Evaluating Educational Technology
3 likes2,190 views
The document discusses the evaluation and integration of educational technology in early childhood education, emphasizing its developmental appropriateness and positive outcomes when effectively used. It outlines key principles, research findings, and recommendations for selecting and implementing technology in classrooms, highlighting the role of technology in enhancing learning experiences for young children. Additionally, it calls for intentional evaluation and preparation to ensure technology supports educational goals and fosters child development.
Evaluating Educational Technology
- 1. WANT TO EVALUATE EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY? AN INTERACTIVE TOOL KIT COMES TO THE RESCUE! NAEYC Annual Conference Nov. 2013-‐Washington, DC Lilla Dale McManis, M.Ed., Ph.D. Research Director-‐Hatch Early Learning dmcmanis@hatchearlylearning.com LillaDaleMcManis@DrLDMcManis Copyright 2013.
- 2. Road Map • What is educaIonal technology? • What does the research say? • How can we evaluate it? • How do we integrate it into the program/classroom? • What would you like technology to look like in your program? *Disclaimer: Photos do not imply endorsement.
- 3. What is Educa0onal Technology? .
- 4. From an Adult Expert “ Educational technology is the study & ethical practice of facilitating learning & improving performance by creating, using & managing appropriate technological processes & resources. ” Associa'on for Educa'onal Communica'ons and Technology, 2008 .
- 5. From a Child Expert “ I like computers because they teach me so much and if I had a friend who didn’t have a computer, I would tell him the cat and cow story is my favorite because it is so funny! They go to another country with the cat on the cow! ” Sebas'an, 5 years Mudpies Child Development Center Winston-‐Salem, NC
- 6. Groups .
- 7. How Children Learn Best • Experiences that are: – Meaningful – Engaging – Allow children to be successful – Can result in self-‐efficacy • Belief that one has the necessary skills and competencies to complete challenging and important tasks
- 8. What is Developmentally Appropriate Prac0ce for Technology? • Accounts for age & developmental status • Promotes progress • Maintains interest NAEYC/Rogers Center Tech Posi'on Statement 2012
- 9. NAEYC /Rogers Center Technology Posi0on Statement Guiding Principle EffecIve uses of technology and media are: • acIve • hands-‐on • engaging • empowering • give the child control • provide adapIve scaffolds to ease task accomplishment • one of many opIons to support children’s learning
- 10. How Not to Use Technology with Children
- 11. Outcomes-‐Based Research The quesIon is no longer should we have educaIonal technology? The quesIon now is how can we best use technology for educaIon?
- 12. Why has the Ques0on Changed? • 30 years of Research • PosiIve Outcomes for Early Learners • Tools of the Culture
- 13. Cogni0ve Development Language/Literacy Preschoolers’ language acIvity, measured by words spoken per minute, has been found to be almost twice as high at the computer than during other other acIviIes, including playdough, blocks, art, or games (Muhlstein and Cro). In story telling, Riding and Tite found that preschoolers told longer and more structured stories when they saw graphic presentaIons on a computer than when they did not. see reviews by Penuel et al. 2009; McCarrick & Xiaoming 2007; Glaubke 2007; Clements & Sarama 2003
- 14. PBS Content on iPods/Smartphones (Chiong & Shuler 2010)
- 15. Children make gains in math & reading • children spend more Ime engaged Wood, 2001 ZiVle 2004; Swan, Schenker & Kratcoski 2008
- 16. 82% Ready to Read & 92% School Ready in Math Children make gains in math & reading McManis et al., 2010
- 17. Touchscreen Computers iStartSmart Efficacy Study showed staIsIcally significant literacy/language & math outcomes for children (2012). Improvement in Standardized Test Scores 10 9 8 Difference score* 7 6 5 Control (n=70) 4 iSS (n=55) 3 2 1 0 TOPEL Bracken Standardized Test
- 18. eBooks • PBS study with parents reading ebooks basic and enhanced and print books with their 3-‐6 year olds • Looked at narraIve recall & comprehension • MulImedia features of enhanced e-‐books grabbed children’s ahenIon • Those same features also distracted young readers and led more to “non-‐content related interacIons” (Chiong et al 2012) (Photo from Cooney Center)
