As I reflect on a general topic in early childhood that interest
me, I am going to focus on the importance of integrating electronic devices
within the classroom. I know that this is already being done but I feel not as
much. My experience in working in several
preschools is that the only means of introducing children to technology is by having
two or three computers in the classroom. I see young children outside of school
using tablets, smart phones, and ipads. I have also worked with families that
still do not have the resources to obtain those devices and children should be
able to work with touch screens. When they are old enough to go into the
workforce, technology will be a must in mostly every field. An example is when children play with blocks,
teachers state that the child is developing skills that one day will prepare
him or her to become an architect or builder. That child should also be
introduce to a touch screen device where they can create three dimensional vies
of what they build. If that child does indeed become that architect or builder,
they would be already experienced in working with devices that the field would
require to get the job done. In selecting a topic that has not yet been
researched is hard for me to do and I hope I can further narrow down this
topic. Does anyone know of any research articles that discuss this already? I
would appreciate any feedback as well.
Hi Frank,
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting focus for research. I do not know of any articles to date, but will keep my eyes and ears open. I look forward to hearing about what you will learn on the subject of electronic devices in early childhood classrooms.
Good Luck,
Sally
Frank,
ReplyDeleteNAEYC's new position statement on technology will be a good place to begin. It is a reasonably comprehensive statement which I happen to disagree with profoundly in principle.
As a "Boomer", my education began prior to the advent of the PC. In elementary school, our technology was the reel to reel projector that was used for showing films. In addition, our technology included the "sslide rule" and and "compass" (a pointed metal device with a "holster" for a pencil used to draw circles!
By the time I was in High School, handheld calcultors that could perform trigonometry functions were just appearing.
Today, I can use technology with reasonable facility. I can also entertaing myself in a garden or empty playground. I refuse to own a cell phone.
The price of technology to our humanity is huge. Technology advances at a rate which we cannot keep up with in human terms. I do not think that high technology belongs in the ECE classroom with the exception of occasion use to support "children's research" and the regular use of assistive technology.
NAEYC's Young Children (April 2012) is devoted to technology. One of the articles is written by two people from Hatch. I thought this was highly inapprorpiate and a conflict of interest as Hatch is a major retailer of techology to the education and early education profession.
Before you embrace technology in the ECE classroom, I encourage you to consider its unintended consequences... child obesity, increasing ADHD diadnoses, repetitive motion, vision and back/neck problems seen at earlier ages, the decline in creativity since the 1990s. These are serious considerations and worth more investigation.
Respectfully,
Greg