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=__**Inquiry question:**__=

How can teachers incorporate technology tools in an early childhood classroom (K-2) to enhance student learning?
[|Screencast] =__**Introduction:**__= Children have been a love of mine for many years and it is the main reason why I have chosen teaching as my career. While pursuing my career I have learned a lot about technology within the classroom. Technology is something that I am very interested in implementing in my classroom, but I find it difficult to use technology on my own. If I find technology to be difficult to understand, how can I expect my little four, five and six year olds to understand how to use technology? This is why I wanted to research the importance of technology within the early childhood classroom as well as different ways to use technology within the early childhood classroom. Technology changes every day; and as a future teacher, I have to be able to accommodate these changes by bringing these different technologies into my classroom for my students. It is also true that many of my students will be using much of the technology in their future lives or even currently when they are enrolled in my class, so why wouldn’t I want to use it? This wiki allows me to better understand technology as well as give me many great ideas of how to incorporate technology within my classroom.

=__Best Practices:__=

Technology in the classroom is a very important aspect of enhancing a student’s intelligence. As teachers we need to teach the way that our students learn and not the way that we once were taught. Time changes and with time changing, technology becomes more implementing on our children. These are just some important aspect of using different technologies within the classroom


 * 1. Using computers in meaningful, holistic activities as an appropriate tool for accomplishing a relevant purpose. **

This is very important when it comes to using computers. Many teachers try to find ways to incorporate using a computer in many of their lessons when using the computer, in this lesson, is not a relevant tool to be using. Implementing technology is a great idea, but it needs to be done in the correct way. Using computers must have a meaningful purpose to the lesson being taught at the moment. Don’t just involve computers; make them the experience for the children.


 * 2. Integrating computers into an environment that values children as active participants in their learning and as sources of knowledge and skills they bring from personal experiences. **

This is very important to understand that many or all of your students will have used the computer before and that they have their own personal experiences with computers. Letting them use these experiences to influence their learning at the moment right now is important for their future learning.

**3. Encouraging social, interactive use of computers, with children contributing their personal knowledge and expertise to the education of all members of the learning community.**

This is important to let your students learn from each other. Each child has their own experience with computers and technology and learning from each other is more beneficial than learning from the teacher at times. It is important to know that you may have a degree in teaching but that you are not the only ‘teacher’ in your classroom. Teaching does and can come from everyone.

**4. Provide a computer center as one of the many learning centers in the classroom.**

This is very important to understanding how to use a computer. If the only chance that a student has to use a computer is in a computer lab, they will not have the correct experience. Learning takes time and practice just like learning how to play an instrument. Having a computer center in your classroom will allow the children to use access and choose what they would like to learn while also implementing the activities that you would like them to learn.


 * 5. Evaluate all software for developmental appropriateness and sexism, racism, violence and stereotyping. **

This is very important when it comes to using computers. This is one of the reasons why many parents and teachers think that implementing computers into an early childhood classroom is going to be more harmful than helpful. It is your job to make sure that you can try to prove to them that computers is technology that will be helpful and enhance their children’s learning. Making sure to evaluate the programs that you will be using is the most important part of using different programs within the classroom. We all know the internet is not always the greatest at times, which is why we must utilize it to be a great resource for our students.


 * 6. Assistive technology serves children who are at-risk or who have developmental disabilities. **

Using technology to help those children with disabilities is a great use of technology. There were years where we didn’t have the appropriate technology to help these students, but now we do and we need to take advantage of it. Children with disabilities should be able to have the same experiences as children without disabilities and giving them these experiences are easy so we need to take advantage of them.


 * 7. iPods are great uses of technology for Early Childhood classrooms. **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; vertical-align: top;">There are so many ways that iPods can be implemented into your classroom. We started with records and we then moved onto cassettes and cd’s. We now have this great technology of iPods which can hold more music then most of us can imagine. These can be great tools for your classroom. They can be carried anywhere and you don’t have to worry about cords. The best part is that iPod’s are being used in many households and the students already know how to use this technology. So, why don’t we take advantage of their previous knowledge to influence their current and future knowledge!


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in; vertical-align: top;">8. SMARTBoards are interactive technology tools that can help enhance a student’s learning. **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; vertical-align: top;">SMARTBoards are being used in many schools today; the problem is that many teachers don’t exactly know what they really have to offer. Interactive white boards can be the best interactive tool in your classroom for your students. Your students can learn their letters through this tool. They can write their letters and numbers. There are so many different ways to use this tool; we just have to find the time to learn more about the tools that we use in our classroom.