- 19. Cogni0ve Development WriIng & Math • Computer-‐based wriIng can allow for more fluid ideas. Young children are freed from mechanical concerns, so they have fewer mechanical errors AND less worry about making mistakes (Bangert-‐Drowns; Jones & Pellegrini). • Moxley et al found 3 year-‐ olds using the computer to write showed steady improvement in spelling and story wriIng, including invented spellings, and at age 4 they outperformed children without computer based wriIng experiences. • Concrete experience with 3 dimensional objects is a fundamental approach for teaching math that shouldn’t change, however Brinkley & Watson found 3-‐year-‐olds learned sorIng from a computer task as easily as from a concrete doll task; so it is a comparable approach. • When doing these tasks on computers, children learned to understand and apply concepts such as symmetry, paherns and spaIal order (Wright). see reviews by Penuel et al. 2009; McCarrick & Xiaoming 2007; Glaubke 2007; Clements & Sarama 2003
- 20. IntervenIon group of kindergartners made significant gains in comparison to the non-‐intervenIon group in increased levels of mathemaIcal, representaIonal and symbolic development of fracIons. (Goodwin 2008)
- 21. Social-‐EmoIonal Development • Encouragement • CooperaIon • CollaboraIon (see reviews by Penuel et al. 2009; McCarrick & Xiaoming 2007; Glaubke 2007; Clements & Sarama 2003 & Sarama 2003)
- 22. • Muller & Perlmuher found that children at the computer spent 9 Imes as much Ime talking to peers than when they did puzzles. • Praise and encouragement of peers is prevalent when at the computer (Klinzing & Hall). • Rather than disrupIng ongoing play, the computer center has been found to facilitate posiIve social interacIons such as cooperaIon and helping behaviors (King & Alloway; Rhee & Chavnagri).
- 23. Interac0ve Whiteboards Children collaborated more & spent more Ime engaged Wood 2001
- 24. • McManis & Gunnewig (2012) found preschool children exhibited high levels of cooperaIve and collaboraIve play when using mulI-‐touch table with acIviIes designed to teach and support these behaviors
- 25. WPS Hatch Study, 2012
- 26. Advanced Skills • MoIvaIon • Higher-‐Order Thinking • Meta-‐CogniIon (see reviews by Penuel et al. 2009; McCarrick & Xiaoming 2007; Glaubke 2007; Clements & Sarama 2003
- 27. • One skill is being able to stay interested in a task long enough to learn it which Shade found when children used the computer together. • When children are in control (which is key for these outcomes) there is increased: • creaIvity (Escobedo) • problem-‐solving skills • decision-‐making ability (Nastasi et al.) • understanding of cause and effect (Goodwin, Goodwin, & Garel) • longer ahenIon span (Haugland)
- 28. Special Needs • • • • • • Social-‐EmoIonal Fine Motor Gross Motor CommunicaIon CogniIon Self-‐Help Hu'nger & Johanson 2000
- 29. • HunInger and Johanson found that special needs preschool children in a computer based program made progress in all developmental areas, including social-‐emoIonal, fine and gross motor, communicaIon, cogniIon, and self-‐help. • When they joined the program, the children were only making an average gain of ½ month per month. However, while parIcipaIng in the program they were making on average, gains of 1.8 months per month; the results indicated that the computer made a unique contribuIon. • AddiIonally, looking across 11 common classroom acIviIes, result showed that computer use was most oen followed by desirable behaviors such as sharing, communicaIng, taking turns, and focusing and least likely to be followed by aggression
- 30. ELL/Dual Language Learners • PosiIve astudes toward learning • MoIvates learners to develop strategies for successful learning • Results in improved sentence structure and breadth of content • Strengthens the development of auditory skills Waxman & Tellez 2002
- 31. • With 100 million first-‐grade-‐aged children worldwide having no access to schooling, the One Laptop Per Child organizaIon did something unique in two remote Ethiopian villages—dropping off tablets with preloaded programs. • Children were sIll heavily engaged in using the tablets aer several months. • Observed reciIng the “alphabet song,” and spelling words. One boy, exposed to literacy games with animal pictures, used a paint program and wrote the word “Lion.” (hhp://mashable.com/2012/10/29/tablets-‐ethiopian-‐children/)
- 32. Where are we going?
- 33. Affordances • • • • Touch responsive InteracIvity CustomizaIon Child-‐friendly
- 34. Types of Interac0ve Technology
- 35. Survey Says…. NaIonal survey of almost 500 teacher and administrator respondents… • Almost all have desktops/laptops • Half have IWBs • A third have tablets • Learn more @Simon, F., Nemeth, K., & McManis, D. (2013). Technology in ECE classrooms: Results of a new survey and implicaIons for the field. Exchange Magazine, 213, 68-‐75. hhp://hatchearlylearning.com/ece-‐tech-‐survey-‐2012/
- 36. Mobile Technologies • Children learn to use them quickly • Encourages independence • Explore more complex and abstract concepts Michael Cohen Group & USDOE 2011; Couse & Chen 2010; Shuler 2009
- 37. • Enhances mastery of concepts • Vocabulary • Phonological awareness Chiong & Shuler 2010; Horowitz, Sosenko & Hoffman 2006; Bebell, Dorris & Muir 2012 .
