The needs of my art students and my Pre-K kids are very different in terms of technology and computer literacy. Many of the Pre-K students are not yet reading independently (something I’ll start to see around January, or even in Kindergarten.) Right now, the games I make for them through Powerpoint, Clicker5 and with java applets (I know how to program on a basic level) involve analysis and constructing meaning through puzzle-like games that welcome user input, such as text to talk and manipulating word cards like an adult’s magnetic poetry. They are invited to print out what they make and share it in this constructive environment. Art curriculum makes use of technological media, including graphic design and digital paint programs that involve vectors and fractals. Drawing celled animation encourages them to imagine different views and they can explore the 3D nature of space before making paper models.
In 2025, assuming this astronomical jump in technological integration improves, I would expect some video conferencing with other classrooms in shared activities – be it in the same district, same state or even on the other side of the world. More tablet activities would be nice and I would expect tablets to replace most pens and paper. The tablets themselves would become slimmer and simply readers of programs held within a cloud network. Curriculum standards will continue to incorporate core disciplines, but the nature of the class itself will change with more electronic media and synchronized transition of ideas within the main frame of a class on a SMARTboard with children transmitting answers, i.e. via Bluetooth, increasingly to build representations and add to a teacher’s framework.
I would also expect a unified approach to teaching that incorporates multiple subject areas and involves programming as constructivism to help enhance problem-solving skills.
Where would this take Pre-K? At this level, I would expect even more text-to-voice and interactivity, with 3D modeling for science and art units. Rotating models and figures, including 3D geo solids, would enable exploration of materials not immediately in their physical environment.
Math abilities and the level of literacy needed for programming represent a threshold not all have reached at this age. Ergo, the fundamentals of literacy and phonetic education could be enhanced with media – but it might not make sense to do a full replacement of the modality of their instruction as with higher grades, in which students have already attained the cognitive abilities to understand algorithms and read/synthesize larger bodies of text.
-This video models usage of a SMARTboard in visiting a text-talk program for teaching phonics; the website is http://www.starfall.com. Just a glimpse of future capabilities for technology integration at even the earliest grades!
rhurst3 