Professor John Siraj-Blatchford explains.
ICT in the home and in education continues to develop at an ever stronger pace and many practitioners may fear being left behind. But the good news is that most Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) practitioners could be considered to be 'ahead of the game'.
As well as developing a critical awareness of many of the products currently on offer, early years practitioners have also embraced the principles of the new 'computational thinking' curriculum at an early stage - thanks to programmable toys being specifically included by the QCA in its Early Learning Goals and Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage in 2000.
As to the quality of software available for early childhood education, it is extremely varied. Many publications, and a good deal of the ICT training for the EYFS, has emphasised the weaknesses of products originally developed from either a Piagetian 'discovery' or a behaviourist 'drill and practice' perspective, where the child is expected to interact with the technology in 'solitary play'.
Increasingly, there are examples of software that has been designed in a more positive educational way to encourage adult-to-child and child-to-child communication, collaboration and creativity. In early years settings all around the country, touch screens and tablet computers have been found to provide liberation from taking turns at the mouse and keyboard of a typical desktop PC.
Another development is the increasingly interactive story books, adventure games and simulations that allow children to collaborate in making decisions and changes in the images, text and sound effects of stories and to support activities away from the screen.
2Simple provided some of the earliest examples of this software genre including 2Create a Story, which was shown to be effective in the Supporting Playful Learning in the Early Years with ICT (SPLICT) research project in Swansea. More recent examples include the Land of Me apps (iPad), which empower children to be creative and to create their own outcomes, and then adapt and modify them in collaboration with an adult, sibling or more capable peer.
Me Books (iPad, iPhone, Android) include a 'draw-and-record' hotspot, so enabling children and adults to record sounds and words. The app also offers the possibility of creating your own bilingual story texts.
Other PC and Mac free-to-download and online products have also been used effectively by early years settings in supporting children's interaction, communication, collaboration and creativity both in the setting and, simultaneously, in the home learning environment. Some of the best examples identified have included the use of SoupToys, Tux Paint, and AlphaBlocks.
COMPUTATIONAL THINKING
The encouragement of 'computational thinking' lies at the root of the new computing programmes of study to be introduced across KS1 to 4 this year. Computational thinking provides the concepts and skills at the heart of computing, but is widely understood to have much wider relevance than simply to ICT - encouraging children to think in the abstract, to decompose tasks and to seek patterns in their problem solving.
In fact, research has long identified the importance of young children developing these kinds of thinking skill, and it may be that they are encouraged to some degree simply through interacting with computers: 'In one study, pre-schoolers who used computers scored higher on measures of metacognition ... They were more able to keep in mind a number of different mental states simultaneously and had more sophisticated theories of mind than those who did not use computers' (Bowman et al, 2001).
These thinking skills can be developed without ICT. One example of an early childhood educator modelling the decomposition of a task is Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film Kindergarten Cop. In the scene, Schwarzenegger learns to break down the task of clearing up the children's toys into discrete stages to support them in their self-regulation. But the better we come to understand the particular ICT activities and experiences that are influential in developing computational thinking, the more effective we will be at encouraging the associated development and learning.
Most early years settings have been teaching programming using programmable toys such as Pip (Pixie Swallow Systems) and Roamer (Valiant Technology) for over a decade. In recent years, Bee-Bot Floor Robot (TTS) has been a popular choice and a wide range of guidance materials, accessories, and floor mats have been marketed to support it.
Screen turtles (a programming learning tool) have also been widely used, with examples such as The Jelly Bean Hunt in Trudy's Time and Place House (Riverdeep), 2Go (within Purple Mash from 2Simple), and a Bee Bot screen app (iPad).
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Our children are growing up as digital natives, but could it also be that many children are actually cleverer than we are?
While most early educators consider the use of IQ tests an inadequate measure of a child's capability, few will doubt that the tests identify significant features of cognitive ability, and most of us will acknowledge the success of IQ tests in predicting educational outcomes. It is, therefore, interesting to note that since the tests were first devised in the 1930s, IQs have been found to be rising significantly.
This 'Flynn Effect', named after one of the first people to identify it, has been seen in many countries around the world. Nutritional improvements might have been considered a plausible explanation for the phenomenon in the early decades. However, it would seem that the continuing rise must be due to an increase in cognitive stimulation provided by growing up in a more complex social and cultural environmental and/or improvements achieved in educational provisions.
