Technology for Social Emotional Development NHSA 2012
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Using technology can support young children's social-emotional development in several ways. Research has found that technology use in early childhood classrooms does not disrupt play and can facilitate positive social interaction, cooperation, and language development. Some skills that technology can help develop include social relationships, self-awareness, self-regulation, and persistence. When designing technology activities and environments for young children, it is important to consider characteristics like interactivity, child-friendliness, and alignment with developmental skills and standards. Examples of best practices include using drawing software for children to depict emotions, videoconferencing to build relationships, and multi-touch tables to encourage collaboration. Monitoring progress is also essential for social-emotional development.
Technology for Social Emotional Development NHSA 2012
- 1. Using Technology to Support Young Children’s Social-Emotional Development Presentation Handout: http://www.hatchearlychildhood.com/Layout- Images/documents/NHSA-TechforSocEmotDev_2012_Hatch-handout.pdf NHSA Conference April 2012 Lilla Dale McManis, Ph.D. [email protected] Copyright 2012
- 2. OVERVIEW • Research history of technology supporting social-emotional development • Amenable skills • Characteristics of good technology design • Best practices for using technology • Knowing we’re on the right path *Disclaimer: Photos do not imply endorsement .
- 3. RESEARCH HISTORY • Computer center in early childhood classrooms does not disrupt ongoing play. • Rather has been found to facilitate: – extensive positive social interaction – new friendships – cooperation – peer teaching – helping behaviors – praise & encouragement of peers
- 4. Cooperation & Collaboration • With computers, preschoolers: – ask other children to join in – seek help from one other – look for approval and acknowledgement from teacher • Cooperative play at computer equal to amount in block center. • Computers add a new participation dimension: – children offer assistance to one another – cooperate to solve problems and complete tasks
- 5. Language & Cognitive • Language and cognitive skills improvement regularly seen when children use technology. • Demonstrate increasing levels of spoken communication and cooperation w/ IWBs. • Computer activity has been found to be more effective in stimulating vocalization in preschoolers than many toys.
- 6. Diverse Learners • Participation in computer activities supports social interaction between: – preschoolers who are English Language Learners and their English-speaking peers – Preschoolers with disabilities and their normally- developing peers
- 7. Positive Feelings • Children exhibit positive emotions and develop positive attitudes toward learning with computers. • Demonstrate greater positive affect and interest when they use the computer together. • Often show a preference for working with a peer rather than independently.
- 8. AMENABLE SKILLS • Social relationships • Cooperation & collaboration • Self-awareness • Self-regulation • Initiative & curiosity • Persistence & attentiveness • Self-efficacy
- 11. Driving Theory • Bronfenbrenner—Ecological Systems Theory: Children develop within a system of relationships affected by multiple levels of their environment. • Bandura—Social Learning Theory: Learning takes place in a social context through observation, imitation, and modeling. • Erikson—Psychosocial Theory : Everyone potentially affects everyone else's experiences throughout the different stages of personality development.
- 12. Driving Theory • Piaget—Cognitive Developmental Theory: Children actively construct knowledge, much through interactions with peers during sociodramatic play. • Vygotsky—Sociocultural Theory: Modeling and language play pivotal roles in children’s learning, much through sociodramatic play with peers and guided interactions with adults.
- 13. Social Relationships Provide activities where: • Learning takes place within a group setting • Designed to be completed as a group • Presents opportunities and situations in which children practice thinking about the viewpoints of their peers
- 14. Cooperation & Collaboration Be aware of designing and providing activities for: • Taking turns • Respecting others’ space • Being friendly, polite, respectful • Sharing • Cooperating • Compromising • Responding to suggestions and actions of others positively • Expressing thoughts, feelings, and ideas through appropriate language and gestures
- 15. Self-Awareness Think about creating activities that support: • Identifying emotions in themselves and others • Understanding and matching of emotions with a wide variety of situations
- 16. Self-Control & Self-Regulation Provide self-control activities to teach and support: • choosing appropriate over inappropriate actions – following rules and directions – learning to delay gratification Self-regulation activities with the focus of: • learning to recognize the role of strategic actions – planning – participating – monitoring – evaluating
- 17. Positive Approaches to Learning • Curiosity, initiative, flexible thinking, and persistence are some of the most critical skills for school and life success. • They are also some of the most ‘under-taught’. • Technology is an effective and engaging way to support these skills with children.
