One of our recent #ecetechchat sessions sparked a very hot debate. The topic was “How do you know when technology has been used effectively? Or that there was learning transfer?” One of the reasons it was such a tricky topic is because simply by asking this question, it could be inferred that technology is being held responsible for learning. Of course, within the context of #ecetechchat, where developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) is the gold standard, the question assumes technology is being used only as a tool to facilitate and enhance learning. Therefore, the question is really, how can we measure and understand whether technology is being used as a tool in a way which enhances or increases learning? Ultimately, this type of measurement requires demonstration, documentation, and criteria.
This topic is of particular importance as classroom technology becomes more prevalent and tools like mobile apps (many of which claim to “teach” things) become more and more pervasive in young children’s homes. How can parents, educators, and caregivers know what “educational” or “teach” means in these contexts and how can they help to ensure their children are being exposed to tools that will help them become creators instead of consumers? The recent end of “Your Baby Can Read” is a great example of an instance when a tech tool (videos) claimed to “educate” babies and “teach” them to read. Yet, researchers found that, in answer to the chat topic, learning transfer was not truly occurring and the technology was not being used effectively. Unfortunately, most families and educators do not have the same resources or time to examine the facts as those who investigated the “Your Baby Can Read” videos. Luckily, our chat participants had some other suggestions and ideas to determine whether learning has occurred and if tech tools are being used effectively.
These suggestions and ideas included:
- Asking open ended questions to check for learning (e.g., Tell me what you did with that?)
- Creating situations where children could apply knowledge gained through a tech tool in a new context
- Taking detailed observation notes and documenting what children are doing with technology and other materials in regards to specific skills
- Checking to see if a child can generalize skills used with a tech tool beyond that tool
- Using measurement tools built-in to the technology to review and examine what has been learned and how it was learned
- Asking yourself whether the tools are creating and deepening positive relationships between children and between children and teachers
- Reflecting on whether the technology is being used as a tool and not the goal of an activity or singular method to teach a concept or skill
- Discovering if you can engage the child in a meaningful, open-ended dialogue about their learning
- Observing whether children know if a tech tool can help them, if they volunteer a tech tool as a way to help them/others work on certain skills
- Engaging children in reflection about what they have done and discovered after using a tech tool
- Asking children for their evaluation and opinion of a tool
- Setting specific and clear learning goals
One of the key takeaways from all of these suggestions is the importance of knowing which skills (e.g., social and emotional, mathematics, literacy, etc) you are hoping to enhance or support through the use of a tech tool and therefore which ones to document and assess in other contexts. By knowing what you hope or want children to be learning from tech tools, you are able to ensure that those skills and knowledge are age appropriate and relevant to children’s contexts, needs, and lives.
Some other issues that were raised included the need for there to be accountability around the appropriate and effective use of technology across staff, from directors down to classroom teachers. Part of this accountability requires the ever-needed professional development (PD) that is still missing (in many areas, not just tech) for early childhood professionals. One solution is to work hard to increase pre-service teachers’ knowledge and experience selecting developmentally appropriate technology tools and applying them in early childhood classrooms so that those entering the workforce will require less PD. Additionally, some chat participants raised the idea of creating more of a common framework for all technology tools created for early childhood contexts and more universal criteria to measure or determine whether these tools fit DAP. Finally, the idea of continuously monitoring, documenting, and revisiting each child’s learning goals through the use of e-portfolios or other media that allow for the integration of the products children create with technology was raised as an important next step for many.
Some lingering questions remained:
- Can apps or tech tools ever actually teach anything? Or can they only reinforce, support, and enhance?
- Can technology ever be used to measure learning or only to document learning?
- If technology is just another tool in a teacher’s toolbox, similar to crayons, why are practices regarding it consistently so isolated? Does technology need to be used, discussed, and labeled as different from crayons and other tools?
Ultimately, as @beyondplaydough stated “Like all things balance is key” always, with technology and any classroom tool and we can know that “tech works from quantitative (analytics) & qualitative data (observations)” – @lewismal. Therefore, it is never about just one way of doing things but a multiplicity of ways to examine, reflect, and determine what learning is occurring and those multiplicity of ways always rely on a teacher’s unique, personal relationship to the student.
