My Notes

5 Effective Ways for Young Children to use Technology:

1. make and display a graph

- a physical graph with objects that are meaningful

- use the childrens interests

2. explore with digital tools

- important to explore things with new perspectives (magnified)

- save (pictures)  your experiences so the children can refer back to them

3. tell a story in pictures and words

- create art to go along with stories

- let children experiment with art software

4. write, record, and revisit

- record and document the pictures and turn them into an accessible book

5. share and document learning

- make sure you send the different pictures and books home with the children so that the parents can see the work and talk with the children

1. Social and Emotional: Using the computers is intrinsically valuable, the children enjoy using the technology and can engage the students and make school fun. Computers situated in an open area making social interaction more available.

2. Language Development: Oral language and interacting about their projects. Narrating and sharing their stories.

3. Physical Well-being: Make sure that the children are physically active with limited use and frequent breaks for the children to be active.

4. Cognition and General Knowledge: Manipulate things that can't be done in the physical world by using the computers, Use open ended practice instead of drill practice more like story boarding.

5. Approaches to Learning: Computers are good for assessing the skills and developing skills.

Using technology in the classroom can range from short and simple lessons to being an integral part of long-term projects.  Technology should be used in addition to hands-on learning, and should not take the place of important tasks children need to accomplish during their early years.

Technology can help children improve their social development, their language development, their cognition and general knowledge.

Technology can support educational goals and support content standards when used in a planned, guided manner.  It can help with students' language development and emergent literacy and mathematics.  Adult participation and guidance are important.

When selecting software for young children, it is critical to choose software that is DAP.  It should:

Encourage exploration, imagination, and problem solving

Reflect and build on what children already know

Involve many senses and include sound, music, and voice

Be open-ended, with the child in control of the pace and the path

Hardware that can be used in the classroom:

Tape recorders

Video cameras

TV/VCRs

Fax machines

Portable keyboards

Digital microscopes

Computers

For choosing technology to be used with younger children, the best choice for a particular situation may be no new technology, or just simple tape recorders and cameras.