Jodi Altringer's List: Early childhood technology

• Technologies should be used to enhance curriculum and experiences for   childre
• I believe parents and teachers can take advantage of the interactive qualities   of a computer to enhance the experiences available to children.
• Unfortunately, technology   is often used to replace social situations and I would rather see it used   to enhance human interaction
• n addition, there   are a number of specialized programs that allow children with certain   information-processing problems to get a multimedia presentation of content   so that they can better understand and process the materia

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• There is
• no recognition of how much learning happens when adults get involved and expose children to the wonders of the world and then, using the growing range of tools at their disposal, help children seek answers to questions about what they have seen and experienced.
• expand horizons for young kids
• . It considers how young children might see themselves as authors with wider audiences, sharing and reflecting on each others' stories and prompting new creations and conversations.
• These possibilities won't end debates about exactly how much technology belongs in pre-K, kindergarten or early grades classrooms.
• , teachers shouldn't be marginalized. Instead, they should be front and center, guiding children on how, if and when to use technological tools and digital media.
• good decisions
• : Help teachers help parents.
• , I can attest to the desire for guidance in sorting through marketers' claims and alarmist headlines on any number of new technologies.

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• I really do believe that TV (especially in large and consistent chunks) is detrimental to children's brain development, not to mention their levels of physical activity, and I've limited my kids' viewing time accordingly. 
• - now there's so many more screens to worry about!
• "app gap"? It's a phrase coined by researchers who found that almost half of families surveyed with incomes above $75,000 had downloaded  apps specifically for their young children, compared with one in eight  of the families earning less than $30,000. More than a third of those  low-income parents said they did not even know what an “app” was. 
• The message is clear, computers are a part of our children's world - and always will be.
• "everything [her children] needed to learn, they could do so through  play, their daily experiences, and interactions with the people in their  world. What I hadn’t realized (and obviously do now), is that the iPad  does not replace any of these things, but can be a fun way to further  explore and explain my children’s world"
• extend learning experiences.

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• What if, instead of turning the computer off during the week, I turned it on, but with a catch: no watching. No playing. Only creating.
• . The games and apps they like may be entertaining and even educational, but they still put a kid on the receiving, not creating, end of technology.
• Maybe more time for lessons in creating and tinkering and finding the fun in trying will lead to an interest in tech and STEM careers, and maybe it won’t. Most of us just want our kids to find the fun in the creation, which is exactly why we shoo them away from the screens in the first place.

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• key word here is balance
• There needs to be a balance of unstructured play, creativity, physical activity and family time in children's lives—in fact, in adult lives too I believe. But technology is not inherently evil

• Clearly many of these developmental needs match up well with appropriate use of technology in the classroom, especially exploration, manipulation of symbolic representation, matching alternative learning styles, and quickly changing learning modalities that individual students can control and pace to meet their individual needs.
• The danger, however, is that computers will be used only to reinforce the national trend toward earlier and more academic skill acquisition, and that other important developmental needs will be ignored. Further, there is a danger that developmental needs not met through technology will be ignored or radically compromised: physical play, outdoor exploration of the community and of nature; art, music and dance; learning specific social skills and moral values, and experiencing diversity in a myriad of ways
• there is the reality that, all too often, computers are used in ways that are simply developmentally inappropriate - most often used for drill and practice purposes
• Appropriate use of technology in the classroom is to expand, enrich, implement, individualize, differentiate, and extend the overall curriculum

• To integrate computers effectively, these steps must occur:

   
• To make sure this new technology is used effectively, we must assure that teachers are fully trained and supported, and that the programs and Internet sites used are developmentally appropriate, nonsexist, nonracist, non-biased against people with disabilities, and respect religious differences.
• strive to use technology in ways where it is particularly powerful: individualizing, addressing learning disabilities and different learning styles, and bringing the world into the classroom.

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• when coupled with professional development, a media-rich curriculum could improve early literacy skills. The 4- and 5-year-olds from low-income families who had been taught with the media curriculum showed increases in letter recognition, sounds associated with letters, and understanding basic concepts about stories and print.
• The curriculum included intensive professional development and teacher-led activities with video and interactive games from the PBS television shows
• the teacher was actually viewing the episode with the children and interacting with the children, stopping to ask questions, pausing in certain places.”
• She cautions that many of the apps being developed today place too much emphasis on academic skills and not enough emphasis on making things, discovering, sharing and turn taking.

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• "in-depth training and ongoing support to be adequately prepared to make decisions about technology and to support it's effective use in learning environments for children
• That there should be conversations about intentional use of technology to connect on-screen and off-screen activities.
• enhanced and strengthened through technology choices, not replaced by them.
• "Integrate, Don't Isolate

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• reading
• Though the groups discourage "passive screen technology" usage -- like TV and DVDs -- with children under two, they don't suggest a ban on screens for preschoolers or kindergartners as some child-advocacy groups have suggested
• he groups puts the onus on teachers to make smart decisions and use technology appropriately.
• But the last few years of touchscreen technologies, digital photography and Internet video calls (i.e. Skype) are challenging assumptions about the isolating and detrimental effects of new technology
• What if "computers in the classroom" means children sitting in pairs around electronic tablets, talking about a recent field trip and sequencing video clips on what they did first, next and last?
• The NAEYC statement doesn't delve into what parents should be doing at home

  with their kids. But it makes an important point about what should be happening inside classrooms. When educators choose to use technology - whether online games, electronic white boards, or digital photo software -- they should use it to enhance lessons, not replace them. "Educators who la
• chniques
• reading
• lives
• n's lives. They can demonstrate technology-assisted activities that trigger new conversations and exploration.
• We need to be preparing teachers who know time-tested methods for teaching young children (yes, keep the play dough!) but who also see new technologies as a tool for sparking a love of learning

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