WebQuest

ECE Foundations 2005

From Fool's gold

[LIST OF CRITIQUES AND RESPONSES]

CRITIQUES from the article:

-Decreases active physical play/direct connection to physical world---"Children also need time for active, physical play; hands-on lessons of all kinds, especially in the arts; and direct experience of the natural world. Research shows these are not frills but are essential for healthy child development."

response:

limit computer time to still heave active play

Critique:

-Decreases personal bonds/face to face conversations-"Children need stronger personal bonds with caring adults. Yet powerful technologies are distracting children and adults from each other."-computers can isolate children, emotionally, and physically, from the experience of the real world.

Response:

"Fool's gold is unabashedly critical of every aspect of technology. One of the main concerns is the ill effect on social and emotional development. "Children need stronger personal bonds with caring adults. Yet powerful technologies are distracting children and adults from each other" (p. 3). No evidence that such distraction is present or substantial is provided. Instead, confusing children's use of computers in classrooms with Dilbert-like adult use of computers in cubicles, the report conjures a vision of technologically-driven social isolation."

"Children overwhelmingly display positive emotions when using computers (Ishigaki et al., 1996; Shade, 1994).

They show higher positive affect and interest when they use the computer together (Shade, 1994) and prefer to work with a peer rather than alone4

Further, working on the computer can instigate new instances and forms of collaborative work such as helping or instructing, and discussing and building upon each others' ideas (Clements, 1994).

In one study, computers added a new dimension of participation, dyadic peer interaction, in which children developed a different sense of social relations, assisting each other and cooperating to solve problems and complete tasks. These interactions enhanced their learning and understanding; in explaining topics to peers, children restructured their own understanding (Mehan, 1989)."

"Four- and five-year-olds from an urban, economically disadvantaged population asked others to join in, sought help from each other, and sought approval or acknowledgement from the teacher as they worked with computers (Bowman, 1985).Their cooperative play at the computer paralleled the proportion of cooperative play in the block center (Anderson, 2000). Further, cooperation in a computer center sometimes provides a context for initiating and sustaining interaction that can be transferred to play in other areas as well, especially for boys."

"Other studies have similar findings. New friendships have been fostered in the computer's presence. There is greater and more spontaneous peer teaching and helping (Clements & Nastasi, 1992; King & Alloway, 1992). Also encouraging is the finding that preschooler's participation in computer activities facilitates social interaction between children with disabilities and their normally developing peers (Spiegel-McGill, Zippiroli, & Mistrett, 1989)."

Crtiques:

- repetitive stress injuries

Response:

In moderation, same as writing

Critique

- technology today will be obsolete long before five year olds graduate

response:

Dumb argument

Critique

-the use of technology stunts imaginative thinking; children are becoming alarmingly deficient in generating their own images and ideas.

response;

Make the use meaningful, use open ended software

-"They felt also that the costs - in terms of money spent, loss of creative, hands-on educational opportunities, and damage to children's physical and emotional health - were not being accurately reported."

Some value for children with dissabilities but only a small number

Critique:

"Research shows that strengthening bonds between teachers, students, and families is a powerful remedy for troubled students and struggling schools. Overemphasizing technology can weaken those bonds." (so can spanking)

Response: "No evidence that such distraction is present or substantial is provided. Instead, confusing children's use of computers in classrooms with Dilbert-like adult use of computers in cubicles, the report conjures a vision of technologically-driven social isolation."

Just the opposite—computers can serve as catalysts for positive social interaction. As one example, children at the computer spent nine times as much time talking to peers while on the computer than while doing puzzles (Muller & Perlmutter, 1985).

Critique: "But many children, overwhelmed by the volume of data and flashy special effects of the World Wide Web and much software, have trouble focusing on any one task."

Response: the 4- to 5-year-old children who worked with developmentally appropriate software had no loses in creativity and made significant gains in intelligence, non-verbal skills, structured knowledge, long-term memory, and complex manual dexterity. When reinforced with supplemental activities, children had gains in these areas as well as gains in verbal skills, problem solving, abstraction, and conceptual skills.

Fools gold opponents:

http://www.aace.org/pubs/etr/issue4/clements.cfm

However, the research reported is often of a general nature, with vague textual contiguities and non sequiturs substituting for bona fide implications."

"The body of research that Fool's gold ignores is substantive."

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[RESEARCH]

examining computer use by young children and to develop a table of issues critical to the appropriate implementation of educational technologies with young children.

[Table of Issues]

1)Have computer time be meaningful...Have limits on amount of time spent on computer

-Research shows that what is "concrete" for children is not what is "physical," but what is meaningful. Computer representations are often more manageable, flexible, and extensible. One group of young children learned number concepts with a computer felt board environment. They constructed "bean-stick pictures" byselecting and arranging beans, sticks, and number symbols. Compared to a real bean-stick environment, this computer environment offered greater control to students . The computer manipulatives were just as meaningful and easier to use for learning. (http://www.gse.buffalo.edu/org/buildingblocks/NewsLetters/Tech_and_School_DHC.htm)

2)Provide opportunities for children to interact and converse about their work on the computer

-Properly used, however, computers and software can serve as catalysts for social interaction and conversations related to children's work (Clements & Nastasi, 1993). A classroom set up to encourage interaction and the appropriate use of the technology will increase, not impair, language and literacy development. Strategies to build socialization into computer use include placing two seats in front of the computer to encourage children to work together, placing computers close to each other to facilitate sharing ideas, and locating computers in a central spot to invite other children to participate in the activity (Clements, 1999). (http://www.nwrel.org/request/june01/child.html#research)

