Making Sense of the Virtual World for Young Children: Estonian Pre-School Teachers’ Experiences and Perceptions

The study provides an overview of teacher perceptions regarding young childrenʹs internet use and media education in pre-schools. Two focus-group interviews with 24 Estonian pre-school teachers were carried out in order to analyze their experiences and opinions about factors that influence pre-school childrenʹs computer and Internet use. Pre-school teachersʹ perceptions about their own role in shaping childrenʹs media literacy were also examined. The results indicate that teachers consider the role of the family on childrenʹs computer use to be more significant compared to their own role. Although the teachers started to acknowledge their own role as supervisors and parentsʹ counselors as the interviews progressed, no curriculum-based media literacy shaping is done in the classrooms. Furthermore, rather than developing childrenʹs awareness of the media, various new media had been used as "enrichment" and significantly fewer activities that would actually help to shape childrenʹs media literacy were mentioned.