21-03-2014, 12:51 PM
Infusing ICT Use within the Early Years of Elementary Education
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ABSTRACT
Despite the ubiquitousness of computers in pre-schools and
primary schools, there exists both confusion and contradiction
concerning ICT and young children. The paper commences with
brief reviews of some early years curriculum statements,
position papers and selected research from around the world.
There is a considerable body of research reporting educational
advantages that arise from young children using ICT in a variety
of learning situations. There are also reports from both
government and independent bodies on the amount and type of
computer use at home and at school.
Introduction
Computers have become ubiquitous at all levels of
schooling in developed countries. As technology in
general, and information and communication
technologies (ICT) in particular, permeate our education
systems there is increasing concern that young children
are being “fast forwarded” through the basics of
educational uses of ICT. It is possible that because of a
lack of appropriate professional development, some
teachers of young children are emphasising technical
skills and the completion of products to the detriment of
independent self-paced exploration and understanding.
Haugland (1999) argues that computers and ICT can be
used in developmentally appropriate ways with very
young children. Discussing when children are ready to
learn using ICT she states, “It is my recommendation that
computers be introduced to young children when they are
about three years of age” (Haugland 1999:26).
Effective Use of ICT with Young Children
There are specific roles for teachers and other adults
interacting with young children who are using learning
technologies. Adults determine the physical
characteristics of learning spaces. Haugland (1999)
argues that for children in the early grades of primary
school, each classroom should have a “computer centre”
and a collection of developmentally appropriate software.
Using the term “learning centre” would appear to be
better because it takes the focus away from the
technology and in most early years classrooms would be
just one of several learning centres. Ideally the computer
learning centre will be highly visible with screens able to
be seen from anywhere in the room.
One School’s Approach
Possibly the best guidelines for teachers, and parents,
were written in the early years of educational computing
by people strongly influenced by the developmental
theories of Piaget. Solomon (1986) was a member of the
early Logo community that developed around Seymour
Papert at MIT in the 1980s. Papert had worked in Geneva
with Piaget, and consequently much of the original
research into learning with Logo was based around
Piagetian theories. Duckworth (1996) provides insights
into the way children in the early years of schooling
grapple with simple science experiments that appear to
contradict their intuitive beliefs. For many young children
there is a similar dilemma between what they anticipate
from an action with a piece of software, and what actually
occurs. Piagetian learning researchers hypothesise that
there are three routes to knowledge: perceptual, action,
and conceptual. In each case something the learner has
seen, done, or thought about creates links with a new
situation.