Early Childhood Teachers

This chapter reviews the state of technology training for early childhood educators in teacher preparation institutions across the country. Using NCATE and NAEYC standards as benchmarks of practice, the chapter outlines some current issues and research on technology training at the preservice level, such as course sequence, textbook choice, content infusion, field experiences, et cetera. The chapter also outlines three technologies, Web 2.0, Google Earth, and the virtual manipulatives that are accessible, free to users, require little teacher training, and have evidence to support their instructional benefits. These three well-developed technologies can easily be introduced to students and teachers as exemplars of constructivist pedagogical technology in early childhood science and mathematics classrooms. Activities using each are included.

Children’s Power for Learning in the Age of Technology

This chapter situates discussions of children’s power for learning in the context of new media and technology. We assert that for learning to take place, children must exert their own power and take initiatives in their learning; yet, the current power structure of classrooms inhibits children from exerting their power and motivation for learning. Tracing the seminal works on power, we provide examples of children’s power in learning and argue for a power structure transformation necessary in a technology-rich classroom of the twenty-first century.

The Impact of Technology on Early Childhood Education

This chapter explores the bridging of the communication-generation gap through an analysis of the child’s play with hi-tech toys. The analysis of the young child’s play with these toys employs narrative from the show Digimon in order to critique predominant themes in relation to learning and development. These themes highlight challenges to binary oppositions of adult-child, self-other, and artificial-real. In troubling these oppositions, the very idea of the gap becomes of interest in that in the gap are potential alternatives for adults who seek a critical understanding of the complex terrains in which they engage the young child.

Technology for Young Children with Special Needs

Children come to early childhood programs with a wide range of learning abilities, languages, cultural backgrounds, and educational experiences. Most classrooms also include children with special needs or exceptional children, who differ from these typically developing children to such a degree that an individualized program of adapted, specialized education is required to meet their needs (Heward, 2009). This chapter provides a framework for the use of technology to assist these exceptional children in early childhood and primary level classrooms.

Science Technology and Young Children

Teachers of young children have access to an ever increasing diversity of technology tools. This chapter provides a framework for evaluating and applying tools for science in all classrooms. It includes a series of vignettes that illustrate the application of technology in the context of a tools-task-strategy approach.

Technology and Second Language Learning

Technology is often viewed as a necessary component for the facilitation of learning, especially for second language learners in early-childhood education. However, integrating technology in the classroom is a difficult task. The existing literature often does not bridge the fields of technology, second language learning, and cognitive development in childhood. Therefore, the goal of this chapter is to develop a theoretical framework stemming from a critical literature review of conceptual and empirical works as they pertain to technology, second language learning, and cognitive development. This framework is used to describe conceptual issues and to identify educational implications for the use of technology in the second language classroom in early-childhood education. Furthermore, the chapter concludes with educational, conceptual, and methodological implications as they pertain to technology research and development in early second language classrooms.

Bridging the Gap between Policy and Implementation

The last decade brought major change to the Mexican educational system as sweeping reforms across all levels were implemented. In particular the early years of education became the focus of legislation to increase quality, open access, and improve curriculum. Mexico captured international attention when it became the first country to make it obligatory for the State to provide pre-school education services for children 3 to 6 years of age and required parents to see that their children attend a public or private pre-school. This chapter explores the gap between policy and implementation of early childhood and technology reform. This sweeping reform is one of the first international attempts to support early childhood education at this level.

Bridging the Communication Gap through Video Research

Technology is a valuable tool for researchers of young children for many reasons. This chapter discusses the use of video as an ethnographic research tool for studying preschool education and offers insight into how video can be used to inform researchers, practitioners, and parents of young children. The approach referred to as video-cued multivocal ethnography is intended to highlight differences across cultures, and to reveal continuity and change in preschool education of three countries over the course of a generation. But this approach is also valuable for promoting teacher reflection on, and developing cultural understandings of how teachers’ practice embodies the culture in which they live and work.

Technology

Technology has changed the potential for research of young children dramatically. Technology has allowed researchers to capture nuances of children’s interactions such as eye movement in infants, heart rate, and physiological reactions that researcher’s could never accurately track without the new technologies. Understanding the role of technology and the evidence of children’s development has opened new ideas about the capabilities of children. Teachers need to understand how these technologies are being used and how researchers support learning and development based on this new approach to information collection with young children.

Technology in Three American Preschools

This chapter explores the marriage of popular culture images, media and technology and the manner in which these are implemented in preschool settings. Discussing parents’ choices and teacher’s opinions, this chapter examines popular culture in children’s lives as social symbols. It is specifically concerned with the manner in which social class and preschool ideology contribute to or detract from children’s access to popular culture technology.