Final Assignment:

Literature Review and Research Proposal for Computer Use in an Early Childhood Education Setting

ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

By Svetlana Gibson ETEC 500 Section 65A Dr. Stephen Carey April 11, 2010 The implications of using computers in schools are wide and far reaching. Those of us who work with students in educational setting know and understand the benefits and the pit falls of introducing computers into our classrooms. Computers have become ubiquitous in our lives and even more so in the lives of our children. They are very comfortable with using the latest technology and adapt quickly to anything new the market has to throw at them. It is up to us to steer them in the right direction and provide them with skills to navigate the World Wide Web and everything it has to offer. Computer technology has penetrated every aspect of our lives and it is slowly encroaching into the lives of our very young children. Any educational setting which does not provide access to computers is considered backward and limiting to student progress. Preschools and kindergarten classrooms do not escape this criticism. At what cost is
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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

this progress? Should we be introducing computers to preschoolers and if so what are the benefits and the drawbacks? After all, many young children are exposed to computers at home. Of what benefit is it to expose preschoolers and kindergarteners to computers in a formal educational setting? A lot of research has been done on this topic. Christina Davidson looked at how interaction resources produced socially recognizable actions, how social activity mutually accomplished knowledge and how children shifted seamlessly between various technologies and texts. (Davidson, 2009. p. 36) The article, Young Childrens Engagement With Digital Texts And Literacies In the Home, is well organized and easy to read. It provides a lengthy introduction and draws on a wide variety of recent research on the topic presented and related areas. In the Theoretical Perspective and Methods, the author provides a good explanation of what ethnomethodology is for this is the type of research used for this study. Ethnomethodology attempts to understand peoples ordinary actions. According to ethnomethodology, members of society bring about an ordered existence as an everyday and local accomplishment. Members orient to sense-making in ways that provide for order, seek to find it, and account for its absence in orde rly ways. (Davidson, p.40) Ethnomethodologists seek to find, describe and explicate the methods by which members do this as an ordinary and everyday way of doing life (Davidson, p. 40) One of the most effective ways to do this is to examine social interactions. Davidson uses Conversational Analysis in this study, which focuses on sequential analysis of talk. (Davidson, p.40) Central to the approach is the repeated reviewing of recordings of naturally occurring

ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

activity, detailed transcription of recordings and reporting of analysis that provides transcripts as evidence. (Davidson, p.40) Data collection for this research consisted of recordings of children under the age of eight from four families, although only small excerpts of recordings from one family were provided with detailed annotations and analysis. I found this helpful. All three excerpts were of a father and two boys using the internet to find information about lizards. The older boy was 6 years and 6 months and his younger brother was 2 years and 11 months. The mother was also present and engaged in the activity. The intent of the activity is to show the mutual accomplishment of what was meaningful during computer use, how interactional resources produce socially recognizable actions and activities, and how childrens social actions shifted seamlessly between technologies and text as they oriented to doing things about lizards as an aspect of their primary Discourse or everyday activity in this family (Davidson, p.48) The articl e highlights the importance of pursuing information which often entails the seeking of knowledge of others in order to know more (Davidson, p.49) It also points out, based on the lizard activity, that the adult is not always the one with all the information. The benefits of working with one adult and a small group of children have been known for a long time but I question how feasible it is in a classroom setting, especially in a public school. This is where I take issue with the authors conclusion that understanding social interaction that constitutes digital practices in the home may be a powerful tool in attempts to transform literacy practices in the early years. (Davidson, p.50) I do not take issue with the fact that we can learn from how children interact at home but from the point of view of feasibility. How practical is this in a real-life classroom setting?
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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

In a technology-based environment, the competitive ability will come from the ability to learn. No longer are we able to teach our young to remember information and therefore, get ahead. We must teach them how to learn and adapt their learning styles to everything new that comes their way. Papert views schools and teachers as major obstacles to new way of learning. Education, as he sees it "remains largely committed to the educational philosophy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and attempts to impose a single way of knowing on everyone. Tests, segregation by age, teachers as technicians who mould passive minds, and an emphasis on reading as the essential route to knowledge are the prime characteristics of today's education system (Papert, 1993) Research into reading disabilities shows that training in early reading skills improved those learners reading performance and even produced long-range effect over several schooling years as reported in longitudinal studies. Based on findings by Mioduser, Tur-Kaspa & Leitner in The Learning Value Of Computer-Based Instruction Of Early Reading Skills the results clearly indicated that children at high risk for RD who received reading intervention program with computer materials, had made by the end of the year (at the end of the intervention) a significant improvement in their phonological awareness, word recognition, and letter naming skills in comparison to their peers who received a reading intervention program with printedonly materials (without computer) and those who received no formal reading intervention program at all. (Mioduser, et al, 2000, p.8)