=__Additional Resources:__=

http://melissaenderle.wikispaces.com/SmartBoard

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=__Annotated Bibliography:__=

Formal sources
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Davis, Bernadette Caruso; Shade, Daniel D. (1999). Integrating Technology into the Early Childhood Classroom: The Case of Literacy Learning. //Information Technology in Childhood Education 221-54//

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Integrating Technology into the Early Childhood Classroom //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> is an article that describes the importance of computers and its many functions in classrooms. The article is based off of a term, bricolage. “Bricolage is the essence of providing children or adults in learning situations with the materials they need to learn and grow, as well as providing an opportunity for them to use the knowledge they already possess.” The article goes on to describe the importance of integrating computers in the classroom. It goes into detail of what children need to know to become independent users of the computer as well as some resources that you as the teacher can use when integrating computers into your classroom. The article is an emphasis that computers and other informational technology are not just tools; they are another learning tool for our students.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">This article was very helpful for me because it brought to my attention the importance that computers can have on our children no matter what age they may be at. It also gave me some great ideas on how to incorporate different lessons with the computer in an early childhood classroom.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Chatel, Regina G. (2005). Computers use in preschool: Trixie gets a screen name. //The New England Reading Association Journal 41 no2 49-52//

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">This article does a great job of describing the importance of computers and technology within the early childhood classrooms. It begins with the theories that using computers are going to be harmful for our children and students. It then goes into the statistics of early childhood computer usage and the findings of the development climb that computers can have on our students. The article poses the question of how we should be using technology in order to impact the way our children learn, what they learn and how they learn rather than if we should or should not use computers as potential tools to enhance our students learning.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">This article is a great resource for me because it talks about the importance of computers in early childhood classrooms. It has actual research of a program called the user program, which is a program for the teachers and faculty to experience the many tools that a computer has to offer us and our children. Finally, the article has many resources that can be helpful for me as a future teacher relating to programs and sites that will be help me to understand the computer as well as resources that will help enhance my students learning skills.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Ainsa, Trisha. (1999). Success of Using Technology and Manipulatives to Introduce Numerical Problem Solving Skills in Monolingual/Bilingual Early Childhood Classrooms. //The Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching 18 no4 361-9//

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">This article is about early childhood classrooms in a monolingual/bilingual school. The article focuses on the integration of computers with a lesson on mathematics. The students are given a lesson on counting and color. Within this lesson they receive m & m’s or skittles if they do not like chocolate. The lesson consists of the students separating the candy by colors and counting the amounts. They do this on a piece of paper as well as on some computer programs. The article summarizes that they don’t find an overall higher or lower percentage of enhanced learning in the computer-based programs rather than the physical activities.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">This article is helpful to me because it allows me to understand the difference between physical activities and computer-based programs for early childhood learners. In this article I was able to see the percentage difference between the physical activity and computer program. I noticed that there were times when the computer program had a higher percentage than the physical activities. This allows me to understand that computer programs are useful in enhancing students learning.

** Informal sources **
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Burkeen, Sheri; Herzke, Shelley. (October 2010). PODDY Training: iPod Touches in the Early Childhood Classroom. Martin Institute for Teaching Excellence. retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">This is a hands-on workshop podcast which entails the incorporation of an iPod in an early childhood classroom. This podcast was created while doing a hands-on workshop where other teachers got to learn about the many different iPod Touch apps designed specifically for young children. Sheri and Shelley provide links to everything that they present within the presentation.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">This is a great resource for me because it allows me to understand the importance of technology in the classroom. There were so many tips that I can take from this podcast that will help me to better use an iPod within my classroom in the future.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Levin, Vanessa. (2010). Pre-K Pages: All Things Preschool. retrieved from []

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Pre-K Pages is a website created by Vanessa Levin. Pre-K Pages is a site that introduces fun and hands-on activities as well as different uses of technologies within the early childhood classroom. The website is a resource for parents and early childhood teachers. The website is a site that shares Vanessa’s information about her experiments within her classroom.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">This is a great site for me because it describes different ways to use technology within the classroom. A great example is its description of using ipods within an early childhood classroom. Other examples of technology that Vanessa uses within her classroom are flip videos, interactive white boards, video cameras, the internet, etc. The website is a great resource for the integration of technology within the classroom.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Reschke, Kathy. (November 2010). Babies and iPads. Childwise resources. Retrieved from http://www.childwiseresources.com/index.php?/blog/babies_and_ipads/ videos

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">This is an article on the integration of technology within an early childhood classroom. Kathy went to a conference that described the importance of technology and the truth that young children can use technology. The conference was based on babies and iPads, yes babies using iPads. This gave everyone the understanding that young children can use technology.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">This is a great article for me because it describes how young children can use technology. The best part about this article is that it has multiple videos to prove that babies are capable of using technology without the help of adults. This is great proof that children in an early childhood classroom are very capable of using iPads, iPods and other uses of technology