-Young children interacting at computers engage in high levels of spoken communication and cooperation, such as turn-taking and peer collaboration. "Compared to more traditional activities, such as puzzle assembly or block building, the computer elicits more social interaction and different types of interaction" (Clements, Nastasi, & Swaminathan, 1993, p. 60). (http://www.nwrel.org/request/june01/child.html#research)

3)Benefits of computer play

-Computer play encourages longer, more complex speech and the development of fluency (Davidson & Wright, 1994). (http://www.nwrel.org/request/june01/child.html#research)

-Children tend to narrate what they are doing as they draw pictures or move objects and characters around on the screen (Bredekamp & Rosegrant, 1994). (http://www.nwrel.org/request/june01/child.html#research)

4)Additional uses of technology: videocameras

(http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v1n2/forman.html Instant Video Revisiting: The Video Camera as a "Tool of the Mind" for Young Children

George Forman)

-Once used only to record special events in the classroom, video cameras are now small enough and affordable enough to be used to document everyday events. Video cameras with foldout screens allow children to watch their activities immediately after they happen and to discuss them with a teacher. This article coins the term instant video revisiting (IVR) to describe this process and, using classroom video clips, explores the educational value of IVR.

-This "tool of the mind" also affects how a teacher observes the children. When I was walking through the classroom, I made decisions about what to film. I did not realize explicitly why some episodes were better candidates than others, but now I think I know. I was looking for instances where children were doing something I could ask them about, some little bit of cleverness that they had performed of which they might not be aware. I wanted to use the camera to bring into their consciousness the children's own high-level thinking in ordinary moments.

5)Promote child initiated activity

-"The research suggests that the children who experience a high degree of choice and intiative in their pre-school learning activities and become responsible for the outcomes of these activities gain signifigant educational and social benefits that reach well into their teen years." L.J schweinhart, D.P. Weikart, and M.B. Larner, "Consequences of Three Preschool Curriculum Models Through Age 15", Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 1, 15-45 (1986).

6)Attention spans

Many studies have measured or noticed that technology has an effect on the attention span of young children (Liu 1996; Shute & Miksad 1997; Boone et. al 1996). Studies have also shown children are intrinsically motivated to use computers (Guthrie & Richardson 1995; Talley et. al 1997). Children, almost universally, will spend longer uninterrupted sessions at the computer than they will in other non-computer related activities. This is especially true with lively, animated multimedia titles. If software is chosen carefully, this increased attention span can result in enhanced learning. http://www.netc.org/earlyconnections/research.html

7)Using technology along with supporting activities

Research points to the positive effects of technology use on cognitive and social learning and development (Clements, 1994; Haugland & Shade, 1994). In similar studies with different ages of children, using computers along with supporting activities (e.g., manipulatives, objects that children use to help them understand concepts) provided even greater benefits than either one alone. (http://www.nwrel.org/request/june01/child.html#research)

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[GUIDELINES]

"Studies indicate that word-processing software encourages writing, and leads to increased motivation and improvement in writing skills."(Technology in ECE: Finding the Balance)

CHOOSING SOFTWARE:

- Is open ended and allows for active learning with students making decisions.

- Involves many senses and contains sound, music, or voice.

- Is controlled by the children, and allows them to explore without fear of making mistakes.

-Responds to children's exploration in ways that encourage further investigation.

- Reflects and builds on what children already know.

- Applies to real problems with real-life connections.

- Elicits excitement and so encourages language.

(Davidson & Wright, 1994; Davis & Shade, 1994; NAEYC, 1996)

Drawing programs and music-making programs are examples of software that may have these characteristics. Children can create pictures and music that reflect a variety of abilities and interests, limited only by their imaginations.

Specific Software suggestions:

Dr. Seuss's ABC

Little Critter Series

Sammy's Science House

Franklin Software

The Way Things

Tape recorders support early literacy experiences. They allow children to listen to recorded stories or songs, or to follow along in a book as they hear it being read on tape. Children can record family stories, their own made-up stories, poems, and songs, or themselves reading aloud. When adults write down children's stories — from children's dictated words or from the tape recorder — children see how the spoken word can turn into the written word. These activities integrate all aspects of literacy: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. They help children develop their storytelling ability and an understanding of how sound translates to print.

Cameras

VCR/DVD

Portable Keyboards

Leap Frog

"Inpractice, computers supplement and do not replace highlyvalued early childhood activities and materials... Researchindicates that computers can be used in developmentallyappropriate ways beneficial to children and also canbe misused, just as any tool can." (NAEYC, 1996,p. 1)

Computerplay can also positively impact social skills. Numerousstudies demonstrate that when using computers, youngchildren prefer to work with others rather than alone,and prefer seeking help from peers rather than adults.Apart from practicing turn-taking skills, children alsodo a great deal of talking, negotiating and cooperatingto explore, create or problem-solve within computerenvironments (NAEYC, 1996).

The key to the successful integration of technology intoearly childhood settings is to see computers in thesame light as traditional materials rather than as somethingapart. Perhaps the best starting point for using computersto benefit young learners is to incorporate them intothematic teaching units in much the same way we usemore familiar materials. Tying the computer into yourfavorite themes gives computer use a purpose and focusesthe process of selecting software and introducing activities.In addition, a theme provides clear continuity acrossall the activities in the classroom, giving young learnersa leaping off point for their own explorations.

The video camera could be treated as a memory machine that would yield a fairly replete and honest record of everyday events. Used in this way, the video camera could become a modern "tool of the mind," a staple in the classroom.