An Early Childhood Professional Development Model for Technology Integration

Abstract

This chapter shares the experiences of two early childhood educators as they participated in an early childhood professional development model focused on overcoming the barriers that often impact the integration of technology in PreK-K classrooms. The professional development model attended to three external barriers (i.e., lack of time, lack of access, and lack of support) and three internal barriers (i.e., teacher readiness, teacher attitudes, and teacher pedagogical beliefs). The experiences of these two educators indicated the following: 1) when the external barriers to technology are adequately addressed, more space is provided to attend to the internal barriers; 2) the barrier of readiness may be more easily overcome when teacher attitude is not a barrier; 3) overcoming the barriers of readiness and attitude precedes a change in pedagogical beliefs and practices; and 4) teacher attitudes are more likely to change when teacher learn from their respected colleagues. The chapter concludes by offering ideas for ECE leaders to consider as they plan and implement PD models.