Top ways to choose and use tech in early education

Proper early childhood education technology use is critical

early-educationMaking sure that young children benefit from technology isn’t quite as simple as handing a child a mobile device with age-appropriate apps. But using a series of questions and requirements can help ensure that technology in early childhood education environments makes a big impact.

Research has already established some key steps to better early childhood technology use, and ensuring that technology resources and software meet certain requirements can enhance young students’ experiences and learning.

Technology tools are just like paper, blocks, or crayons–they’re materials from which teachers can select to facilitate learning and play.…Read More

5 steps to better early childhood tech use

Report identifies best practices in closing early digital divide

early-educationClosing the digital divide has been a constant challenge as technology tools and use become more prevalent in schools. Now, research shows that developing early technology skills can help close the digital divide.

Though technology use has expanded in schools, students’ at-home technology and internet access isn’t necessarily reliable.

According to a RAND Corporation report, Using Early Childhood Education to Bridge the Digital Divide, this means that children from families without access to digital technology “have fewer opportunities to learn, explore, and communicate digitally, and fewer chances to develop the workforce skills they will need to succeed in later life.”…Read More

Early learning, assisted by technology

VINCI’s model combines hands-on, experiential learning with software that identifies early learning gaps

vinci-learning
While students are working on activities, the software analyzes their progress—helping teachers know if they’ve grasped the material.

Susan Kelly is excited about the possibilities when her school welcomes its first class of students this fall.

Kelly is the vice principal of VINCI School in Ottawa, Canada, one of a series of new early learning schools that model the approach of VINCI Education: a hands-on blend of low-tech and high-tech instruction, guided by a skilled classroom teacher.

Though Ottawa’s VINCI School officially opens in September for children ages 3-8, the school has been teaching a few five-year-old students on a pilot basis this spring—and Kelly has seen its approach to learning already pay off.…Read More

5 new findings about early childhood data use

New findings indicate more coordination is needed; report offers 3 recommendations for policymakers

childhood-dataA new survey reveals that most states cannot answer the most basic questions about early childhood care and education, including whether young children up to age 5 are on track for academic success and if early childhood educators are adequately trained to teach and prepare young children, because data system on young children are house in separate and uncoordinated systems with different managing agencies and processes.

Because of this, policymakers and early childhood education professionals, as well as parents, need timely and accurate access to data in order to make informed decisions.

Early childhood education professionals in particular need data about young children’s development in order to inform and personalize instruction, according to 2013 State of States’ Early Childhood Data Systems, the latest survey from the Early Childhood Data Collaborative.…Read More

Estimate for statewide pre-k in New York puts schools chief in a tangle

New York State’s top education official was caught in a battle between city and state leaders on Tuesday after he suggested that providing universal access to prekindergarten would cost substantially more than what Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had proposed, the New York Times reports. John B. King Jr., the state education commissioner, said at a hearing in Albany that the state would have to spend roughly $1.6 billion per year to offer free, full-day prekindergarten to all 4-year-olds. Mr. Cuomo has called for spending an average of $300 million per year…

Read more

…Read More

eSN Special Report: Closing Gaps Early

As more students enter kindergarten already behind their peers, closing these gaps quickly is critical to their success. Here’s how software can help

closing-gaps-early
Here’s a closer look at how some schools are succeeding at closing learning gaps early.

Located in Marion County, a rural area of north central Florida, the town of Weirsdale doesn’t offer many opportunities for preschool education. The median family income in the county is around $37,000, or $12,000 less than the state average, and about one in 10 families lives below the poverty line.

As a result, many children are starting their formal education already well behind where they should be, according to the Florida Kindergarten Readiness Screener (FLKRS, or “flickers” as it’s known to the state’s teachers). In fact, some students enter kindergarten not knowing any letters or sounds, said Chris Sandy, principal of Stanton-Weirsdale Elementary School.