- 18. Initiative Promote by creating a trusting environment for: • providing opportunities to take control of situations • making choices • trying many solutions especially those involving cooperation and collaboration Situations presented to children should: • allow them to explore multiple roles • let them know they too are competent in solving problems and having responsibilities ….as the adults they see do
- 19. Curiosity Build on children’s natural curiosity by: • Letting them be enthusiastic • Asking them guided questions • Providing vehicles/activities so that they can learn why and how and what happens if…
- 20. Flexible Thinking Guide them in applying flexible thinking by: • Teaching brainstorming • Coming up with different answers • Testing them out with the children and talking about which approaches worked for solving a problem and why some did and some not
- 21. Attention Control Provide activities that teach children about controlling their attention by: •focusing on and attending to relevant and important stimuli and information •including switching attention when a difference in stimuli or response is presented
- 22. Persistence Weave in strategies to promote/affirm persistence by: •highlighting importance and good feelings that come from sticking with and finishing a task •giving children ways to know about their progress
- 23. Self-Efficacy When all these come together children are supported in understanding and expressing the belief that they are capable of attaining goals based on developing an accurate opinion of their own abilities and limitations….
- 24. GOOD DESIGN • Types of technology • Content • Child-friendliness • Interactivity
- 26. Content • Aligned with standards • Scaffolded, correct teaching paths • Relevant • Interesting • Deep
- 27. Child-Friendliness • Successful, independent use with guidance • Simple, clear choices • Awareness of reading and language limitations • Not overly stimulating • Supported instruction/use • Constructive feedback • Free from bias
- 28. Interactivity • Enough activities with variety • Responsive to child’s actions • Activities match with attention span • Appropriate & balanced use of rewards
- 29. BEST PRACTICES: EXAMPLES • Sharing self-portraits created using simple drawing software to depict and discuss how they are feeling • Using Skype to connect with others to build relationships and self-understanding • Playing educational games on a multi-touch table that involves working together to complete a task • Collaborating on creating a story ebook for the class library and to share at home
- 30. Identifying Emotions Helping children learn about emotions… • Identifying emotions can be a challenging skill – building the needed vocabulary for accurately describing – then thinking about which emotion they are feeling • May be difficult as children may feel always expected to be ‘happy’ when reporting to adults how they feel.
- 31. The Activities • To teach children about emotions you can use the internet to find materials such as charts…
- 32. ….and Apps
- 33. The Activities Children sharing drawings they’ve made using simple computer software programs • During Circle Time ask the children to think about how they are feeling. • Let them translate their current emotional state onto the computer by drawing a self-portrait that reflects the way they feel.
- 34. Self-Portraits
- 35. The Sharing • Invite children to share ideas & experiences related to emotions. • Answer questions and clarify the vocabulary surrounding emotions. • Near day’s end of the day ask if how they are feeling has changed, how, and why they think this happened. • Let the children open up their earlier self-portrait on the computer and allow them to make changes to reflect how they feel now.
- 36. Self-Acceptance Helping a child with self-acceptance…. • Brianna* was four years old. She was bi-racial with a Caucasian mother and an African American father. •All the other children in the class were Hispanic or Caucasian so she felt like she stood out due to the color of her skin. She sometimes tried to wash the color off her skin. •We had been trying to think of ways Brianna could be around other children who were African American in order to decrease her isolation. *not child’s real name Example provided by Nora Thompson
- 37. Developing a Plan • We wanted to videoconference with another preschool in a large city where most of the children were African American. • I spoke to the Director about their ability to videoconference and she said they had used Skype before. • We talked and agreed that this might be a good beginning. • We began videoconferencing between the two classes twice a week…
- 38. Skyping…
- 39. The Activities • We started by sending each other pictures of our two schools by email– mine in a farmhouse in the country and theirs in a city apartment building. • We collected questions for each other to answer; met online with the children and answered these questions; continuing to meet twice a week online. • A small group of children from each school travelled to the other school. • We reviewed differences between our schools in photos of each center. • We also made a podcast of our community meeting together and a video of outdoor play.
- 40. The Outcome • Brianna’s perception of herself as “different” changed and she stopped trying to wash off her skin color.. Graciously provided by Nora Thompson, M.A. Early Childhood Special Education Teacher Ingham Intermediate School District Harley Franks Early Childhood Center Lansing, MI 48910
- 41. Cooperation & Collaboration Using technology has been found to be one of the best ways to support cooperation and collaboration among young children… • Children like working with peers on computers because it is playing together and fun. • These situations also though provide opportunities for children to face and solve conflicts among themselves.
- 42. Multi-Touch Tables • Multi-touch tables are a new technology that allow several children to work and play together. • Unlike other kinds of touch technology, many children can touch the surface at the same time.
- 44. The Activities • Have children in groups of 4 play together on the multi-touch table at center time. • As with any center, introduce the activities showing the children what they need to do. • Stay present to support using the technology. • Facilitate the group interaction and discussion around cooperation, collaborating, and learning.
- 45. Ice Cream & Fishing The children: • Place their pictures in their airplane • Vote for the place they want to go • Play a game working together to complete a task • They will complete a pattern on an ice cream cone in one game; and find fish in the second
- 47. We love ice cream….
