Nineteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This paper is concerned about learning and living in the 21st century - a time of social turbulence on a global scale. For children from low socio-economic backgrounds it is also a time of austerity that impacts on their daily lives in significant ways as “cutbacks” to education and social services limit their opportunities to thrive. This paper discusses the findings from a four year iPad project with young children in preschool and the early years of school. It considers what constitutes learning in the 21st century and posits what it means to be a multimodal learner. Working alongside teachers, with children in the west of Melbourne and in country regions, we sought to discover how tablet technologies can enhance and extend the use of traditional materials to enable young children to become literate and numerate in the 21st century. This paper describes some of the ways in which this was achieved, as well as encouraging the use of 21st century skills; creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication.