Why early childhood teachers need a unique approach to technology coaching

Unfortunately, this was not the case for my youngest students.

Working in early childhood classrooms often felt like a game of Whac-A-Mole. I found myself running from student to student, trying to help them solve all their problems: navigating the keyboard, reading instructions, entering usernames and passwords, and troubleshooting the device. It was frustrating. I had a lot of things I wanted to accomplish, but I couldn't get to the part I was most excited about: using technology to amplify learning.

Hear the unique concerns early childhood teachers have

Most early childhood teachers I work with are afraid to integrate technology into teaching. Over the years, I have actively listened to understand why this is the case and have learned that teachers of our youngest children have unique challenges and concerns about using technology with their students.

For example, some of our early childhood teachers are concerned that children are already using devices too much because our district requires all students to use adaptive curriculum programs for math and reading for a certain amount of time each week. Others have expressed a lack of confidence in problem solving and their ability to support their students as they use technology in the classroom.

The early childhood educators I work with have also shared about the pandemic struggles that have made it more difficult to accept change. Some young children missed critical moments of school during their early years, and many experienced academic, social, and emotional difficulties. delays. Many educators say they (and their students) were given devices without much guidance during the COVID-19 closures.

To add to these obstacles, many states, including mineThey are now promoting new curricular initiatives that mean big changes for early childhood teachers, making it overwhelming to learn something new or add something else to the mix.

The bottom line is that these educators already have a lot on their plate: trying something new seems like too big a mountain to climb.

For all of these reasons, the early childhood educators I train often enter our conversations with trepidation. During such an overwhelming time, it may seem easier to rely on familiar teaching methods than to introduce a tool that may not work well the first few times. Many have turned to using tools that help children consume information, such as watching a quick instructional video, rather than tools that encourage and empower students to take a more active role.

When I mention experimenting with something, they usually respond with a series of questions. What if your students visit a website they are not supposed to go to? What if you can't help a student solve problems when using the new tool? What about parents' concerns about screen time? The “what ifs” can easily pile up, but I try to help them understand that at some point we must take risks to best meet the needs of our students.

Meet teachers where they are

I have recognized that to meet the needs of the early childhood teachers I train, I have to address their concerns and find ways to make trying something new less daunting. Here are four lessons I've learned about supporting early childhood educators with technology:

1. It is important to help teachers understand that not all screen time is equal. It is important to distinguish between the time students spend on devices creating and consuming. When we think about our youngest students' screen time, we often think of children who only consume content, but there are many tools with auditory and visual support designed to help our youngest children explore, learn and create.

While the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) offers evidence-based services guidelines As for media use, it does not offer set screen time limits for all children. Instead, the AAP recommends “considering the quality of interactions with digital media and not just the quantity or length of time.” How we use these screens is important and should be considered when planning for our youngest students.

2. Illustrate how our work supports what you are already teaching. One way to do this is by working with icons, which supports the foundational literacy skills teachers are working on. Icons are all around us. In fact, our students typically develop the ability to recognize and understand icons in the preschool years and often even before they can read.

When we use technology, icons are like the letters in our educational technology alphabet. Before our students can read, they need to learn letters and sounds. Similarly, before our students use technology, they must learn the icons they will encounter. Many times, with the best of intentions, educators begin by jumping into a tool. But we must provide our students with a fundamental understanding of the “letters” of our educational technology alphabet because these icons provide our students with a roadmap as they use technology to learn. One way I intentionally teach icons is by playing icon bingo to reinforce these concepts. Using these icons in a game format really helps students make connections with the icons.

3. Model how technology can foster independence. When I train early childhood educators, we collaboratively plan lessons using technology with our youngest students, ensuring that we not only use developmentally appropriate tools that reinforce the work they are already doing in all content areas, but They also allow your students to interact with the content in new ways. And when we co-teach, I model strategies that promote student agency, so they can structure their assignments to make them more accessible to all students. When we do that, we can go beyond tasks like logging and problem-solving to help kids create artifacts that show meaningful connections they make to what they're learning.

I often train teachers to use videos to encourage independence, since all of our students, even the youngest ones, are familiar with watching videos. There are a number of tools that make it easy for a teacher to incorporate developmentally appropriate video into a lesson or activity. Including a video with instructions for an assignment allows students to review the instructions at their own pace, rather than waiting for the teacher to repeat them or answer a question. This strategy sends the message to students that they can find answers by reviewing resources and that their teacher is not the only distributor of assistance. Also, sometimes when I incorporate videos, my students think I'm a YouTube star.

4. Show them how they can incorporate into development the appropriate tactics they are so skilled at. Our early childhood educators have a toolbox full of great strategies at their disposal to help young learners gain the skills they need. These educators, for example, understand the power of the mind-body connection. I empower them to harness that knowledge, using mind-body activities to remember important information, such as icons, usernames, and passwords. Helping students further connect their minds and bodies to their learning helps knowledge stick. I show my students and their teachers moves designed to help them remember the icons better. Every time we say the name of the icon, we also do the movement associated with it. We also do this with usernames and passwords. If a student's username is seven digits long, we hold up seven fingers; This small action really helps solidify your understanding.

Our youngest students need personalized experiences to become digital learners. That's why early childhood and elementary educators need a different approach to technology training. Through my experiences as an early childhood educator trainer, I have discovered that there are many ways to empower even the youngest students to be creative with digital tools. But that starts with equipping your teachers with the confidence, skills and tools they need and helping them understand that technology can improve early childhood learning.