Besides the technologies, it is important for us to understand early childhood education and its objectives in this discourse of learning by young children in this study. This is necessary, in order for us to comprehend and discuss the potential benefits and problems of using smartphones and tablets on children’s early childhood learning.
Different approaches have been adopted for the early childhood education, each with its own philosophy. Very often, early childhood educators have to decide for themselves and the children which philosophy they subscribe to. We could only attempt to arrive at some common grounds on early childhood education for this study.
Play based learning has been advocated by early childhood educators. The play based learning theory is based on constructivist studies by Jean Piaget (1953). Piaget believed that learning comes from within: children construct their own knowledge of the world through experience and subsequent reflection. And play is a medium for learning especially for young children simply because play is so intuitive to them. Some researchers like Winner and Melinda (2009) suggested, children learn more efficiently and gain more knowledge through activities such as dramatic play, art, and social games.
Dewey famously said, “Education is not preparation for life, education is life itself” (Dewey, 1897). The purpose of education is not to institutionalise children so that they learn what we needed them to learn. Rather, as Dewey