The study consisted of forty-six students aged 5-6 and attending six special education kindergartens in central region of Israel. Students came from average social-economic status
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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

families. All students were assessed through a comprehensive psycho-educational assessments and had been identified as children at high risk for learning disabilities by the regional Psychological Services. The same children were also identified as being at high risk for reading disabilities on the Phonological Awareness Test because they scored 55 points or lower out of 122 possible points.

The results clearly indicated that children at high risk for RD who received reading intervention program with computer materials, had made by the end of the year (at the end of the intervention) a significant improvement in their phonological awareness, word recognition, and letter naming skills in comparison to their peers who received a reading intervention program with printed-only materials (without computer) and those who received no formal reading intervention program at all. (Mioduser, et al, p.7) These finding are consistent with previous other results on the subject of benefits of use of computer-based materials in reading instruction for average students and for students with reading learning disabilities. Mioduser et al strongly believed that children seem to benefit from computer-based work not only at the specific skills level but also, as a result of their improvement in academic achievement, in terms of motivational and self confidence levels.

ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

Based on his study, Mioduser concluded that the presence of technology in early childhood education is becoming more and more a hardware reality, but subsequent work is needed to transform it into technology-based learning reality. (Mioduser et al, p. 8)

The article is well organized and provides detailed description of methodology, results and findings. The researchers took into account numerous sundry details, which made for more authentic results. For example, using the same teachers students are familiar with on a day to day basis and training them to conduct the computer based intervention. Having teachers who are well trained in early reading intervention and computer based reading intervention allowed for a consistency across the two groups instead of having different adults be involved. The article also provided detailed numerical findings and easy to read statistical analysis. The researchers make their conclusions reflect their numerical and observational data. The findings were based on three groups: Group 1 (n = 16) received instruction in reading with a special reading program which included both printed and computer-based materials; Group 2 (n = 15) learned only with the printed materials of the special reading program; Group 3 (n = 15) served as control group and was given only the regular special education program without specific reading training.

The researchers found that the extent of improvement on the tests was significantly higher in the computer group than in the printed-only and in the control groups. The researchers went
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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

further to discuss how these finding and methods could be applied to children speaking other languages than Hebrew.

Computer use by young children is not solely limited to reading remediation and games. Douglas H. Clements questions old assumptions that young children can only learn from concrete things as well as what is developmentally appropriate and points out that the construct of developmentally appropriate is being constantly revised. He also takes issue with some brain research that indicates that young children should not be using computers and states that few neuroscientists believe that direct educational implications can be drawn from their field (Clements, 2002, p. 2) and goes on further to say that the implications are unwarranted and spurious. This article does not contain concrete research data from the author but rather draws on an extensive research by other researchers as well as previous research by the author. In particular, Clements reviewed research on computer medicated practice, computer manipulatives, turtle geometry and computer approaches to developing higher-order thinking skills.

Clements points to research in computer mediated practice which concludes that dramatic results may be gained with minimal (10 minutes a day) drills on computer to gain 100% improvement in correctly answered basic math questions. He also points to a 1982 study by Hungate and 1986 study by McCollister of kindergarteners scoring higher on numerical recognition tasks after computer instructions compared to being taught by a teacher. There was some
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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

indication, however, that instruction by a teacher was more effective for children just beginning to recognize numerals, but the opposite was true for more able children. (Clements p. 3)

In Computer Manipulatives the author provides examples of how children use various computer programs to learn to understand and apply concepts such as symmetry, patterns and spatial order. An example of base-ten blocks where he states that in real life a student would have to trade one block for 10 singles is inferior to just being able to break a block into 10 pieces on the computer. He goes further to point out that the number represented by th e base-ten blocks is dynamically linked to the students actions on the blocks, so that when the student changes the blocks the number displayed is automatically changed as well. (Clement s, p. 8) Clements concludes that this can help students make sense of their activity and the numbers. I would have to strongly question this theory. It seems to me that we would want the young student to come to this conclusion on their own rather than having it done for them. The benefit of a student having to extend herself to figuring out the number of blocks and actually trading a one 10 base block for 10 singles would have a greater benefit on student learning. After all, young children learn by doing and having a computer doing it for them seems to be passive learning in a virtual world where they cannot touch of feel the object they are manipulating on screen.

