LAI 529LEC - Computers in Early and Primary Education

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are inundating the daily lives of young children. In this course, we will explore various issues related to ICT and young children’s learning and development, and help you develop knowledge and competencies in teaching with ITC in PreKindergarten through Grade 3. Specifically, this course is designed for participants to achieve these four objectives: 1) understand the debate about appropriateness of ICT for young children, and related policy, gender, and equity issues; 2) gain understanding of how young children experience ICT in different contexts; 3) explore how young children’s ICT experiences affect their physical, social, and cognitive development; 4) practice technology integration into classroom teaching and familiarize with local and online resources related to teaching and learning with ICT, as well as develop basic skills of selecting and evaluating technology and software programs. The content of this course is organized around these four broad themes and corresponding readings are drawn from research journals, practitioner magazines, web publications, and books. To achieve the four objectives, the participants will engage in a wide range of experiences, from hand-on work with computer program, to readings and discussions, to actual teaching experiences using computers. Course work will include collecting local and online resources related teaching with ICT, investigating young children’s ICT experiences, evaluating technology or software for young children, and a teaching experiment with ICT.

Credits: 3