Digital pop-ups: studying digital pop-ups and theorising digital pop-up pedagogies for preschools

Whilst a lot is known about the digital environments of preschools, less is understood about the emerging digital pedagogies of teachers. This paper presents the findings of a cultural-historical study of pedagogical practices of teachers as they implemented a digitally enhanced play-based programme where the MyCreate app was used to make an animation of a fairytale. Over a period of 5.4 weeks, digital observations (27.3 h) of 5 teachers and their 31 children (aged 3.4–5.5 years; mean age of 4.4 years) were undertaken. The central findings capture both the existing practices found in the literature and a new practice named as a digital pop-up. The microgenetic analysis identified that the same digital pop-up afforded very different actions by the teacher to realise the goal for making a digital animation. It is argued that the new digital pop-up needs new pedagogies where teachers act as co-actors, co-animators, co-directors with sensitivities around person and digital intersubjectivity, virtual-concrete combination; virtual designing; stimulating digital motive; digital authenticity; pop-up digital area; digital imaginary situations. A digital pop-up is purposefully oriented towards the goals of preschool education and its original institutional structure, but in ways that capture the digital dynamic world of the young child.