While early childhood educators’ use of digital applications (apps) to document children’s experiences and support parent communication is increasing, there is limited empirical research about the impact of these applications on children’s experiences and educators’ practices. This article provides a critical analysis of the findings from this body of research with a focus on affordances and challenges. While the research supports potential benefits for parent engagement and pedagogy, a range of challenges relating to content, access, equity, workload and ethics are highlighted. Features of the neoliberal contextual that may enable the increasing use of apps and shape the way they are used are considered, and opportunities for future research to further critique, enhance understandings and inform practice proposed.

尽管幼儿教育者使用数字应用程序记录孩子的经历并支持父母沟通的方式在增加，但是关于这些应用程序对孩子的经历和教育者的影响的实证研究有限。本文对本研究的结果进行了批判性分析，重点是承受能力和挑战。尽管这项研究支持了父母参与和教学的潜在好处，但强调了与内容，访问，公平，工作量和道德相关的一系列挑战。考虑了新自由主义语境的功能，这些功能可能会增加应用程序的使用并影响其使用方式，并为以后的研究提供进一步的批评，增进了解和指导实践的机会。