- 38. Mul0-‐touch Tables • • • • Can handle a large number of touches simultaneously Offers a 360° birds-‐eye view Promotes cooperaIve/collaboraIve learning Most of the research is with older children. If there are not enough ‘assets’, this can hurt cooperaIve and collaboraIve learning just as it does in any non-‐tech sesng.
- 39. SelecIng Appropriate EducaIonal Technology • Goals • Technology • Content
- 40. Food for Thought “ Just spending money on computers without a plan will have a low probability of increasing achievement… ” Clements & Sarama, 2003
- 41. Building Blocks for Good Educa0onal Technology for Early Learners • Based on theory – Child development – Learning – Teaching • Based on good design principles – Child-‐friendly – Promotes progress – Supports teaching • Based on meaningful and relevant outcomes – Knowledge – Skills – Self-‐efficacy
- 42. Driving Theory • Piaget—Cogni0ve Developmental Theory: Children acIvely construct knowledge. • Vygotsky—Sociocultural Theory: Modeling & language essenIal for children’s learning. • Skinner—Behaviorism: Children learn based on environmental acIons and reacIons. • Bandura—Social Learning Theory: Children’s learning occurs socially through observaIon, imitaIon, and modeling.
- 43. Key Steps to Evalua0ng Ed Tech 1. Establish learning goals for the children 2. IndenIfy the hardware or device(s) you have or would like to have 3. Analyze features and content of the soware in meeIng learning goals 4. Plan how the educaIonal technology will be integrated into the curriculum
- 45. Learning Goals • Approaches to Learning • CogniIve • Social-‐EmoIonal
- 46. Hardware/Devices Much wider variety of types of technology and content available: – Desktops/laptops – InteracIve whiteboards – Tablets – Tables – eReaders, smartpens, iPod touch, digital cameras (Rideout 2011; Gutnik et al. 2010)
- 47. EducaIonal • Focus • Standards • Feedback #
- 48. Is this content learning versus winning? • Valuable instrucIonal Ime is not used for “gaming entertainment”. • Rather game-‐like with specific and appropriate learning goals.
- 49. Research & Standards Based Ensure that the skills the soware is designed to teach or enhance are deemed necessary by research (and/or the curriculum, framework and/ or standards of your program).
- 50. Teaching & Feedback • Correct developmental course • EffecIve teaching paths • Learning sequence obvious, process-‐ oriented, and correct. • Teaching component before responses. • For example, the names of the lehers are taught before asking children to idenIfy them.
- 51. Age Appropriate • • • • • Subject Maher Skill Level Interest & Appeal Pre-‐readers Free of Bias
- 52. Subject Ma[er & Skill Level Meets developmental needs f children using it. o • • For example, soware should introduce counIng before addiIon; or the names of emoIons before asking children to apply to situaIons. • Consider too if soware will be used by children older or younger than intended range and how they may react-‐from frustraIon to boredom.
- 54. Survey Says! Teacher or Child Led? We asked teachers to consider a typical week for a child in their classroom and describe their use of technology. • A third indicate a balance of half teacher-‐directed/ guided and half child-‐iniIated learning acIviIes • About equal numbers of a quarter each indicate they fall on the side of mostly child-‐iniIated, with some Ime for teacher-‐directed/guided learning acIviIes • or the side of mostly teacher-‐directed/guided, with some Ime for child-‐iniIated learning acIviIes
- 55. Child Friendly • Clear & Simple Choices • OpportuniIes for Success • Independent Learning
- 56. Enjoyable & Engaging • • • • Variety Rewards Graphics Audio
- 57. Assessment & Progress Monitoring Most valuable role to inform instrucIon at individual child level. To become a part of the instrucIonal cycle means progress monitoring-‐assessment feature must be easy to interpret. Ability to share with parents can moIvate and support them in increasing engagement with children at home.
- 58. Digital Porzolios sIll VERY appropriate!
- 59. Detailed reports help teachers keep children well on track
- 60. Updates & Alerts Feature that gives teachers and administrators reminders and reports at a high level.