The author concedes that drill software alone is not enough to provide a well rounded computer based math education. He suggests the use of turtle geometry to increase childrens
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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

awareness of properties of shapes and the meaning of measurements. Both of these concepts have improved in children after they used the Logo turtle to direct it through mazes and draw shapes. He found that children were able to apply skills learned in Logo to pen and paper activities. Clements point out that Logo is especially helpful in developing spatial concepts because they are allowed to construct initial spatial notions not from passive viewing, but from actions, both perceptual and imagined and from reflections on these actions. (Cleme nts p. 5) In this section, the author provided many examples of studies which conclude the benefits of Logo however; he fails to provide a good detail of what Logo is exactly.

In the Higher-Order Thinking Skills section, Clements points to a 1996 study by Fletcher-Flinn and Suddendorf which concluded that preschoolers who used computers scored higher on measures of metacognition as well as were more able to keep in mind a number of different mental states simultaneously and had more sophisticated theories of mind than those who did not use computers. (Clements p.7)

Although well written, this article lacks specific data to support some of the far flung theories. The author, for instance, states that children can extend their experiences and their creative activities in learning to draw but goes on further to conclude in the next sentence that the above is the reason for them to use computers to learn math. What this article lacks in concrete data examples, it makes up for in practical applications. The section on professional development provides viable arguments for teacher training in computer instruction at all
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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

levels. The author also provides practical advice on arranging the computers in the classroom to maximize their use and allow for more social interaction.

When is it best to introduce computers to children? Many researchers do not recommend introducing computers to children younger than 3 because their learning styles do not mesh well with what the computer can provide. Children younger than 3 learn through their bodies and computer do not provide the necessary skills that these youngsters need: walking, talking, sensory exploration and making friends. It is also important that computers be developmentally appropriate no matter what age group they are introduced to. Papert stresses that computers have an impact on children when the computer provides concrete experience, children have free access and control the learning experience, children and teachers learn together, teachers encourage peer tutoring, and teachers use computers to teach powerful ideas. Susan W. Haugland, in Computers and Young Children, states that 3 and 4 year olds are ready to be introduced to computers but timing, she believes, is crucial. She goes on further to state that children should be given plenty of time to experiment and explore. Because young children are comfortable clicking buttons to see what will happen, she suggests that teachers intervene when children appear frustrated or when nothing seems to be happening (Haugland, S.p.1 )
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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

We can report that the research seen here all supports children learning with computers at an early age. I would like to design research to test this hypothesis.

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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

Research Proposal Introduction

A large body of work exists which exalts the benefits of computers for educations purposes with preschoolers and kindergarteners. Every single article I read pointed to the great benefits new technology can have on the minds of the young. What I found interesting was the fact that the articles set out to prove how beneficial computers are. None of them set out to look solely at the detriments of computers on young minds and only some glossed over superficially at some drawbacks. My major interest in this topic comes from being a parent of two daughters, a 5 year old and a 15 month old. We were very vigilant in terms of keeping our oldest daughter away from TV and computers. When she was 3, she was able to watch very little TV (1-2 hours a week) with an adult sitting beside her. Now that she is 5, she is able to watch a bit more but she is rarely allowed to watch TV alone. She is also able to use drawing programs on the laptop and the desktop as well as playing age appropriate games once or twice a month. She is very familiar with computers and sees her parents working on them very often. To put things in perspective, we are a highly wired household, with four rooms with their own computers set up to function as TVs or digital frames. We use a PVR to record TV shows and remove ads so she is not exposed to ads. We were able to do this because for four years she was an only child. Even though we sheltered her from TV and computer exposure, she could use a cell phone to dial
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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

