The Really Useful Book of ICT in the Early Years

Harriet Price

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781135866792
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

Practitioners and students wishing to know how very young children develop an awareness of ICT will find this text invaluable.

ICT has arguably one of the biggest impacts on every-day 21st century life, so its inclusion in the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum reflects the need to encourage forward-looking practice in classrooms and nurseries.

This book enables you to help young children develop their knowledge, understanding and skill in the use of ICT, with chapters from contributors with a wide range of practical experience. Full of ideas and new thinking, this practical guide shows you how to:

• promote independence in children's use of ICT through resources like digital cameras and role-play toys.
• explore the nature of creativity through ICT, using it to support the more traditional areas of art, music, dance and writing
• use ICT to enhance the physical and sensory aspects of outdoor learning experiences.
• harness the potential of ICT in reaching children with a variety of different learning needs, particularly those with profound and multiple learning difficulties, or autistic spectrum disorders.
• value children's home experiences of ICT and build on what they already know, and how to work with parents in developing their child's ICT capability.

ICT can underpin all areas of learning for young children; this highly practical, inspirational and informative text is therefore relevant to all practitioners and students training in Early Years education.

1 Integrating ICT into the Early Years Curriculum

Lynn Kennington and Julie Meaton

Introduction

The march of information and communications technology is fast and unrelenting. No sooner has one bought the latest TV or mobile phone than another all-singing, all-dancing model is released and the new one is cheaper and the old one is out of date. This rapid change can be daunting for staff in all the phases of education, trying to learn about new equipment and then applying it to the delivery of the curriculum.

We also need to consider, as we move from e-learning (electronic learning) to m-learning (mobile learning), using our small multimedia, multifunction hand-held devices, that desktop computers and computer suites may no longer be relevant and new technology could be more personalised to the learner, certainly within the classroom or in the bag/pocket! Voice controls, sensors and digital interfaces which use touch or eye/ear attachments will be the future for our youngest children.

Computerisation brings the world outside into the home and classroom like never before and our youngest children need adult help to access learning opportunities from these changes in technology.

When it comes to ICT, Early Years practitioners sometimes worry that they do not have the expertise or the necessary equipment or the time to put it into their practice and write it into their policies and planning.

When local authorities send settings ‘ICT boxes’ of equipment to encourage use, after the initial excitement has died down, the equipment often remains secure in its box, sitting in a cupboard guiltily reminding us that we haven’t used it for six months. Why is this? Is it because sometimes it is viewed as a ‘bolt-on’ to Early Years practice rather than part and parcel of the integrated planning, or because staff ideas have dried up as to its use, or because of lack of confidence with the equipment or lack of time? Perhaps a bit of everything!

Feasey et al. (2003) demonstrated that children were very much inspired by the INTEL QXA computer microscopes which were delivered free to every school in 2002 but research showed that the majority of schools had not taken them out of the box. Yet when the researchers encouraged use they found that teachers and children can become ‘companion learners’ in a learning partnership to discover its potential and possibilities. Teachers do not always have to be the experts, children and adults can learn together and the microscope has a ‘wow’ factor which clearly motivates children.

Figure 1.1

Educators often underestimate children’s experience and confidence with ICT, even in our youngest children. Adams and Brindley (2006) have perceptively pointed out that:

the model of the passive child sitting mindlessly pressing buttons and being rather superficially entertained by fancy graphics on a screen seemed totally at odds with the ideal of the young child as an empowered, creative and active learner.

(p. xii)

And as John and Iram Siraj-Blatchford (2006) point out:

in early childhood education the traditional distinction between technology education and educational technology is blurred … given the rate of technological change it would be a mistake if practitioners were encouraged to emphasise PC operating skills as their most desired outcomes.

(p. 153)

Yet we still hear that ‘mouse control’ and ‘hand–eye co-ordination’ is an aim!

There is still a possibility that software on desktop computers is the sole provision in some classrooms. The result is that the technological equipment provided can act as a barrier to developing ICT across the curriculum because its use is limited. There is a plethora of ICT equipment which can be used successfully in the Early Years learning environment and which can be integrated. Having said this, the equipment approach to ICT in teaching and learning is not always the way forward; it can be restrictive because of practitioner confidence and there is also a very real possibility that it will become dated easily.

