“Get recognition for the skills you learn anywhere”—that’s the idea behind the Mozilla Foundation’s Open Badges experiment. Classrooms have never been the only place where kids learn. From tinkering in basements to getting excited about reading in book clubs, kids are continuously learning new skills and hatching new ideas. And as digital media tools and online spaces, from Photoshop to the...
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This post orginally appeared at the Early Ed Watch and appears here with permission. With nearly 100,000 apps in the education category of the iTunes app store, and television still a huge part of children’s daily lives, the questions about how technology affects learning are more pertinent than ever. At the New America Foundation last week, the Early Education Initiative sought...
Read MoreThis post orginally appeared at Slate. It appears here with permission. Touch-screen tablets for young students have become all the rage. Some districts are even buying iPads for every kindergartner, a move sparking both celebration and consternation. Do we really want to give $500 devices to kids who can’t even tie their shoes? What are these schools doing with these devices,...
Read MoreThis post orginally appeared at Seattle Mama Doc, a Seattle Children’s Hospital blog. It appears here with permission. Television programming for children is abundant. Screens are a luxurious fixture in most of our lives and I’m not here to tell you to turn them off. Well, at least not today. In fact, that tactic, the one where we pediatricians urge families...
Read MoreLATROBE, PA – Dr. Junlei Li, left, Associate Professor for Early Learning and Children’s Media at the Fred Rogers Center, Saint Vincent College, has initiated a new student research and development group, Incubator 143. The group aims to incubate positive change for children’s development by integrating developmental science and communication. Li, who is also a professor of psychological science at...
Read MoreA new survey of early childhood educators shows they think technology can play a positive role in children’s learning. But they need support in order to make use of new tools in their classrooms. We are on the cusp of tremendous changes in early childhood education as technology introduces new opportunities for learning and teaching. To learn more about how early...
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As an increasing number of early childhood educators include tablets in their programs, they are asking more questions about how to use these digital tools. How should they choose which apps to download? How will they use apps to create engaging and effective learning experiences for their students? Gail Lovely, founder of LovelyLearning.com, is one person who can help navigate this...
Read MoreIs technology more like a germ or a medicine? If technology devices are like germs, then we grudgingly accept them as part of children’s worlds, but we work to limit contact as much as possible. If they are more akin to a medication, then we should be able to determine an optimal dose while also understanding that using too much or...
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