anyone on the list as well as figure out how to use the camera on it without any help. When she was finally allowed to use the computer, she had no trouble figuring out how it worked and happily explored all its functions. We were amazed at how she was able to use the mouse on the laptop and the desktop with such accuracy. Since our second daughter was born, we have often wondered what impact all the technology will have on her. Because we have two children four years apart, we are unable to be as vigilant with the second child. She is allowed to explore the laptop with her sister who eagerly shows her what she can do. Literature Review This proposal draws on previous research into early childhood education and the use of information technology. Although there is a large body of study over many years, there seems to be a lack of studies designed to test how computer based activities fare against directly identical activities which do not use a computer. Davidson (2009) looked into how young children use computers in their homes in order to understand the acquisition of new literacies. She advocates, based on a study of children from four families that teachers employ in classroom the same methods as parents do when they interact with their children when using computers. To me, it seems unrealistic in this age of bare bones education system in British Columbia schools. A 2004 study by Li and Atkins, concluded that children who had access to a computer performed better on school readiness (Boehm-3 Preschool) and cognitive development (WPPSI-R), suggesting that computer access before or during the preschool years is associated with the development of preschool concepts and cognition. Based on this

conclusion, children who do not have access to computers are at a significant disadvantage. I

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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

wonder what other variables could be responsible for these results? I would also be curious to find out how children 50 years ago would have scored on the same tests. Are the tests somehow favouring computer exposure? However, the authors do concede that lack of association of the frequency of use with cognitive and motor development among children may need to be interpreted with caution. Douglas Clements has conducted numerous studies into how computers aid young children in learning and advocates for heavy use of computer technology in the classroom. I think we need to approach this topic with caution and restraint and not see the computer as the magic bullet as does D. Mioduser who sees computer as the answer to solving learning disability in reading. There is no doubt that computers can help children all ages learn but at what price? There is also research to support findings that children are less social, play less with friends outside and are getting more and more obese. Leonard H. Epstein et all found that reducing television viewing and computer use may have an important role in preventing obesity and in lowering BMI in young children, and these changes may be related more to changes in energy intake than to changes in physical activity (Epstine et al, 2008) However, S. J. Marshall et al points out, in their 2004 study, that while the total amount of time per day engaged in sedentary behavior is inevitably prohibitive of physical activity, mediabased inactivity may be unfairly implicated in recent epidemiologic trends of overweight and obesity among children and youth.

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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

He goes on further to point out that relationships between sedentary behavior and health are unlikely to be explained using single markers of inactivity, such as TV viewing or video/computer game use. Lin and Lepper concluded in their study that Videogame usage showed significant positive correlations with teacher ratings of impulsivity, significant negative correlations with ratings of academic achievement, and little relationship to rated sociability (Lin & Lepper, 2006, p 78) As always it would seem that more research, unbiased and balanced research, is needed. However, when dealing with studying human behavior numerous variables come to play and influence not only the results of the studies but the design itself. Many researchers and educators are working towards providing a balanced approach to education. Migues, Santos and Anido have designed a more holistic approach to ICT integration into early childhood education in their article. They provide a practical outline on how to make the best use of available technology.

Theoretical Perspective and Method This research will be conducted in a Montessori preschool in a middle class suburban setting. The preschool has 4 classes each comprised of 20 students. There are 30 boys and 50 girls. Some younger students attend 2 days a week and the older students usually attend 3 days a week. There are 4 teachers involved who work at the school, three are there every day and a music teacher who comes once a week. The general population of the school is made up of middle class well educated parents with at least one parent with post secondary education.

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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

The teachers all have Early Childhood Education certificates as well as some post secondary schooling. The research will consist of each of the four classes participating in the activity. The parents will all be contacted and asked to sign a permission form for their child to participate in the activity. The activity will be conducted by the regular preschool teachers so as not to cause too much disruption and no outsiders will be present. Prior to the activity, the teachers will be instructed as to how to conduct the activity. Since there has been a lot of research which supports the educational benefits computers can provide to young children I have design an activity to test to see what environment help preschooler acquire information. The activity will consist of a computer based component and a teacher led component. In this activity I will try to determine whether there is a difference if students learn from a computer or from a real object by teaching students names for objects they already know in a made up language. Computer Component Students will be divided into four groups of five students and will have one teacher and one laptop per group. The following items will appear on the computer: dog, cat, house, book, teddy bear, and a computer voice and then the teacher will say what those items are in a made up language. Students will be told that they are learning new names for the objects in a different language. Each group will be given 15 minutes a day for the activity for two weeks.

