Technology in Kindergarten

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Technology in Kindergarten

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Benefits of Technology in the Classroom

Young learners and teachers can utilize technology to excel

Increasing demands for educators to enrich classrooms with technology has resulted in a powerful push for technology standards to be used across all grade levels and subject areas. Students in Kindergarten are often first exposed to technology through various experiences with computers, cameras, and read-alouds on tapes and CD’s. NYSED (2009) suggests that technology applications transcend the automation of old practices such as electronic worksheets and drill and practice. It is this idea that Kindergartners can benefit the most from this idea making their foundation or reading more engaging with the incorporation of technological advances.

NEIRTEC (2004) supports the belief that multimedia computers can present any type of auditory or visual materials---including speech, text, music, animations, photographs, or videos---alone or in different combinations. The inclusion of these technology components can promote the exposure to a multitude of vocabulary enriched entities for young learners.Using an abundance of technological exposure can promote the foundations of reading, NEIRTEC (2004) such as phonemic awareness practice, phonics lessons and drills, fluency practice, vocabulary instruction, and opportunities to learn and apply text-comprehension strategies---to students.

Using technology as an assessment tool as well as saving the teacher valuable time. Rubrics, checklists, and various other authentic assessment tools can be designed to fit the personal needs of individual teachers accommodating their specific needs. Computers can, for example, record the responses of all students in a class to a set of letter-sound matching problems and then immediately report to the teacher the errors made by each individual student and the most common errors made by the entire class (NEIRTEC). Having assessment tools created in the classroom accessed by teachers can provide an easy transfer of information when parent teacher conferences and report cards data is needed.

With the growing demands for an increased usage of technology in the classroom more and more teachers will begin to seek the advantages of using technology to their not only their benefit but that of their students.

References

New York State Education Department (NYSED). Guidelines for Instructional Technology Planning and Application. Retrieved January 25, 2010, from http:// http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/facplan/articles/technolo.html.

Technology and Teaching Children to Read (NEIRTEC). Technology and Teaching Children to Read. Retrieved January 26, 2010, from http://http://www.neirtec.org/reading_report/report.htm