Technology is an integral part of all young children's lives. They are surrounded by information and communications technology (ICT) just as they are surrounded by language, print and numbers. In the home, technology includes remote controls for televisions, toys that have buttons and buzzers, mobile phones, programmable machines from microwaves to videotape recorders, and, of course, personal computers.
Outside the home, children are also immersed in the technological world: they see automatic doors, cash machines, barcode scanners, digital tills and weighing machines and security cameras. Technology is something children are going to grow up with, learn about and master, and use as a tool to increase their understanding in all areas of learning.
Since our team of Foundation Stage regional directors joined the Primary National Strategy a year ago, we have been involved in ensuring that the Foundation Stage and its principles are reflected in Primary Strategy materials.
One of the first projects that we were involved in looked at ICT.
Excellence and Enjoyment: A strategy for primary schools (DfES/0377/2003) stated that ICT should be used as a vehicle for supporting learning and teaching, and it is important that we consider how to embed ICT in the learning and teaching materials for the Foundation Stage.
It has long been my belief that ICT in the Foundation Stage is not just about fulfilling the early learning goals for ICT that sit within knowledge and understanding of the world, but that it is about seeing ICT as a tool for learning and teaching across all areas of learning.
Good practice examples The resource that has been developed is a CD-Rom with 12 video clips of children using ICT in everyday situations. The clips include children using:
* sophisticated technology competently
* ICT outdoors
* computers effectively for their own self-initiated learning
* relevant ICT equipment in role play
* programmable toys to find 'treasure' and estimate distance
* a construction set, with a difference, to make models
* a musical play mat to develop their counting skills
* a photocopier to support the documenting of children's learning.
Each clip has supporting documentation that outlines some of the key learning intentions for each of these activities and provides a commentary of what the children are doing. There are also ideas for further learning and it identifies the practitioner's key role. Also on the CD-Rom are some 'How to' sheets which demonstrate how to:
* save ink when printing
* set up a slide show (great to show parents and carers what their children do in the setting and encourage children to talk and explain)
* paint a robot cover
* insert images into a document.
We hope that these materials will enable practitioners to see ICT in its widest sense, from role-play equipment to tape recorders, and consider what it means to use ICT as a tool for learning and teaching in the Foundation Stage.
The 'Learning and teaching using ICT - example materials for the Foundation Stage' CD-Rom is now available from Prolog (tel: 0845 6022260, ref: DfES 0384-2004 GCDI) (see box for other sources of information).
Case study One area that is using ICT effectively is Redcar and Cleveland, where an Interactive Teaching and Learning Project has enabled 16 schools to enjoy the benefits of interactive whiteboards in Foundation Stage and Year 1 classes. Feedback has been positive, with practitioners finding that the whiteboards have become an essential part of the setting.
In one school, children use the board to self-register by moving their photograph to show they have arrived.
At Galley Hill Primary School in Guisborough, there are whiteboards in both the nursery and reception classes. The children have free access to the Smart boards, fixed 50cm from the floor, and practitioners encourage them to use the boards to support all the areas of the curriculum.
The boards are empowering for young children as they can use their finger, rather than a mouse, to operate the simple graphics package. Bypassing the need for sophisticated mouse skills means all children can draw and paint with ease.
When the children wanted to find out about hedgehogs, they looked at pictures on an Internet site and listened to the sounds hedgehogs make using a sound file from the National Geographic website. This provided the necessary stimulus for children to then use the whiteboard to work independently on their own drawings.
Practitioners have also used digital photography with the new boards. On one occasion, a practitioner took a sequence of photographs to record the children baking bread and imported them into the Smart Notebook software.
The children were then able to sequence the images, discuss the activity and, with the pens provided with the boards, make marks and re-tell the story in their own writing.
The whiteboard is a great favourite with all the children, who can use the board independently, as part of a small group activity or as part of a larger group learning experience. The practitioners' skilful planning ensures that the learning of even the youngest child is enhanced through the board, which has not become a focal point but rather an important addition to the many areas of provision. NW Ruth Pimentel is co-ordinating director for the Primary National Strategy - Foundation Stage
Top tips for ICT good practice
1 Ensure that children's confidence and familiarity with ICT is not just about personal computers but also embraces equipment such as programmable toys, walkie-talkies, metal detectors, electronic toys and tape recorders.
2 View ICT as another tool to promote children's learning. For example, encourage children to use programmable toys alongside small-world environments.
3 Demonstrate in your planning how ICT can be used to enhance children's learning in all six areas of learning.
4 Observe how children use ICT equipment and the learning that occurs across the Foundation Stage curriculum.
5 Monitor children's use of ICT. Are there particular children who shy away from technology and others that dominate its use?
6 Ensure that practitioners are familiar with software and equipment to enable them to support children effectively.
7 Wherever possible, integrate ICT into everyday activities. For example, provide defunct keyboards and monitors in an office or travel agent's role-play area.
8 Ensure that software does not reinforce stereotypes and is checked for bias.
9 Enable children to access ICT independently. For example, ensure that programmable toys are fully charged and at an accessible height.
10 Make the computer area attractive with appropriate seating properly positioned and give regard to health and safety issues.
Further information
Useful websites
* www.nwnet.org.uk - the National Whiteboard Network website offers support and guidance to practitioners on the effective use of interactive whiteboards
* www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ primary/foundation_stage_practitioners/ - provides information about the Foundation Stage strand of the Primary National Strategy
* www.hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk/ foundation - has Foundation Stage ICT resources and information
* www.gamesleyeec.org.uk/ welcome.asp - Gamesley Early Excellence Centre is renowned for its use of ICT and its website includes video clips showing children in action
* www.ltscotland.org.uk/ earlyyears/ictinpreschool.asp gives details of Scotland's early years ICT strategy and policy document, Early Learning Forward Thinking: The Policy Framework for ICT in Early Years
* www.ioe.ac.uk/cdl/DATEC/ - provides information about a project aiming to develop an ICT educational curriculum for young children throughout Europe.
It is a comprehensive site and includes details of effective practice.
Useful publications
* More than Computers - information and communication technology in the early years by Iram Siraj-Blatchford and John Siraj-Blatchford (5, plus 50p p&p) identifies principles of good practice, the need for children to be confident with ICT and how practitioners and parents can support children's understanding of this area. Available from Early Education, www.early-education.org.uk/ 1orderpublications.htm
* Supporting information and communications technology in the early years by John Siraj-Blatchford and David Whitebread (Open University Press) helps readers to understand how children from birth to six develop an awareness and subsequently knowledge, skills and understanding of ICT.
* Early Education: Young children and technology, part of the Learning Together series of leaflets, can be downloaded from www.early-education.org.uk.
For a set of the Learning Together leaflets, send a stamped addressed envelope (C5 or A4) with two first-class stamps to Early Education, 136 Cavell Street, London E1 2JA.