Early Childhood Teachers: Closing the Digital–Divide

Introduction

Jessica is a five-year-old enchanted by dolphins. Last year she and her sisters sat in the splash zone of a water park and watched the dolphins perform with wet wonder. Since then, Jessica has viewed the video CD of her trip countless times as well as used the Internet on her family’s computer to play dolphin games, learn dolphin facts, and download dolphin coloring book pages. For Halloween this year, she asked her mother to find a pattern on the Internet so as to make her a dolphin costume. Together they perused a variety of sewing patterns to replicate a “real” dolphin. Jessica at five is clearly actively engaged in learning and exploring the virtual world all the while customizing the experience to suit her idiosyncratic interests and changing learning needs. To Jessica, technology is like electricity; it is a common and ubiquitous part of her everyday life.

Jessica is not unlike her young peers in her use of technology as a learning and exploration tool. Most children plug into a variety of technologies long before they enter school. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (2003):

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  Two-thirds of infants and toddlers watch a screen of some sort an average of two hours daily.

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  Children under age six watch an average of about two hours of screen media a day, primarily TV and videos or DVDs.

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  Children under age six are independent of adults in much of this activity. Consider that children are:

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    Turning on the TV by themselves (77%),

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    Asking for particular shows (67%),

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    Using the remote to change channels (62%),

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    Asking for their favorite videos or DVDs (71%),

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    Putting in their own music tapes or CDs (36%),

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    Getting on to the computer by themselves (33%),

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    Loading their own CD-ROMs (23%)

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    Asking for specific websites while on the Internet (12%).

Further, a report by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) cites 80% of kindergartners and children in grades 1-5 have used computers and 32% of kindergartners have used the Internet while 91% of children in grades 1-5 are Internet users (2009). This technological march, this digital Diaspora, now starts at an early age and is dramatically changing the everyday lives and learning experiences of young children. It is truly a profound cultural shift; a change in the very avenues of life and learning for our smallest learners.

This chapter will discuss resources for and approaches to training teachers in early childhood classrooms. We will focus on three tools which teachers can use in their classrooms which are available and teacher friendly. While teacher training programs provide coursework to assist professionals learn more about technology, this chapter is conceptualized as one for self-training. It is hoped that if you are a teacher who may have been avoiding the use of technology that this chapter will start you on the road to techno-teaching.