- 61. Survey Says! Tech for Progress Monitoring • Eighty percent of teachers report using technology for progress monitoring/child assessment • Followed closely by three quarters of administrators reporIng technology used for this purpose
- 62. AddiIonal Features • CustomizaIon • Create AcIviIes
- 65. Your turn to Evaluate!
- 66. Let’s Use the Toolkit Together!
- 67. Your Assignment! • Find a soware program/content you are familiar with being used by young children. • Complete the EvaluaIon Tool. • What score did it receive? • Did it rate as you expected? • Differently?
- 68. Educator Support Sufficient InteracIon Time Integra0on is Essen0al Sustained Staff Development
- 70. “Training must be ongoing and systemaIc if teachers are to properly complete the ‘learning cycle’ of technology-‐related professional development” (Kinneman) Takes Ime to fully support children’s learning Sheingold & Hadley, 1990
- 71. Summary • Research supports young children can benefit from using educaIonal technology • But it must be of high quality and developmentally appropriate • There are key aspects that must be considered • EvaluaIng in a thoughzul, intenIonal, and regular manner will help pracIIoners make the best decisions for early learners
- 72. Q & A
- 73. Evalua0ng Educa0onal eBook with Tool Technology & • References, Webinar & Journal arIcle h[p:// www.hatchearlychildhood.com /pages/evalua0ng-‐technology-‐ for-‐early-‐learners h[p:// www.hatchearlychildhood.com /pages/webinar-‐sept-‐2011-‐ evalua0ng-‐early-‐learning-‐ technology h[p://www.naeyc.org/yc/ ar0cle/finding-‐educa0on-‐in-‐ educa0onal-‐technology
- 74. Good places for connec0ons • LinkedIn: Early Childhood Technology Network • Twi[er: #ecetechchat • ISTE: Early Learning & Technology SIG hhp://www.iste.org/connect/special-‐interest-‐groups/sigelt • NAEYC: Technology and Young Children Interest Forum hhp://www.naeyc.org/yc/files/yc/file/201211/OnOurMinds1112.pdf • MeeIng of The Technology and Young Children Interest Forum welcomes new and returning members to our annual meeIng. Join us as we explore technology innovaIons, share research, collaborate on new project ideas, and plan technology and young children Annual Conference sessions for next year. For more informaIon, contact Lynn Hartle at lhartle@hotmail.com. Thursday 6:00-‐7:30 p.m. Washington Conven0on Center, Room 153
- 75. Main Sources • • • • • • InternaIonal Society for Technology in EducaIon. (2008). Na'onal Educa'onal Technology Standards for Teachers. hVp://www.iste.org/standards/nets-‐for-‐teachers/nets-‐for-‐teachers-‐2008.aspx McCarrick, K., & Xiaoming, L. (2007). Buried treasure: The impact of computer use on young children’s social, cogniIve, language development and moIvaIon. AACE Journal, 15 (1), 73-‐95. McManis, L.D., & Gunnewig, S. (2012). Finding the EducaIon in EducaIonal Technology with Early Learners. Young Children, 67 (3), 14-‐24. hhp://www.naeyc.org/yc/arIcle/finding-‐educaIon-‐in-‐educaIonal-‐technology NAEYC & FRC. (2012). Technology Tools and Interac've Media in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8.” hhp://www.naeyc.org/content/technology-‐and-‐young-‐children Public BroadcasIng Service and Grunwald Associates. (2011). Deepening Connec'ons: Teachers Increasingly Rely on Media and Technology. Report of the Public BroadcasIng Service. Arlington, VA: Public BroadcasIng Service. www.pbs.org/teachers/grunwald/pbs-‐grunwald-‐2010.pdf Simon, F., Nemeth, K., & McManis, D. (2013). Technology in ECE classrooms: Results of a new survey and implicaIons for the field. Exchange Magazine, 213, 68-‐75. hhp://hatchearlylearning.com/ece-‐tech-‐survey-‐2012/
- 76. Slides will be posted via our blog @ hhp://hatchearlylearning.com/resources/blog/ Where we will be next….. We’d like to stay in touch….. • NaIonal Head Start AssociaIon Conference April 18 in Nashville – Using Technology to Support Social-‐EmoIonal Development in Young Children Dale C Twi[er: • McCormick Center for Early on hildhood Leadership Lilla Dale McManis@DrLDMcManis ConnecIons Conference May 10-‐12 in Chicago – EvaluaIng EducaIonal Technology in Early Childhood • InternaIonal Society for Technology in EducaIon (ISTE) Conference June 25 in San Diego – School Readiness: Outcomes and Approaches