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November 1, 2002
Technology: It's Primary
By Barbara Bray and Gail Lovely
Children learn outside school that technologies - especially computer technologies - are toys, not tools. They see from very young ages, video games, computer games and even touch-screen lotto as playthings. Teachers need to start as early as possible preparing students to think of technology as more: as a tool and a medium for "showing what we know, think or feel." Modeling the appropriate use of technologies in the classroom can be a key element with young learners, by showing that the human is in charge of the machine and by providing concrete examples of powerful and meaningful uses of technology. It is important to guard against the use of technology merely as a "carrot" or a "toy," even if it is fun.
Technology use and professional development for the primary classrooms has customarily been focused on proprietary software that increases comprehension and basic reading and math skills. Project-based activities based on curriculum started in the early grades build responsibility and encourage enthusiasm for learning that transfers to future years and makes classroom experiences relevant to real-world learning. Primary teachers will need ongoing support and professional development to help them develop these types of projects that use the appropriate resources and still include teaching the basic skills.
Start Simple with Integration
Joni Turville, AISI coordinator at St. Albert Protestant Schools in Alberta, Canada recommends K-2 projects that are immediately relevant to what students are learning; they are fairly brief and simple enough to sustain young children's interest. Here are a few of Turville's suggestions from a recently completed section for a new textbook on technology in primary grades, The Computer as an Education Tool, by Richard Forcier and Don Descy:
- Create draw-and-paint projects on the Letter of the Week using Kid Pix. Kindergarten students can use the stamp and text tools for upper and lower case letters and then draw or stamp images that begin with those letters.
- Develop a theme that encourages creativity and thinking. Each student creates a slide in Kid Pix and a voiceover that gets compiled into a classroom publication.
- Create individual and class books on a particular theme using KidWorks 2 that can combine pictures and text. With the neat interlined font and speech function, young children can hear their work read back to them as a proofreading tool.
- Compare and contrast using Kidspiration. The SuperGrouper easily gathers like-visual items and then converts them to sentence strips.
- Create Web pages with students as young as grade 2 or create a resource page that is age-appropriate.
Use Technology for Emergent Readers
Teachers and parents do not hesitate to use books with non-readers; they can do the same with technology and use it from their earliest formal educational experiences. Technology can help 2-4 year olds develop reading skills by using Graph Club to show favorites, Kid Pix to illustrate a poem or story, Kidspiration to keep track of shared ideas, and online dictionaries to help with spelling and vocabulary.
As learners mature, they can enjoy many online and CD-ROM activities, games and tools, such as creating alphabet books using tools such as HyperStudio or PowerPoint. They can keep personal journals in a simple word processor and using simple Web sites can help emergent readers work independently. Teachers can also use Web sites or software-like visual props or transparencies on a projector or large monitor. Innovative K-2 teachers have created Web sites for their students and parents with links to sites that enhance the curriculum.
K-2 Websites
There are some useful sites for the primary grades. Early childhood teachers from around the world have joined together to provide curriculum support to each other and anyone who needs ideas. A link for early literacy is the Early Childhood Technology Literacy Project from Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland.
Mary Kohl, a kindergarten teacher at Perry Elementary in Ohio, and Internet Educator of the Year 2001 for Classroom Connect, has created a kindergarten page. Her students use technology from day one and eventually can become student managers in the Perritech program that maintains the technology and Web site for the district. Kohl has two Web school links: a page from last year,
and a link to this school year where each unit is introduced.
San Diego City Schools have put together connections between standards, projects, and resources. Check out K-2 Language Arts. Additional sites include Fact Monster, loaded with information for students, and Little Explorers by Enchanted Learning, with classroom activities and an online dictionary for Primary Students. For a lively site for students just learning to read and write, and older, Thunk.com has secret messages for kids only. There is a slide show on Integrating Technology into the Kindergarten Classroom. For online children's songs, crafts and more, see boowakwala.com.
Start Webfolios in Kindergarten
David Warlick, suggests that each student establish a Web site, portfolio or Webfolio in kindergarten that they refine and grow each year. As they learn new techniques for research, information harvesting and manipulation, productivity strategies, etc., they can add tools to their site that will be useful at a later date. They would be building their own personal digital library and workspace based on their academic growth.
If students are to think of technology as a tool and medium for showing what they know, think or feel, they will need to access and use a computer for writing and productivity, e-mail for communicating, and the Internet for research along with traditional methods. Young children see technology all around them. It is probably familiar to many of them to choose e-mail instead of writing a letter on paper. Just watch a two- or three-year-old on a computer or video game. It's as if they already know the language, where many adults are uncomfortable with the technology.
To take on the task of creating portfolios of student work as early as kindergarten, students will need access to learning stations that include the necessary software, Internet connections, and peripherals. Teachers will have to be able to guide them in these uses, but they won't be able to do this alone. Primary teachers will need ongoing coaching and support to help them create an environment that encourages young children to be creative using technology. And young children love to learn and produce if we give them the chance.
Email: Barbara Bray is president of Computer Strategies, LLC and My eCoach. She moderates the CUE techstaffdevelop listerv and writes PDQs for TechLearning.com where you can also submit tips.
Gail Lovely is a consultant specializing in the wise use of technology for learning in elementary grades.
Computer Using Educators
Copyright 2002, CUE, Inc. Reprinted with permission.
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