Using Digital Technologies in Early Childhood Art Education

Digital technologies have the potential to offer new opportunities for children’s expressive arts practices. Although adult expectations surround and shape children’s visual art making on paper in the early years class- room, such expectations are not so established in relation to digital art making. So how do children make sense of digital art making when it is newly introduced into the classroom? Interactions demonstrated that children’s digital art making was negotiated and constructed through particular processes. Three such processes are presented here: the use of collective motifs and metaphors, attributing “expert” status, and polarizing conflicts. Understanding these processes offers a starting point for thinking about how a new activity like digital art making can be integrated into the early years classroom and supported by practitioners