“It’s amazing to me that a child can walk in the door and not even know the letter ‘M’ for McDonald’s,” Sandy said, noting that the normally ubiquitous fast-food chain hardly exists in her community.…Read More

VINCI offers blended learning for pre-K

VINCI Education’s founder, Dr. Dan Dan Yang, explains how technology can help level the playing field for young learners

VINCI-founder-yangTechnology entrepreneur Dr. Dan D. Yang already had achieved fame within the world of physics, having earned close to 20 U.S. patents—some of which became the standard for today’s fiber-optic network—before starting her latest venture: an ed-tech firm that aims to transform early education.

Inspired by her daughter, then a toddler, who was addicted to her iPad, Dan saw technology’s power to captivate young minds first-hand. What if, she thought, this power could be harnessed in a way that was more constructive, based on the latest brain research about how children learn, and paired with high-quality classroom teaching?

That’s the idea behind VINCI Education. The company’s school-based solution, ClassVINCI, includes Android-based tablets designed specifically for young children, as well as animated learning games grounded in cognitive science; non-digital learning objects such as toys and books; a learning management system to track students’ progress and mastery of skills; and professional development for educators.…Read More

Ed-tech tools boost early learners’ math skills

PBS KIDS digital supplements help early learners develop math building blocks

early-learnersNew research indicates that a technology-supported curriculum can help early learners better absorb STEM subjects, setting up at-risk early learners for more academic success down the road.

A new report reveals a significant gain in math skills among four- and five-year-olds who used the PBS KIDS Transmedia Math Supplement over a 10-week period improved their math learning significantly compared to a control group.

The math supplement includes videos, digital games, interactive whiteboards, laptops, teacher support, and hands-on math materials.…Read More

How to support young learners with tablets

Tablets target young learners with engaging software

young-learnersTablets and other mobile devices are not uncommon in today’s classrooms and in the hands of students. But companies targeting “typical” students sometimes forget an important subset that benefits greatly from access to mobile devices–young learners, especially those in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.

While schools often make headlines for tablet initiatives involving grades 3-12, young learners do not always have the same access to tablets. Laptops and desktops can be hard for young students to navigate using a mouse, a touch pad, and dealing with large keyboards.

Children are usually familiar with tablets’ touch-screen technology early in their lives, and a growing group of companies and education leaders are creating tablets targeted toward early childhood education in an effort to engage them and form solid base skills that will carry them through elementary school and beyond.…Read More

Get them while they’re young

Starting pre-school poses tests for any four-year-old: sitting still, the risk of a yucky lunch, missing home, The Economist reports. The stakes are still higher for 700 small Texans due to enter pre-kindergarten centres being opened by the city of San Antonio on August 26th. They are pioneers who will be watched all the way to the White House. Not so long ago there was broad, bipartisan support for government provision of pre-school (called “pre-K”, since it precedes kindergarten): a year of classes and play designed to ensure that children are ready for the serious business of learning. Alas, pre-K has joined the long list of issues capable of provoking partisan rage. Critics include shrink-the-government types growling about expensive “babysitting”, joined by social conservatives arguing that young children are best off when cared for by married mothers, at home…

Read the full story

…Read More

Early education in Nordic countries: Can we learn anything?

The comprehensive preschool education plan backed by all Nordic countries is called the New Nordic School.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama called on states to “make high-quality preschool [education] available to every single child in America.”

Nordic countries, built around the welfare-state model, and which score high on international education benchmarking tests, have provided successful preschool education programs for decades—success that has prompted U.S. education leaders to wonder what policies are scalable in the United States.

On Feb. 28, education leaders from Denmark, Sweden, and one of PISA’s top-scoring countries, Finland, met at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., to discuss how their preschool education system works and why they believe that high-quality preschool education keeps their economy going.…Read More

Study: Better TV might improve kids’ behavior

Low-income boys appeared to get the most short-term benefit, researchers said.

Teaching parents to switch channels from violent shows to educational TV can improve preschoolers’ behavior, even without getting them to watch less, a study found.

The results were modest and faded over time, but they might hold promise for finding ways to help young children avoid aggressive, violent behavior, the study’s authors and other doctors said.

“It’s not just about turning off the television. It’s about changing the channel. What children watch is as important as how much they watch,” said lead author Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician and researcher at Seattle Children’s Research Institute.…Read More