Technology Uses with Young Children
In contemporary times, children are a part of the era of advanced natives (Fleer, 2011). They live in a world filled with innovations and use advanced technology in their day-to-day life (Plowman, Stevenson, Stephen & McPake, 2012). Many nations perceive the expanding part of innovation in kids’ lives as essential in integrating children into the society effectively. They emphasize on improvement of innovation-coordinated educational programs that are formative to enhance children’s first encounters with technology at home and in school (Plowman, Stevenson, McPake, Stephen & Adey, 2011)
In assessing the best use of technology, NAEYC applies standards of good formative practice and appropriate educational programs and evaluation. To them, suitable technology is necessary in the normal learning environment as a strategy to bolster kids’ learning. Early youth instructors ought to elevate fair access to technology for all kids and their families. Children with exceptional needs ought to benefit from this innovation through useful, deliberate, and proper application to suit their needs. Technology, especially interactive media technology, can serve as an effective tool to enhance development and learning for young children, when instructors utilize it appropriately and with deliberate plans aimed at addressing each child’s needs. Early school-age years represent the age when children begin using their society’s tools competently in reading, writing, calculating, and investigating. Through representational play and emulation of adults’ uses of technology, children acquire gradual mastery of these tools in learning and self-expression. Innovative web-based technologies also allow children’s active input in use of the technologies, enhancing the motivation, utility, and appropriateness of technology tools in influencing better learning among young children (“Selected Examples of Effective Classroom Practice involving Tools and Interactive Media”, 2012).
Sites such as Web 2.0 can be appropriate in promoting young children’s collaboration, playful experimentation, and writing, including children with special needs. Geometry software on the technologies can also permit children’s exploration of the concepts of shapes through combination of images and stretching, bending, and shrinking shapes. Interactive digital games can assist in explorations of math and science concepts and reading, which is a suitable strategy to foster young children’s imagination (“Selected Examples of Effective Classroom Practice involving Tools and Interactive Media”, 2012). This model taps into Piaget’s theoretical idea that children’s learning occurs through progressive reorganization of mental processes, based on biological maturation and environmental experiences (Simatwa, 2010).
References
“Selected Examples of Effective Classroom Practice involving Tools and Interactive Media” (2012). National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Document. Retrieved from: http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/PS_technology_Examples.pdf
Fleer, M. (2011). Kindergartens in Cognitive Times: Imagination as a Dialectical Relation between Play and Learning. International Journal of Early Childhood IJEC, 43(3), 245-259.
Plowman, L., Stevenson, O., Stephen, C., & Mcpake, J. (2012). Preschool children’s learning with technology at home. Computers & amp; Education, 59(1), 30-37.
Simatwa, E. (2010). Piaget’s Theory of Intellectual Development and its Implication for Instructional management at Pre-secondary school level. Educational Research and Reviews 5(7): 366-371. Retrieved from: http://www.academicjournals.org/article/article1379610138_Simatwa.pdf