Technology and Young Children

The section seemed particularly interesting to me is the Technology and Young children. Our school has been trying to find a better way to support our students to learn through technology and now we are all switching from PC to apple devices like ipads and macbooks. 

From the section, there are two great article and webcast focusing on this topic - " Technology and Interactive Media as Tools in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8" and "Pre-recorded Webcast: Technology and Interactive Media as Tools in Early Childhood Programs". Both publications state pros and cons about using technology with young children. Since I teach 2-3 years old children, I always have uncertainties about using technology with my students as lots of researches have shown negative effects on children's development if too much technology have been used. For example, if children look at the computer screen for too long and watch too many moving pictures/cartoons, it will have damage on their eyes as well as may have negative outcomes such as irregular sleep pattern and/or behavioral issues (NAEYC). 

However, technology also has its amazing aspects in turns of teaching. Teachers use it as a tool to maximize children's learning abilities and provide children with individualized learning experiences to support developmental appropriate practice. I think it depends on educators how to use technology as a tool to support learning. More importantly, as early childhood educators, we need to be equipped with all these educational knowledge and skills about technology before we can best support children's learning using the technology. 


Through school's presentations about using ipad as the teaching tool, I have been amazed by the technology we can use with young children and the ways to motivate and maximize children's learning. Everything has two sides, and we need to be very careful in minimizing negative outcomes about technology for children yet maximizing their learning abilities. 

NAEYC technology section, retrived from http://www.naeyc.org/content/technology-and-young-children

Issues of poverty

I contacted two of my colleagues working in the same school as I do. Both of them work in the same division in Early Childhood Learning Center. One teacher is from Israel and the other teacher comes from France. They travel a lot around the world, and they have been teaching in early childhood field for couple years already, though in different countries. The Israeli teacher has been teaching in the school for eight years and the French teacher has just started her journey in China last year. 

When we discussed issues of poverty, they provided me with lots of information and insights. They believe that poverty would affect children's overall development. they also shared some of their personal experiences about poverty. one teacher remembered that when she was in grade two, there were three children coming from very poor families. Their clothes seemed never washed and they lived in a house where there was no proper bathroom/shower. Children seemed to keep distance from them no matter how hard teachers supported them, trying to break the ice between them and other children. She believed this experience could have very bad influence on these three children's emotional development, and being a teacher, she has always been keeping in mind her own experience about this and trying her best to support children in poverty.

By talking and discussing with the early childhood professionals, I have gained new information and learned new knowledge about poverty. If children from poverty live in areas with low economic status, they may not have the same opportunities to be exposed to the same amount of knowledge as other children. The parents from poverty may need to work longer hours to support the whole families, which leave them no time to spend with their children. This in tuns affects children's emotional and social development as children may feel unsecured inside them, thus having difficulties coping with separation anxiety. Moreover, children from poverty may have slower language/cognitive development as they may not have accessed to libraries and/or computers as other children have, therefore they may have lower vocabulary abilities. Poverty could also cause malnutrition as children may not get enough nutrition they need for their healthy growth. 

Week 2 blog assignment

The first policy I studied is about anti-discrimination while hiring individuals into the early childhood field. The statement indicates that people should be hired and employed based on their qualification and performance of their job. The hiring standards should exclude information such as gender, age, race, color, religious belief, and so on. I think this is a very important issue as everyone should have equal chance in working in the field, as long as they can perform well on their duties. 

I also refreshed my knowledge about developmentally appropriate practice, requiring teachers to prepare activities that are both challenging and achievable for individual children. This is very crucial for children's development because children learn and develop in different paces. Teachers need to first get to know each individual children and learn about their different learning styles, so that we can set up different activities based on children's levels and needs.

Professional Contacts

I work in an international school and there are lots of early childhood professionals coming around the world. I quickly got in touch with them and they were happy to be my contacts and also eager and willing to share what they know about the early childhood field. I will keep in touch with them and post any new insights I learn from them.

I have spent some time to explore different websites of organizations and I decided to study the National Associations For the Education of Young Children because it always provides useful and valuable information about early childhood education and it also contains useful resources that help early childhood professionals learn and grow.

http://www.naeyc.org/