Digital Tools for Learning, Creating, and Thinking: Developmentally Appropriate Strategies for Early Childhood Educators: Developmentally Appropriate

When it comes to using technology with young children, early childhood educators can and must be informed decision makers. By grounding technology use in developmentally appropriate practices, Teaching with Technology moves the conversation about technology and young children beyond whether or not technology is good or bad for their development to how teachers can integrate technology into the curriculum to support children in growing into confident, creative, digitally literate creators and learners.

Part 1 provides a framework of 3 Cs--Create, Collaborate, Communicate--that helps teachers consider how they are using technology as a tool. This section discusses how to develop a purpose for technologies, consider criteria for identifying which technologies are best for the children they work with, and what kinds of thinking they want children to engage in when they use technologies.

Part 2 provides practical strategies for using technologies effectively that teachers can implement right away, including

• Having and encouraging a maker mindset
• Examples of routines that support creating and collaborating in the classroom, such as storytelling, reflecting and explaining, and early coding
• How to introduce technologies using a gradual release of responsibility model
• Suggestions for using technologies to connect to families and invite them into the classroom community
• Ways programs can build an intentional digital culture

This book gives early childhood educators the tools to more confidently guide children's technology choices and use in ways that are developmentally appropriate and that get children creating.