The use of digital technology in early years settings is controversial. While research suggests that excessive screen time is linked to attention problems and even depression, the Education Endowment Foundation finds careful employment of digital technology can be associated with an additional four months’ learning over the course of a year.
One of the early learning goals is that children should be able to select and use technology. A study of children in Sure Start Centres by Cambridge and The Open University academics found evidence of a ‘digital divide’: some children develop sophisticated skills by using technology at home, while others do not, potentially leading to social and economic disadvantage in later life. Plus, early years practitioners lack confidence and skills to help children overcome this divide, the study found.
Some settings have therefore identified an investment in digital technology as an effective use of the Early Years Pupil Premium funding, the aim of which is to close the gap between children from a disadvantaged background and their peers. Such investment has the advantage of providing a particular benefit to the EYPP cohort while benefiting the setting as a whole.
Outstanding-rated The Centre Pre-School in Basildon, Essex has 11 children eligible for EYPP. The community setting decided to invest in two video cameras at around £95 apiece, and two ‘child-friendly’ Nabi tablets, also £95. Sue Bester, senior assistant, says, ‘When we received the EYPP funding, staff suggested that digital video cameras would be a valuable resource, as both video footage and still images could be taken with them. For many of our EYPP-funded children, taking and waiting for a turn was an area we could focus on, as well as listening, language and social skills.’
The tablets are used by children about to make the transition to nursery or primary school. They are given a ten-minute hourglass timer to gauge how much time they have left before giving it to another child.
‘We have seen a real impact on the children’s turn-taking in lots of areas now,’ says Ms Bester. ‘The other day we had a black-out tent, and one of the children got the hourglass and set it outside the tent; that was their own idea to encourage turn-taking in that environment.’
The setting also links the development of turn-taking and sharing to its statutory promotion of British values, such as democracy. Staff observe how children use the digital equipment and feed back to the setting supervisor how it has specifically supported the EYPP children.
Ms Bester adds that the children can use the devices ‘with other children or independently’ and they help to ‘build children’s confidence through challenge and exploration’.
The cameras can also be used inside and outside the setting. ‘The children use them to take pictures and make films, which can then be played back on the computer,’ says Ms Bester. ‘It helps them to develop their memory, as well as their creativity, as we watch back the activities we have done.’
Filming is also useful for staff. ‘One setting in Barnet is using cameras to record their own practice, reflect and improve quality,’ says Caroline Eaton, EYPP project lead at Early Education, which is collating examples of best practice in EYPP spend.
Evidence suggests technology should be used to supplement, rather than replace, other teaching activities. Settings considering investing in digital technology have a number of options open to them:
Video cameras can be used to evidence children’s progress and monitor the quality of practice, or children can use them to create films and pictures.
Small children often find tablets easier to handle than laptops or PCs, especially those designed for early years use. These can be used for activities including mark-making, stories, songs and rhymes, through educational apps and games as well as creating film clips/photos.
There are many programmes and applications that help children develop literacy skills, such as Our Story, developed by child psychologists at The Open University, or Me Books, which allows children to add narration and sound effects to classic stories.
Toys such as Bee-Bots, and apps such as Daisy the Dinosaur, help children learn rudimentary programming.
Other applications can help settings improve their own practice. Boardmaker software, for example, allows providers to create visual timetables
While the capital outlay for new technology is relatively high, it can perform many functions and last for several years. However, managers need to be aware of additional training costs to allow staff to get the most from the technology. They should also consider how they intend to evaluate its impact on children’s outcomes, and whether e-safety policies need to be updated.
SOUTH NORMANTON NURSERY SCHOOL, DERBYSHIRE
At Outstanding-rated South Normanton Nursery School, a group of children are practising mark-making using the nursery’s computers and whiteboards. The setting recently spent some of its EYPP funding on a computer, which powers an interactive Mimio whiteboard, and a light panel for the science area.
The computer cost £239 and the light panel was £119. The nursery also invested £234 in a set of Bee-Bots – brightly coloured bees that can be programmed to make different moves, teaching children directional language and basic programming. Head teacher Stephanie Astle says this investment has had a ‘massive benefit’.
Currently nine out of 83 children at the nursery are eligible for the EYPP funding. ‘When we were looking into the needs of our EYPP-eligible cohort, we found that many of them were not necessarily less able children – in fact, the majority were more able,’ she says. ‘One of the areas in which they were missing out was exploration and investigation.’
The new technology allows these children, and others in the nursery, to develop their fine motor skills as well as extend their communications and language skills through working alongside their peers. ‘This investment benefits all of the children, especially those with additional needs such as autism,’ says Ms Astle. ‘We can engage them with different types of learning that would not otherwise be possible.’
The whiteboard, which resembles a TV screen, has a touchscreen enabling a group of children to work together using special pens or their fingers. Practitioners can set up activities on the linked computer, which the children can then interact with using the whiteboard. Children can also place items, such as puppets, under a linked visualiser and have them appear on the whiteboard screen, as well as making films and using special-effects tools. As with other areas of the nursery, play in the information and communication technology area is child-led, and children can access it whenever they want to.
‘There has been a massive benefit, particularly with communication and language,’ says Ms Astle. ‘The light panel has been extremely useful, especially for the more able children, and has allowed them to do a lot of exploration. It’s one of those areas we find children who like to have a quieter moment go and play in. Children are less frightened of technology than adults, and we find it is a really good base for extending the activities they are doing.’
Ms Astle already had experience with the whiteboard technology, having implemented them at a school in a previous job. ‘I worked quite closely with the whiteboard manufacturer to choose the appropriate computer to work with it,’ she says.
The nursery has also spent EYPP funding on phonics training for its staff, to increase their confidence in planning, implementing and reviewing phonics, and on resources such as Ten Town, an educational mathematics programme for early years children.
The setting’s impact assessment has found that the EYPP-eligible children’s average progress has been outstanding, and higher than the average progress of all of the children in 16 out of 17 areas. ‘Some of the children eligible for EYPP in this group had additional needs and they made the most rapid progress out of all the children in this cohort,’ Ms Astle says.
Further information
ICT in the early years, from Homerton Early Years Centre, http://homerton.cambs.sch.uk/information-for-practioners/ict-in-the-early-years
Education Endowment Foundation toolkit, https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence/early-years-toolkit
Early Education has been funded by the Department for Education to support and evaluate strategies for implementing the EYPP, https://early-education.org.uk/sites/default/files/LTAL%20newsletter%202.pdf
Early Education is running a survey on how settings have found the first year of EYPP. The survey can be accessed at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/eypp2016