Welcome Back

Since starting this blog several years ago my life has taken on a few changes, nonetheless, my views regarding the importance of early childhood technology education have not wavered. In fact, they have gotten even stronger than ever.

In the fall of 2012, I was blessed with my 1st grandchild and he is amazing. I doubt anyone who knows me will be surprised to hear one of the 1st gifts my grandson received was an iPad. In fact, the iPad was a shower present from my son…. DGS was still in utero at the time.

You might say, the Apple (literally and figuratively) doesn't fall far from the tree. :)

Over the last couple years, I have watched this newest member of our family connect his physical world and his digital world in ways I could never have imagined. One of the most mind boggling examples of this, is DGS (dear grandson) can identify all of his ABCs and he is not yet two years old. Previously, this ability might have been classified as some form of hyperlexia, but I assure you DGS is quite the social butterfly. I have seen many, many other examples of these technology learning shifts in my DGS that I cannot recall seeing when my own children were little, and I hope to share some of these future posts.


For now, I wanted to take a moment to reconnect with those who have followed my journey since the start and welcome those who are just joining me.


My goals are to still share the great apps I come across, but I feel the need augment my reviews and share my experiences; how I see technology may be shaping the minds of the youngest of learners. Additionally, I have invited others to share their experiences of how they see technology shaping the early childhood learning environment. I promise it will be an exciting journey and I hope you will share it with me.


Thank you,

Keri

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Combining App Centered learning and Purposeful Play Pedagogy

Since concluding my app creation adventure (noted in a prior post), I have been attempting to document/review some of the educational products (such as books, toy, and other reference materials) which I have encountered 20+ year journey in education.

This is because I believe that, while apps can and have now proven to be very useful in education. I have also seen that without some type of anchor for the newly created knowledge or skill, the gains are usually short lived. In my humble opinion, young learners especially, need a mixture of hand-on  and technology based programs. I also believe that one of the best uses for technology, has yet to be fully realized and that is in the area of formative assessment.

This does not mean that I no longer believe that technology is beneficial for young children, that is simply not so. Technology based learning can and does open the doors to knowledge in ways no other learning tool can.

  • What better way is there to show children different cultures and locations, other than maybe traveling the world?
  • Technology enables children to practice an experiment over and over in app such as GazziliScience 
  • And much more....
Since creating this blog more than five and half years ago, I have seen 1st hand the huge effect  quality research-based technology programs have on a child's educational outcome.

Problem is, I have also seen the harmful effects of technology programs, which are not based on solid research and have been developed more as a recruitment or sale pitch for schools, have on children and young adults. More over the impact these empty, self-serving technology initiatives will have the future of digital citizenship remains to be seen.

Most recently, my views have begun in earnest to combine those strategies which are founded in purposeful play and based on Vygotsky's social learning theories with the nuggets I have gleaned from my experience creating and managing technology programs. I believe this has led me to where I am now and why I have come to understand remarkable possibilities of combining "purposeful play" or  guided play with an a carefully woven and correlated technology program has in improving the educational outcomes of our nation's children.

Lastly, I am exploring some of the possibilities technology has in facilitating data-driven decision making in education and formative assessment strategies.  To clarify, I define formative assessment as a recursive process between a teacher and student; and one which monitors/tracks a student learning. Formative assessments, generally, are incorporated into a student regular lessons learning time and differ from summative assessments such as high stakes testing. Educational data science has become an emerging interest for me and I sincerely hope to explore the effects of connecting a child's learning to visible learning targets.
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