Reconceptualising Play and Learning in the Lives of Young Children

A DECADE AGO I WROTE an article entitled Technology as play in which I called for early childhood educators to rethink the way in which they regard play. This involved not only incorporating the notion of playing with new technologies but also critiqued the essence of what constituted play and the link with learning that was viewed uncritically. Here, I review and update this discussion, revisit the literature about how play is conceptualised and suggest that, while play is an essential component of exemplary early childhood experiences, it needs to be related to new technologies and pedagogical practices that are designed to support learning in diverse ways, rather than being regarded as the only catalyst for learning that occurs automatically in all types of play contexts.