First of all, I would to like to come clean. I love technology. I love that I can communicate via the wide world web anytime I fancy. I love that I can make dinner reservations online with out picking up the phone. I love that I can see pictures of my beautiful niece anytime I want, even though she lives across the country. I LOVE TECHNOLOGY! However, as a parent and early childhood educator, the love affair ends and is quickly replaced with apprehension. NAEYC and the Fred Rogers institute released an update to their draft "Technology in Early Childhood Programs" in May of this year. I read through this draft and thought of all the ways my own daughters utilize different technology in our own home. My four year old daughter can navigate around an ipad better than I can. Then my mind starting to wrap around the possibility of using technology to enhance early childhood programs. I love the idea of taking pictures of children's creations and activities and showing them on a slide show in the background. How great would it be to video your next walk through the park and revisit it another day. I am still apprehensive on the subject but if the technology was used purposefully and sparingly I might warm up to the idea...
If anyone else out there has some creative uses for technology in their program I would love to hear about it!
Contributing Author:
Michelle Davies
Outreach Consultant for Child Care Options Resource & Referral Program
