Abstract
This literature-based article explores key trends in the integration of digital technologies in education and aims to highlight issues and challenges in the relationship between technology, pedagogy and early years’ education practices. The article explores how technology, teacher training initiatives and productive play-based pedagogy could be used to improve digital literacy outcomes for early childhood learners. While situated within the Australian context, more global literature is also reviewed to provide an international perspective. This review of trends in the integration of digital technologies in education is timely due to the national and international focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, arguably for economic sustainability and the quality standards expected in early childhood education. The role of digital technologies in early childhood is increasingly discussed and negotiated in learning centres. Educators are wanting support in understanding how young children can be creators of technology rather than simply being consumers of digital products.
Highlights
Australian governments have invested extensively in digital education highlighting the growing link between technology and economic prosperity (Digital Education Advisory Group, 2012)
With an awareness that effective educators are those who can draw on deep knowledge of a subject and combine that with a strong understanding of ‘how to teach’, the Teachers for the Future (TTF) project aimed to fuse these components within a pedagogy which incorporated ICT understandings of how to access and process knowledge in new ways, using appropriate tools
There has been an increase in the number of tangible programming languages available with the rise of cheaper and more sophisticated tangible technology (Bers, 2018). These Tangible Coding Technologies (TCTs) or ‘robots’ are designed for young children ages 3-7, introduce the building blocks of computer programming and computational thinking which are key to empowering learners as creators of technology rather than being consumers of a product (Elkin, Sullivan & Bers, 2014)
Summary
Australian governments have invested extensively in digital education highlighting the growing link between technology and economic prosperity (Digital Education Advisory Group, 2012). With an awareness that effective educators are those who can draw on deep knowledge of a subject and combine that with a strong understanding of ‘how to teach’, the TTF project aimed to fuse these components within a pedagogy which incorporated ICT understandings of how to access and process knowledge in new ways, using appropriate tools (technology) This transformation of pedagogy is enhancing the engagement of pre-service teachers, “initial teacher education students are more likely to demonstrate TPACK as future teachers” Research is needed to ensure educators’ pedagogy with technology is based on evidence and provides learning experiences that promote young children’s cognitive, and socio-emotional development (Zabatiero et al, 2018) Given this agenda and need, the paper will discuss digital technologies in the early childhood (EC) education sector. It will provide a critical review of the opportunities and demands facing educators who are working to integrate digital technologies into the early childhood learning environment
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