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What We've Learned from Five Years of Research, Policy, and Practice
In one seemingly simple activity, Kimberly Buenger, early childhood special education teacher at Harmony Early Childhood Center, in the Olathe Unified School District, accomplishes goals related to technology use, language development, social skills, and assessment:
I serve children ages 3 to 5 in an integrated special education setting, with many demonstrating developmental delays. I use technology to support learning and development in several ways. One of my favorites is through a classroom job called the journalist. The journalist is responsible for taking pictures on the tablet during center time to document the activities of the other students in the class, and reporting about one picture during closing circle. The picture is shown through the projector so all the children can easily see it. I facilitate the discussion about the picture, adjusting my level of questioning for each child. This activity provides a natural way to assess a variety of communication skills, such as a student's ability to recall events and answer a variety of wh questions. Giving the journalist the freedom to document the activity of his or her choosing makes the activity meaningful, increasing motivation to share in front of the larger group. The simplicity of the activity makes it easy to implement in a variety of settings, using different technology tools, with the only requirement being the ability to take a picture. (Personal communication with Kimberly Buenger, 2017.)
Kimberly's budding journalists are a model for intentional, supportive use of technology in early childhood education.
Kimberly's learning environment is far richer than anything we could have imagined just 10 years ago, when the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media convened a group of experts (including us) at a preconference symposium during the 2007 NAEYC professional development institute. Participants discussed the role of technology in early childhood professional development and in the lives of young children, especially in early childhood programs.
Realizing that few educators were as technologically savvy as Kimberly (even given the more limited technology options of the time), conference participants recommended that NAEYC and the Fred Rogers Center draft a joint position statement to help early childhood professionals integrate technology in developmentally appropriate ways. As Jerlean Daniel,...