Our paper explores the use of digital media as reflected in teachers' beliefs and practices in using ICT and digital AI-based toys in daily pedagogical work. The basis for this is the result of a questionnaire that was carried out in Germany, Italy, Denmark, and Lithuania within the framework of the EU project "I am not a robot. Working with AI in pedagogical practice".

Studies show consistently that educators use digital media in kindergarten only to a limited extent. This finding can be explained by the lack of integration of meaningful pedagogy. However, for the successful implementation of an AI initiative, it is important to understand the educators' motivations and behaviours in detail. Therefore, a questionnaire was developed based on a previous study on digitalisation in kindergartens (Knauf 2019). The equipment of the kindergarten, the beliefs, and attitudes of the educators towards digital media, especially towards AI-based toys, and the knowledge of the educators about AI itself are recorded. An important influencing factor are the beliefs of the educators. According to Kunter (2011), beliefs include value commitments, epistemological beliefs, subjective theories about teaching and learning and objective systems. Value commitments are aimed at the attitudes towards the activity as a pedagogical and teachers and the importance of STEM topics for early childhood education. Following within-case, country-specific, and cross-case, cross-national analyses, different foci on the value of technology were identified in the sample, leading to different goals for practice. At the same time, a European comparison of ECE in the use of digital media in the four countries involved is possible. This reveals surprising similarities, but also culturally determined differences. If we compare the situation in ECE across Europe, we find that research at the political, governmental and practical levels (Alexiadou & Stadler-Altmann, 2020) is similar with regard to current issues. At the European level, the European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu 2017) provides a competence framework as orientation that can be used at the national level, e.g. for the design of further training and projects.

The synthesis of the results led to a description of categories that represents a relationship between beliefs and practices and expands our knowledge about the reaction of educators to the introduction of digital media in kindergarten. Therefore, the results of the comparing analysis are related to the DigCompEdu in order to be able to point out suggestions for a profitable use of digital media in pedagogical work. The results obtained correspond to the results presented by Slutsky et al (2019): Teachers who opposed technology use felt that children need more hands-on experiences and opportunities to develop socially and emotionally, which is achieved through interactions with peers during play. Others were concerned about children becoming addicted to technology and the lack of creativity when the technology carried out all the work for the child. One of the main aims of the project is to inform educators about the benefits and risks of digital media for their educational work and to take their concerns and fears seriously. This is to be achieved by providing toolboxes for pedagogical work.

In the conclusion of our presentation, we therefore also show how the results of the survey enabled the development of the toolboxes. The toolboxes provide concrete implementation possibilities on how complex technical issues, e.g. AI, can be integrated into the educational kindergarten work. To facilitate access to content for educators children's questions in the field of AI are chosen as the starting point for the development of the tool boxes. This also clarifies the children's perspective and interest (Borowski et al. 2016).

Quantitative research design was used to achieve the study's objective (Cohen, Manion, and Morrison, 2018). A project-related self-reported questionnaire was developed on the basis of a survey on digitalisation in kindergartens (Knauf 2019). In addition to the equipment with digital media, this questionnaire explicitly focuses on the use of digital media and the attitude of the teachers towards digital media in the kindergarten everyday life. Five items record the equipment of the kindergarten with digital media in order to be able to compare the educators' statements on digital media with the possibilities of using digital media against this background. Four items ask about the use of digital media in documenting educational progress and for communication processes. The questionnaire focuses on the pedagogical work with the children and the use of digital media and AI-based toys (8 items). Three items are used to record which possibilities the educators have to get support in their pedagogical work. In addition, the questionnaire offers room for open answers in each topic block. The research questionnaire was translated into the German, Italian, Lithuanian and Danish languages. The reliability analysis of the questionnaire was performed: Cronbach Alfa was 0,859 which indicates a good internal compatibility of questions. The research respondents were kindergarten teachers. The educators were sampled using the random probability sample strategy. The questionnaire was responded by 827 pedagogues from Lithuania (N=170), Germany (N=186), Italy (N=391) and Denmark (N=80). The obtained research data was processed using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 23.0 and MS Excel programs adapted to Windows. Descriptive Statistics, including Kurtosis and Skewness, correlational analysis, K-Means Cluster Analysis were used for quantitative and percentage analysis.

The main result of the study is that educators still have a critical view on digital media in their work with children. At the same time, it is also evident that many educators recognize the benefits of digital technology and consider it necessary for young children to gain experience with it. However, the evaluation of the data also shows that educators in the different countries involved in the study have different views of digital media. The results are comparable to the studies of Slutky et al. (2019) and describe beliefs of educators in STEM settings, which are also taken up by Kucharz et al. (2020). In contrast to these studies, the results of our survey are not used for further training courses but are used directly in the development of didactical material for the pedagogical work. The results of the survey were directly incorporated into the development of the toolboxes in the project. In order to take the educators' reservations and fears about AI seriously, specific explanations about digital media and AI have been included. In particular, the effect of digital media on children aged two to six years was explained. In addition, the game ideas contained in the toolboxes have been explained twice: for the educators in the context of their respective national education plan and for the concrete implementation of the play idea with the children. As the toolboxes are implemented in different European countries, different cultural aspects as well as different requirements in the respective education system have to be taken into account. The comparative analysis provides essential insights in this regard.

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