Hacking Toys and Remixing Media: Integrating Maker Literacies into Early Childhood Teacher Education

Abstract

This study examined a literacy playshop curriculum that integrated maker literacies (i.e., collaborative play, toyhacking, filmmaking, video-editing, and remixing media) in two US teacher education classes with approximately 60 university students. Students engaged in digital puppetry activities using makerspace tools, iPads, and puppetry apps for young children. The students used craft materials to hack or redesign the children’s favorite media characters action figures to make interactive puppets for original films and for teaching a filmmaking lesson with a young child. Nexus analysis of literacy playshop activity analyzed pre-service teachers’ knowledge of seemingly “intuitive” digital literacies as a nexus of practice, or the tacit expectations, social practices, and text conventions in viral videos or computer apps that become engrained through engagements with immersive and embodied technologies. The chapter concludes with a summary of maker literacies and implications for early education gleaned from the complex interactions around teaching and learning through collaborative storytelling with iPad touchscreens.