- 49. The Outcomes • Curiosity • Self-recognition • Initiative • Teamwork • Encouraging peers • Language and concepts • Attention • Persistence • Sense of accomplishment
- 50. Collaboration Class eBook project…. • Any topic or subject of interest to the children • Allows going from simple to more elaborate as children develop skills in telling stories • Supports language/literacy as well • Able to be shared with family/at home Can be simply illustrated and read, to using apps or websites with features like sounds, animated illustrations, and interactive options… http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/ebooks/background.html
- 51. Steps 1. Pre-writing: brainstorming/discussing idea; deciding on group theme/topic 2. Drafting/Posting Writing/Illustrating: rough drafts, revising, editing. To begin perhaps each child has own individual but later can assign different parts of the process 3. Final Draft: children complete & decide what they want to have go in the eBook. Play Wishful Thinking ppt.
- 52. Source: http://www.cobbk12.org/sites/literacy/fetc/ppt/ppt_index.htm
- 57. Sharing • On in-house computers (desk/laptops, IWBs, tablets) • On the web (secure place) • On thumb drives/DVDs to send home Children can also go back to the same eBook (or digital story) over time to add/elaborate….
- 58. Capturing the Process Essential in the social-emotional domain b/c: • Fluid • Dynamic • Formative • More susceptible to inconsistency in skill achievement
- 59. MONITORING IMPROVEMENT As in other areas of development, progress monitoring for informing instruction is essential for young children to be able to attain and maintain skills within the social- emotional domain. Date Takes turns & shares Uses appropriate Stays with the Follows teacher words & gestures group activity directions
- 61. How Not to Use Technology with Young Children….
- 62. RECAP Think about: • Technology you have to use • Goals & outcomes for the children • Ways you will integrate use of technology • How you will use best teaching practices • Monitoring children’s progress Don’t forget to ask for support!
- 63. NAEYC /Rogers Center Technology Position Statement Guiding Principle Effective uses of technology and media are: • active • hands-on • engaging • empowering • give the child control • provide adaptive scaffolds to ease task accomplishment • one of many options to support children’s learning
- 64. Evaluating Educational Technology • eBook with Tool & Webinar http://www.hatchearlychildho od.com/pages/evaluating- technology-for-early-learners http://www.hatchearlychildho od.com/pages/webinar-sept- 2011-evaluating-early-learning- technology
- 66. Q&A
- 67. References • McCarrick & Xiaoming 2007 • Clements & Sarama 2003 • Heft & Swaminathan 2002 • Hutinger, Johanson, & Rippey 2000 • Kumtepe, 2006 • Brooker, 2002 • McManis 2011 @ http://www.hatchearlychildhood.com/layout- images/documents/WePlaySmart/WePlaySmart_ Whitepaper.pdf
- 68. Connections! • www.ecetech.net/ & www.hatchearlychildhood/blog • LinkedIn: Early Childhood Technology Network, Lilla Dale McManis, Hatch Early Childhood • Twitter: #ecetechchat Weds. nights 9 EST, LillaDaleMcManis@DrLDMcManis, HatchEarlyLearning@hatchearlychild • Facebook & YouTube HatchEarlyChildhood Special Announcement!! http://www.ecetech.net/about/early-childhood-technology-collaborative/ Early Childhood Technology Today Survey 2012 OPEN NOW!!
- 69. Where we will bePlease turn in your We’d like to stay in next….. Conference touch….. Connections Card! • National Head Start Association Conference April 18 in Nashville – Using Technology to Support Social-Emotional Development in Young Children • McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership Connections Conference May 10-12 in Chicago – Evaluating Educational Technology in Early Childhood • International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference June 25 in San Diego – School Readiness: Outcomes and Approaches
Editor's Notes
- #4: abundant opportunities for interaction with peers and the teacher - discussion and collaboration as children work, play, and explore.
- #6: In explaining topics to peers, children’s own understanding is expanded. new occurrences and forms of collaboration including helping or instructingdiscussing and building upon one another’s ideas.
- #7: Computer software has been found to serve as a ‘catalyst’ between children who do not share a common language for social interactions, language development, and learning. In a study where children spoke many different languages, the children collaborated in a supportive way as they solved problems at the computer. A multi-year study with preschool age special needs children found from interviews, observational data, and scores on a developmental measure that all the children made significant gains in social-emotional development associated with their work with computers. The special needs children went from making an average gain of less than half a month per month in social-emotional development when they began the computer-based program, to making an average rate of progress of almost two months per month while participating in the program (Hutinger, Johanson, & Rippey, 2000).
- #8: The development and display of positive feelings when young children use technology is well documented.
- #14: (considering and appropriately reacting to)
- #16: (such as happiness, excitement, empathy, sadness, fear, anger, and frustration)
- #36: (for example, “I have felt sad too. When my friend moved away, I was sad.”).