Playing, Learning and Developing p27 – Children’s Engagement
Additionally, consideration is given to how children can deepen their learning with and through digital technology
Curriculum p36 – Skills for Life and Learning
Digital skills are embedded across our curriculum, enabling children to explore, create and connect with the world beyond their immediate experience.
p37
How well does our curriculum promote and support children’s skills for life and learning including learning with, through and about digital technologies?
Learning, Teaching and Assessment p40 – Children’s Learning and Engagement
We make highly effective use of digital technologies to enrich children’s learning and teaching. We have a well-considered approach to our use of digital technologies and take into account children’s developmental stages. Children learn about and use a wide variety of digital technologies in a safe and creative way to support and extend their learning.
p43
In what ways do we support children to make effective and creative use of digital
technology to enhance their learning?
Wellbeing, Inclusion and Equality p55 – Identifying and Assessing Learning Needs and Targeted Support
We provide high-quality targeted support to all children who require additional support, including access to digital technology, to reduce barriers to inclusion and learning.
Wellbeing, Inclusion and Equality p56 – Inclusion and equality
Our staff make use of technology to enable every child to participate fully in an increasingly digital world and support involvement and engagement of families.
QI 1.1 p20 – Analysis and evaluation of intelligence and data
We gather a range of data and information to monitor and track progress for all learners. We regularly interrogate data, making use of digital technology to support this where relevant and appropriate
p21
How well do we use digital solutions to support the interrogation of data?
QI 1.2 p22 – Impact of career-long professional learning
We are improving our approaches to digital learning and teaching
Qi 1.4 p26 – Leadership and Management Of Staff
All staff make effective use of digital communication and balance this well with opportunities for face-to-face discussions and collegiate time.
QI 1.5 p28 – Management of resources and environment for learning
We make the best use of available resources, including digital technologies, to create, sustain and enhance a motivating environment for effective learning.
p29
All available resources, including digital technologies and outdoor spaces, are used effectively to create and sustain effective learning environments. These are used well to support learning.
QI 2.2 p34 – Learning pathways
All staff take responsibility for developing literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing and digital literacy across the curriculum
p35
There is a clear focus on developing skills of literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing, creativity, digital and employability skills in a progressive way across the curriculum.
QI 2.3 p36 – Learning and engagement
Learners exercise choice, including the appropriate use of digital technology, and take increasing responsibility as they become more independent in their learning.
p37
How well are learners enabled to select and make use of high-quality resources and equipment including digital technologies?
How well do we deploy a wide variety of innovative and creative resources and teaching approaches, including digital technologies?
QI 2.6 p42 – Collaborative planning and delivery
We have agreed shared approaches to record keeping and passing on of information using digital technology to support this as appropriate.
QI 3.3 p52
Digital innovation
Children and young people work individually and in teams creating both digital and non-digital solutions. As their digital literacy becomes more sophisticated they embed computation to solve problems. Increasingly they apply the core principles underpinning digital technologies to develop their own ideas. Their skills are up-to-date with technological advances informed by a range of sources including the expertise of the young people themselves.
Digital literacy
Children and young people are innovative, confident and responsible in the use of technologies and staying safe online. They critically examine and make informed choices about the use of digital technology to enhance and personalise learning in school and where appropriate, beyond the school day. They anticipate and respond to new opportunities and threats caused by developments now and in the future.
p53
Learners are able to challenge the status quo constructively and generate ideas, including, if appropriate digital solutions to improve it
Young people make informed choices about the way digital technology can and should be used.
The development of digital skills enables children and young people to be creative and use digital technologies to meet a personal or social need
Does the use of digital technologies enhance learning and give young people the skills to understand, apply and create new digital solutions of their own?
Is the development of digital skills underpinned by computing science, enabling children to be skilled users and creators?
Do young people develop an understanding of the general principles that underpin all digital technology?
Are digital technologies used to support and improve communication and collaboration with others to achieve a common goal?
p77
Support my understanding and use of positional language within everyday experiences and through activities such as role-play, board games, digital technologies and programmable toys.
p78 & 79
6.5 Digital technology and the young child
The key to all successful early learning as discussed previously in this guidance are the experiences, interactions and environments we provide for our children. Rapid developments in digital technologies at home and outside, are everywhere. They are changing our habits and, in some cases, making our lives easier and more enjoyable. Mobile phones; tablets; washing machines; televisions; automatic doors; online shopping and “Smart” homes are a few examples of interactive technologies babies and young children may encounter as they grow.
Children can use any resource to promote their learning in at least two different ways. They can learn about a resource, and then use this knowledge to learn with it.
For example, children can learn about how to use a paint brush and then use their knowledge to learn what happens when they use paint, why does it drip down an easel, what happens when you mix colours together and so on.
It’s useful to think of children learning with digital technologies in the same way learning about digital technologies involves developing children’s understanding of the uses of information and the effect this has on a child’s learning. For example, this may be learning how to programme a toy or using a digital camera or using a smartboard.
However learning with and through digital technologies can promote and support other learning. For example working out how to park a programmable car in a particular place or using a digital camera to record what happens when you pour substances down a pipe.
An emphasis on learning with and through digital technologies, rather than about digital technology will best enhance children’s early learning.
The child’s view
Children learn through observations, and their attitudes to digital technologies often mirror their family members’ behaviours. We see gaps in the day filled through the use of digital technologies to keep babies and children occupied. Therefore, babies and young children’s engagement with digital technology does not always result in developing digital literacy skills or result in effective learning. High quality interactions with others is key when learning how to use them; guided interactions from an adult when learning through them; and; when learning about them. Importantly, there is a need to constantly evaluate their purpose and be mindful that digital technologies are not dominant in a young child’s life.
Effective use of digital technologies offers an engaging experience for babies and young children. It can address barriers to learning and improve access for children with additional support needs. Applications (apps), tablets, digital cameras, measuring equipment, video calls and voice chats are readily available. Children thrive when they ask, imagine, plan, create and interact with the world around them.
Our role
Digital technologies provide opportunities for us to design a unique learning spaces for the children. Bringing resources and experiences virtually into the setting can lead learning well-beyond what was originally planned For example, in response to a children’s interest in sharks, digital technology can extend learning through watching how real sharks move under the sea. Children then get a better understanding of size and speed and so on. This helps us draw on children’s own knowledge gained at home or outwith the setting to spark possible lines of development and a response to children’s own interests.
In ELC and early primary settings, sharing children’s learning through blogs, e-portfolios and email are common place and can be very helpful for parents to see what their child can do in a real time experience. The caveat to this is that programmes which support this can at times, be too restrictive, in not allowing the unexpected or special moments that children experience to be recorded. We therefore also need to ensure that this special information is communicated swiftly through giving the child control of how to communicate his/her achievement. It may be simply a drawing or a painting but to have the original given to the parent or a quiet word with the parent to tell of the special moment when they come to collect their child can be more precious than a photograph. Both systems have their place and are necessary.
In summary;
- children will vary in their experiences and awareness of digital technologies before coming to our settings,
- children are generally curious and want to explore different technologies,
- there is potential for the child to learn with, about and through digital technologies,
- practitioners need to use guided interaction and support for the young child in their exploration of digital technology,
- and, at all times digital technology should reflect the distinctive nature of young children and how they learn.