In fact, both of these developments are likely to be responsible. Child development has always been affected significantly by the quality and quantity of cognitive and linguistic stimulus that the child is exposed to as an infant, and research has increasingly shown us that high-quality, stimulating pre-school practice can make a big difference to child outcomes.
One of the most significant ways in which the child's environment has become more complex is through technology, and a striking comparison may be noted between the Flynn Effect and 'Moore's Law': the observation that electronic processing power has tended to double every two years. The quantity, variety and quality of technology that we interact with has increased steadily over time.
Research has shown that high-quality parenting and pre-school practices also support many children in their development of self-regulation: their capability to give close attention to, or to think about, one thing at a time. Self-regulation is encouraged through adults modelling self-regulation. At the earliest stages, this may be simply a matter of sustaining a game, and by scaffolding the child's activities so that they learn to be confident when they engage in challenging activities.
Smith (1994) identified three of the most significant ways in which educators can scaffold a child's activity - by directing the child's attention, by helping the child break down a task into more manageable stages, and by helping the child to sequence steps in the right order.
But ICT has increasingly played a role in supporting parents and practitioners in all of this. A rich example may be drawn from the experience many early years settings have in supporting children in creating their own books. This is a valuable emergent literacy activity and also provides a powerful illustration of the processes of scaffolding.
A typical setting storybook may tell the story of the children's visit to a museum, a farm, or forest. The process usually begins by decomposing the story into its constituent pages, and this may be considered to provide an useful analogous preliminary to the breaking down of any other task, or a computer program, into its constituent steps.
Most teachers begin by using the frames of a storyboard. The (free) Open University app Our Story (iPad and Android) provides an excellent tool for creating digital storybooks in this way. While a lot less 'child friendly', MS Powerpoint on the PC is used by many early childhood educators for similar purposes.
The most advanced early years practice already involves the use of programmable toys in problem solving (for example, giving the Bee Bot a mission to complete), and in the use of screen-based programming apps such as Cargo-Bot and Daisy the Dinosaur (iPad).
TIME TO CHOOSE
We should always be suspicious of ICT hardware and software evaluations that report on the features and potential of products without describing in any detail how they have been applied in practice. But in terms of some general criteria, the eight principles first identified in determining the effectiveness of ICT applications in a 2001 project, Developmentally Appropriate Technology in Early Childhood (DATEC), have proven to be surprisingly resilient.
- Having a clear educational purpose.
- Encouraging collaboration.
- Integrating with other aspects of curriculum.
- Ensuring the child is in control.
- Choosing applications that are transparent and understandable.
- Avoiding applications containing violence or stereotyping.
- Awareness of health and safety issues.
- Encouraging parental involvement.
More research is needed, and more of the good practice currently displayed by early years settings around the country needs to be disseminated. Technology is increasingly providing an effective means to achieve this. The Involve Me project in Taiwan provides a good example of a growing community of parents and early educators using Facebook and blog technology to share their experiences of using ICT. As the ancient Chinese proverb states:
Tell me, I'll forget
Show me, I'll remember
Involve me, I'll understand.
John Siraj-Blatchford is an honorary Professor at the University of Swansea and co-directs the Supporting Playful Learning with Information and Communications Technology (SPLICT) project. He also works as an independent educational researcher and consultant, and is the research and development director of The Land of Me
MORE INFORMATION
- AlphaBlocks, www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/alphablocks/games/alphablocks-games
- Bee-Bot, www.tts-group.co.uk/shops/tts/Products/PD1723538/ Bee-Bot-Floor-Robot
- Cargo-Bot, https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ cargo-bot/id519690804?mt=8
- Daisy the Dinosaur, https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ daisy-the-dinosaur/id490514278? mt=8
- DATEC, www.datec.org.uk/guidance/DATEC7.pdf
- Eager to Learn: educating our pre-schoolers by T Bowman et al (eds), Commission of Behavioural Social Sciences and Education
- 'Knowledge, learning processes, and ICT in early childhood education' by J Siraj-Blatchford and N Parmar in He Kupu: The World
- Involve Me, http://involveme226.wordpress.com
- Land of Me, www.madeinme.com/the-land-of-me
www.mebooks.co
- Our Story, https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/ our-story/id436758256?mt=8
- SPLICT, www.playthinklearn.org
- Tux Paint, www.tuxpaint.org.
