A Narrative Inquiry into the Experiences of Children and Parents with Technology: What Are Real and Unreal Worlds?

Abstract

We always think of play as something of more of an organic interaction. What if play was considered in terms of technology. This inquiry attended to children and their parents' stories and experiences to find out what is the definition of play from their perspectives and how young children experience technology in terms of real and unreal. Many adults find the technological world quite different from children's perspectives; however, children in some cases consider technology-based games and natural play as the same world. This narrative inquiry attempted to understand what the participants feel, think, and perceive from the concepts of natural play and technology-based games for facilitating the process of learning, and how participants recognized and differentiated between these two worlds. Following the narrative inquiry tradition, I shared my lived experiences and stories with the participants, explained the research questions, and then asked participants to share their stories. Four participants, two mothers and their children attended three research conversations each, for a one-hour duration over three months. They narrated their stories regarding their understanding of the concept of play alone, with friends, or in parallel. Participants also shared their stories about boundaries between two worlds. The experiences and opinions of the participants were similar in some of their stories and different in others. Their stories give the reader and the researcher a deep insight into the perspectives of parents and their children on the concept of play and the world of technology.