from children’s play behaviors. To effectively facilitate learning, they suggested
that teachers must know the pedagogical and artistic content of the subject matter. Therefore, researchers
also propose that media art education should be part of the education of teachers involved in the arts
curriculum.