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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

Teacher Led Component For this part of the activity students will continue to be in the same group as they were for the computer component and will remain with the same teacher. Students will attempt to learn the following words: dog, cat, house, book, teddy bear. The teacher will place the above items in front of the students and will name each item in another made up language. The students will be encouraged to play with the items and use the made up words for them. Students will also have 15 minutes a day for this activity for two weeks.

At the end of each two week period each student will be tested individually by the teacher to see how many words they have remembered. The computer based test will consist of a picture of the object appearing on the screen and the teacher asking the student to name it in the language they have been learning. To test the non computer learning, the teacher will place the item in front of the student and ask the student to name it. I am eager to see the results, especially if the students will remember the computer based learning even after they spend two week learning from a live person. I am also eager to see what the anecdotal reaction will be from the students in terms of what they found more enjoyable. I struggled with the idea of allowing the students to play a game which contains the words they were required to learn because they are able to play with the objects in the teacher led activity.

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ETEC 500 Final Assignment Svetlana Gibson

The results will be recorded in a log containing each students name and a number of correctly remembered words written beside the name. As I am writing this I see all the variables which can influence the results, and they are many. The children themselves and the way they are grouped would be the biggest variable as we did not pretest to see how each child learns a language. How children interact with each other and the teacher will be another variable in both the computer component and the teacher led component. How many languages each child speaks will also influence the results because studies have shown that children who speak more than one language learn another one quicker than children who are monolingual. I am hoping that allowing two weeks for each activity will be sufficient to make up for someone feeling out of sorts or being absent. The absences will be recorded for each child. The objects chosen will also be a major variable since I do not know how each child feels about the given objects. Another major variable is the fact that I have not observed for each childs natural learning style. This, more than anything will have a greater influence on how they learn. Conclusion In conclusion, I feel the results of this experiment will skew towards the real life classroom situation. While I absolutely and emphatically appreciate the use of computers as a teaching tool, I advocate for moderation because a teacher will always be able to connect with a child on a level that a machine cannot. My experience in the classroom has shown that while children

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do enjoy using a computer, the real learning happens when they are interacting with one another. I am very interested in this subject, both as a teacher and as a parent. I hope to make use of this research proposal and perhaps make it the basis of my final MET project.

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Bibliography

Clements, D. H., (2002). Computers in Early Childhood Mathematics Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 3, 160-181.

Davidson, C. (2009). Young Childrens Engagement With Digital Texts And Literacies In The Home: Pressing Matters For The Teaching Of English In The Early Years Of Schooling. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 8 , 36-54. Retrieved March 12, 2010 from http://education.waikato.ac.nz/research/files/etpc/files/2009v8n3art3.pdf

Epstein, H., Roemmich, J. N., Robinson, J. L., Paluch, R. A., Winiewicz, D. D., Fuerch, J. H., Robinson, T. N. (2008) A Randomized Trial of the Effects of Reducing Television Viewing and Computer Use on Body Mass Index in Young Children. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 162, 239-245. Retrieved April 4, 2010 from http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/eecearchive/digests/2000/haugland00.pdf

Li, X., & Atkins, M., (2007) Early Childhood Computer Experience and Cognitive and Motor Development. Pediatrics,113, 1715-1722.

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Lin, S., & Lepper, M. R., (2006) Correlates of Children's Usage of Videogames and Computers. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 17, 72-93 Retrieved April 2, 2010 from http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119469483/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

Marshall, S. J., Biddle, S. J. H., Gorely, T., Cameron, N., & Murdey, I. (2004) Relationships Between Media Use, Body Fatness And Physical Activity In Children And Youth: A MetaAnalysis. International Journal of Obesity, 28, 1238-1246. Retrieved March 26, 2010 from http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v28/n10/abs/0802706a.html

Miguez, R., Santos, J. M., & Anido, L., A Holistic Framework to Support ICT-based Early Childhood Education Processes. 1-6. Retrieved March 29, 2010 from http://fieconference.org/fie2009/papers/1353.pdf

Mioduser, D., Tur-Kaspa, H., & Leitner, I.,(2000) The learning value of computer-based instruction of early reading skills. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, ) 16, 54-63 Papert, S. The childrens Machine Rethinking Schooling In The Age Of The Computer, 1993. Retrieved March 29, 2010 from http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emurphy/stemnet/papert.html )

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