My recent context was an International Primary School in Hong Kong where I taught Early Years following the British curriculum. The school had quite a traditional teacher centred approach and this generally coincided with the expectations of the parents. An ICT program was run in a computer lab and Interactive Whiteboards were installed in some classroooms. Money was spent on new technologies but no cohesive plan had been developed and the ways in which the technologies would be used or how to make them accessible at the point of need had not been addressed. There was NO consideration of pedagogical changes associated with technology use.
Although I loved using the IWB I do feel it actually encourages a more teacher directed style of learning. I am interested in the enquiry based model but I am a little skeptical as to how effective and practical it is with young children when you consider the amount of support they will need to develop necessary skills to use technology and also in developing the group cooperation and metacognitive skills that are necessary. I feel that a scaffolded version is more appropriate for younger children which then means more teacher direction. I want to find out more about what this balance might look like.
Issues in technology use in Early Childhood identified from my experience
Technologies and applications may not be 'developmentally appropriate' (National Association for the Education of Young Children
(NAEYC)) for younger children.
Interaction with adult or more competent peer is important (dare I say crucial) for learning - how to ensure this happens.
Need for reading skills means many applications are difficult to use without support
One teacher and 25 kids with no support staff - hard to give all support needed
Issues involved with using parents
Crowded curriculum and lack of time - takes time to learn to use the technology and takes longer to learn something using an independent enquiry approach. Could argue here that the deeper learning means time well spent but how to cover all the other stuff in the curriculum we are supposed to be doing as well?
Need for group cooperation skills (sharing, turn taking, listening, compromising, explaining etc) hampers independent use
Lack of language skills to explain understandings, development of language skills crucial
Need for advanced organisational skills to grapple with independent projects
With varied backgrounds in technology use from home and varied abilities and learning styles how to ensure all children working at the right level of challenge for them
Younger children have shorter concentration spans and are easily distracted from a task
IWB and other presentation technology can encourage teacher directed learning
Some computer use/software encourages individual use (social isolation) which does not fit with a social cognitive view of learning, does not stimulate dialogue
Much software is basically pretty bad
ICT lessons focus on teaching skills in using technologies but not on learning through their use ("tool-to-be-taught" emphasised over "tool-for-teaching" - terms from Rivera)
Technologies are generally used as add ons in classroom, not really integrated
My recent context was an International Primary School in Hong Kong where I taught Early Years following the British curriculum. The school had quite a traditional teacher centred approach and this generally coincided with the expectations of the parents. An ICT program was run in a computer lab and Interactive Whiteboards were installed in some classroooms. Money was spent on new technologies but no cohesive plan had been developed and the ways in which the technologies would be used or how to make them accessible at the point of need had not been addressed. There was NO consideration of pedagogical changes associated with technology use.
Although I loved using the IWB I do feel it actually encourages a more teacher directed style of learning. I am interested in the enquiry based model but I am a little skeptical as to how effective and practical it is with young children when you consider the amount of support they will need to develop necessary skills to use technology and also in developing the group cooperation and metacognitive skills that are necessary. I feel that a scaffolded version is more appropriate for younger children which then means more teacher direction. I want to find out more about what this balance might look like.
Issues in technology use in Early Childhood identified from my experience
(NAEYC)) for younger children.