Book Title: Designing Digital Learning Objects for Early Childhood Educators to Support their Professional Practice

Book Description

The aim of this project was to explore and create innovative digital learning solutions to support the development of pre-service and in-service early childhood educators’ professional skills. Research has indicated that a lack of professional development and the struggle to meaningfully integrate digital technologies has resulted in challenging knowledge gaps for ECEs (Aldhafeeri et al., 2016; Bird & Edwards, 2014; Vidal-Hall et al., 2020). Three digital learning objects (DLOs) are presented as a solution to these challenges. The areas of focus for the DLOs were chosen through personal experiences and interest: noticing skills within the learning environment, understanding and applying the Antecedent-Behaviour-Consequence model for observing children’s behaviours, and being cognizant and responsive to equity, diversity, and inclusion. This paper examines previous definitions of learning objects and DLOs before providing an updated working definition. The need for innovative digital learning solutions is then explored in relation to integrating digital technologies into early childhood educational practice. This is followed by a brief literature review that covers impactful research about DLOs and constructing learning. Next, the designs for each of the three DLOs are explored, detailing their type, purpose, and learning value. Lastly, it probes into possibilities for future research and alternative graduate projects, suggesting DLOs and other innovative projects could begin to bridge the gap between theory and practice regarding meaningfully incorporating digital technologies into ECE practices.