An approach in using technology across the curriculum which firmly starts with the curriculum, its delivery, the practitioner’s knowledge of this curriculum and how children learn is advocated in this chapter.

If we focus on the child’s learning experience instead of the equipment, guidance can never be out of date because learning can be applied to any situation or resources if the objectives are clear.

The practitioner’s knowledge is crucial to the imaginative application of the curriculum to the learning situation. At our centre we always maintain that the new ideas, or even the good old ideas worked with new technology, bring fresh approaches to learning and motivate children to learn. Children are delighted by new technology! Staff have plenty of ideas! Put the two together and you have a twenty-first-century Early Years Foundation Stage method of curriculum delivery!

As a staff we have received awards and accolades for our innovative use of ICT within the Early Years curriculum, but it is the imagination of the staff and their extensive experience and knowledge as applied through the equipment which has made our success in this area. Not the equipment but our use of it!

Below are examples of the use of two pieces of equipment. First is a simple ‘talking tin’, inexpensive to buy … (found at www.talkingtins.com).

Figure 1.2

These yellow 3-inch-diameter discs are able to record 10 seconds of sound and play back at the press of a button – a simple piece of equipment which records through a digital chip and operates through a battery. A small handbook could be written on ideas of how to use these tins. They help young children to match sound to words and therefore can be used in phonics, number recognition, play, reading, etc.

If we take a more complex piece of equipment – a computer – we can use our e-learning credits to buy software to feed into the machine to support mathematics, for example. But take an imaginative play situation like a shop and consider how we can use a computer like a shopkeeper or a travel agent. Children see computers used all the time in the supermarket. How can we mirror this in play?

Use your imagination! Wheel the computer up to the shop and try it out. Put clip-art images or photos relevant to the shop onto the screen. The children can drag and drop the produce they wish to buy. Or at the travel agent’s download Internet holiday sites.

Figure 1.3

Planning for Integration

By planning for integration we ensure that ICT should be viewed as a tool to support and enhance teaching and learning and not simply as a skill to be learned and an ‘add-on’ to the curriculum (although being able to handle and operate pieces of ICT equipment is obviously essential). When ICT is used in an imaginative way to deliver the curriculum and is threaded through all Early Learning Goals, stepping stones, topics, themes and play experiences, then the quality of what is taught and learned is further developed and the effectiveness of the learning process is increased.

Practitioners often have a variety of ways of planning the delivery of the curriculum including Hi Scope, Schemas, etc., but two main approaches are often used:

(a) a thematic approach, delivering the curriculum through projects o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contributors
• Introduction
• 1. Integrating ICT into the Early Years curriculum
• 2. Children’s independence and ICT
• 3. ICT and children’s creativity
• 4. Giving children a voice by using ICT
• 5. ICT and the outdoor learning environment
• 6. ICT and role play
• 7. The use of ICT with children with special needs
• 8. ICT for practitioners: one ‘star’ is not enough
• 9. Parents as partners
• Appendix 1. Software and resources
• Appendix 2. Ideas for using digital images
• Appendix 3. Early Years websites
• Appendix 4. Parent questionnaire on ICT use in the home
• Appendix 5. Ideas for using the digital movie maker
• Appendix 6. Observing, planning, assessing: how can technology help us?
• Appendix 7. Needs audit: EYFS ICT baseline skills and knowledge
• Appendix 8. Guidance on observing and assessing ICT
• Appendix 9. ICT and individual needs: a directory
• Appendix 10. Guidance on monitoring ICT
• Appendix 11. Example photo permission form
• Appendix 12. Planning for ICT through a thematic approach
• Appendix 13. Medium-term planning sheet: all areas of learning
• Appendix 14. Weekly planning sheet: all areas of learning
• Appendix 15. Weekly planning sheet: Knowledge and Understanding of the World
• Appendix 16. Medium-term planning sheet: ICT
• Bibliography
• Index