| Summary: | Young children in nursery and school at the present time are active participants in a community and a culture where the use of technology is a regular, and growing, part of daily life. This thesis discusses the possible benefits of children's experience and awareness of ICT and examines aspects of teacher-child interaction in the context using computers to support literacy teaching in the classroom. A detailed consideration of the 'scaffolding' process and its role in supporting teaching and learning with ICT is made. The thesis describes and analyses a research project carried out in primary and nursery school classes with children aged between 3 and 8 years, over a period of two years. The research was designed to explore how children use computers to read and write in the classroom and to investigate the teachers' style of interaction when supporting children's literacy with ICT. The research was conducted from a sociocultural perspective and a range of methods, including video recordings, observations, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to gather and evaluate data from children and teachers. After evaluation of the data, results from the project are analysed, and the thesis then discusses the findings of the study in relation to previous research and makes a number of points about the nature of teacher-child interaction around the computer during literacy sessions. The problematic nature of identifying and describing scaffolding and joint activity in the classroom is considered in detail and further areas for investigation discussed. In the concluding remarks a conceptual and theoretical position is advanced in the light of the study to determine ways forward for research in the field.
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